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MOVIE NEWS
Blade 3: Trinity
Starring Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Jessica Biel and Ryan Renolds
Written and Directed by David S. Goyer, with Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan
Based on the Marvel comic
New Line Cinema
Rated 'R'
Opened December 8, 2004
Official Website: http://bladetrinity.com
SUMMARY
Wesley Snipes returns as day-walking vampire slayer Blade in the series third and final installment. Faced with the possibility of an apocalyptic vampire planet under the control of resurrected legend Dracula (Dominic Purcell), now known as 'Drake', Blade must join forces with Whistler's daughter Abigail (Jessica Biel) and Hannibal King (Ryan Renolds) collectively known as the Nightstalkers. And so as not to make the fight too easy, Drake and his resurrector Danica Talos (Parker Posey) expose Blade to the mortal world; an event which sets human law enforcement after him and complicates the mission that will release a virus capable of destroying the vampire race for good. Blade: Trinity also stars Cascy Beddow (Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed) and Callum Keith Rennie (Due South). For full cast and crew, visit IMDB @ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359013/maindetails
For further articles about Blade: Trinity visit: Sci Fi Wire Digest
30 Days Moves Forward
Rob Tapert, who is producing the film adaptation of Steve Niles' supernatural graphic novel 30 Days of Night, told SCI FI Wire that the author has read the script and was pleased with its faithfulness to the original story. "Steve has read [screenwriter Stuart Beattie's] draft that we just turned in to the studio and thought it was the absolute best representation of the graphic novel," Tapert said in an interview. "So he was incredibly pleased. And right now we're just waiting for the studio to get back to us as to how they want to proceed there."
30 Days of Night is a vampire story set in the Arctic Circle, where it remains dark for a month each winter. Tapert is shepherding the project under the banner of Ghost House Pictures, the production company he formed with friend and partner Sam Raimi (Spider-Man). Though the company was formed with the idea of making quality low-budget horror films, Tapert said the exotic setting of 30 Days of Night will likely drive up the cost of production. "Because it was such an expensive process, such an expensive movie to make, all set in the snow, we—Ghost House and our partners at Senator Entertainment—partnered right away with Sony on it, because it was going to be a $50 or $60 or $70 million movie," Tapert said. "We know that they're very excited with having read it. I think we're going to meet in the coming week or so."
From SciFi Wire [ http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2004-10/13/13.00.film ]
B.C. actor promises film will show vampirism as 'very real condition'
Updated at 12:57 on October 14, 2004, EST.
VANCOUVER (CP) - B.C. actor Andrew Jackson will play a 13th-century Viking warrior in a new take on the vampire myth being created by Los Angeles plastic-surgeon-turned-director Jason Todd Ipson. "(Jackson's) going to be playing one of the supporting characters - the primary barbarian coming back from being abroad," Ipson said of his film The First Vampire.
The Jackson-commanded longship returns to Sweden to find "the people are drained of blood, they're dying," Ipson said. He comes home and dies with his wife as their child is carried off by a vampire. "The audience is in store for a whole bunch of surprises, a lot of twists with regard to the whole vampire legend," Jackson said. "This is not classic horror. When people watch it, they're going to look upon vampirism as a very real condition."
Vampirism, also known as Gunther's disease or congenital erythropoietic porphyria, is a rare condition in which sufferers become hairy and disfigured and, owing to extreme photosensitivity, tend to avoid sunlight. Ipson won't say who's being courted to play the leads but hinted there are some "big British stars" involved. The film is being produced by Beverly Hills-based Asgaard Entertainment. He said the kernel of the film's idea came in his first year of medical school in Utah. He worked on a genetic project involving vampirism, the first outbreak of which he says occurred in Scandinavia and reappeared 200 years later in Romania. The film is "about the times in Sweden where religion and science were splitting," and it's a science-based physician and not a clergyman who takes on the vampire, Ipson said. "That is one of the underlying themes as this village has to deal with this vampire. We set out after it and wind up in a whole city or whole world of vampires that are up on the northern border of Sweden and Finland."
Jackson, the son of a Canadian Forces padre once based at CFB Petawawa, said Ipson is "very interested in going after the historical accuracy. If people feel they're going to be watching a horror film they're in for a big surprise." The First Vampire was originally a short film funded through U.S.-based Sloan Foundation. The group funds films that are scientifically relevant, Ipson said. "The reason I left surgery was because of education," Ipson said. "I love teaching. By crossing over into entertainment . . . you have the biggest classrooms in the world." Production is tentatively set to start in February in Norway and later in another European country yet to be determined.
From CJAD
NEWS HEADLINES
Vote for me says vampire
A MAN claiming to be a vampire says he hopes to demolish the Banbury Cross to attract more creatures of the night to town. He wants people to vote for him in a forthcoming by-election. Johnny Wood is standing as a Monster Raving Loony Party candidate for the town council's Crouch Hill ward. Last month controversial councillor Gordon Gerry stood down from the seat after he said his position had become untenable. His decision came after he quit the Conservative Party following a row over his belief that town councillors should act independently rather than toe the party line at town council level. Fears that there may not be sufficient interest in holding an election to replace Mr Gerry were this week quashed after Hardwick resident Mr Wood announced his intention to stand. He told the Banbury Guardian: "I'm a vampire and I want to introduce more vampire friendly policies. "The Cross scares a lot of vampires away so I would like that to be removed. I would also introduce a music festival which would ask the audience to pay by donating blood for vampires rather than with money." Mr Wood, who claims he is able to go near The Cross because he is only half vampire, does however stress that his campaign has a serious point. "I am doing this because I think democracy is important. There is no other party that allows people with unusual views to stand," he said. Cherwell District Council confirmed that Mr Wood's nomination has been accepted and other candidates have until September 12 to register. If others come forward an election will take place on October 9. If not Mr Wood will be automatically elected. Mr Gerry welcomed the news saying that anything that encourages interest in local democracy is welcome. He added: "If Mr Wood is elected I'm sure he will feel very at home as there are already plenty of monsters and loonies on the town council."
[ http://www.banburytoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=687&ArticleID=578635 ]
Get into the Halloween spirit with Vampire-O
by Roy Gault
October 25, 2004
WHAT: A Halloween-ish competition for outdoors enthusiast, something akin to playing a game of tag while orienteering
THE EVENT: The Vampire-O
WHERE: Magness Memorial Tree Farm in Sherwood
WHEN: A mass start at noon Saturday for the one-hour Vampire-O. Start times of 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. for a short-course competition.
HOW IT WORKS: A small number of entrants or officials are selected at the start of the event as vampires. The vampires leave three minutes after the other contestants and carry a vampire card, worth zero points. When they come within five meters of another orienteer and yell, "vampire attack," the victim must surrender his or her punch card, along with all of its accumulated points, to the vampire and must then take the vampire card. The victim then becomes the vampire but cannot immediately re-tag the original vampire.
OF NOTE: This is an orienteering game that is frequently played at night with flashlights, but for this event the rules are adjusted for daytime play. Contestants can plan on being attacked by a few vampires, but the idea is to not get stuck with a vampire card at the end of the hourlong event.
GETTING THERE: Take Interstate 5 north from Salem to Exit 283 at Wilsonville and turn left at the end of the exit ramp onto Wilsonville Road. After 4.3 miles, take a right onto Edminston Road. After 1.3 miles, take a right onto Southwest Ladd Hill Road. After 0.4 miles, take the right at the fork in the road by the Magness Memorial Tree Farm sign and proceed to the public parking lot 100 yards ahead on the left. The lot holds about 35 automobiles, so car pooling is encouraged.
[ http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041025/OUTDOORS/410250302/1034 ]
'Drained' Vampire Magazine Editor to Quit
By Louise Gray, Scottish Press Association
Halloween is a night to celebrate ghosts and ghouls – but for the editor of one vampire magazine it could be the nail in the coffin for a career on the dark side. Arlene Russo launched Glasgow-based magazine Bite Me in 1999 after visiting the World Dracula Congress in Los Angeles. It was always a tough job for someone who admits to being squeamish about the sight of blood – but after five years on the job Arlene feels the life has been drained out of her and is considering giving it all up. The 32-year-old said a “labour of love” has become a “nightmare” after receiving “filth” in her email inbox and being associated with blood-suckers. “It is like I have been living in the dark for so long but now I want to live in the light,” she said. “I feel like I’m surrounded by death and bats and pumpkins and blood and stuff like that every single day. There comes a point when you do not want to see it any more, you become sickened by it.” Miss Russo, who first got her teeth into vampire lore after watching Christopher Lee’s depiction of Dracula, was attracted by the “romantic, mysterious” side of the myth. “I did not know there was something like a vampire murder when I launched the magazine,” she said. Then about three years ago a German couple murdered someone, then someone in Wales – and every time it is getting closer to Scotland, it is not like it is happening in America – this is real. “I can see from my chatroom there a lot of very disturbed people – people beg me to turn them into vampires. It is dangerous what I’m hearing and I’ve not been aware of that because you tend to think people know the difference between reality and fantasy but I’m sorry to say a lot of people just don’t. “I like to watch the films and fantasise but I have no desire to drink anyone’s blood or any of that sort of stuff – there seems to be a lot of people who do want to do that.” And Miss Russo, who admits to preferring Italian designers to Marilyn Manson T-shirts, is fed up of being stereotyped as a Goth because of the magazine. “I have been labelled as a blood sucker and that was the nail in the coffin for me. I just thought I can’t do this any more. I have worked all these years responsibly and ethically and I get lumped with murderers. Its very upsetting.” Now, after producing the milestone Halloween 5th anniversary issue, she plans to study Law at Glasgow University . Miss Russo has written letters to her subscribers explaining her decision and offering a refund. But already she has received offers from fans to help produce the quarterly magazine, that has a circulation of 10 to 15,000, and even help it go monthly. The trouble is Miss Russo fears the immortal will come back to haunt her. “The sad thing is although I have decided to give it up it is not my decision. I am under the spell of the vampire, I will be seduced again.”
[ http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3692829 ]
'Vampire' murderer dies in jail
Allan Menzies was jailed for a minimum of 18 years A man who claimed he committed murder after being visited by a vampire has been found dead in prison. Alan Menzies, 23, was discovered at 0750 GMT in Shotts Prison, where he was serving a life sentence of at least 18 years for murdering Thomas McKendrick. Menzies, from Fauldhouse, West Lothian, claimed he had been visited by the female vampire Akasha, a character from the film Queen of the Damned. He bludgeoned his friend to death and drank some of his blood. The Scottish Prison Service said police and Menzies' relatives had been informed and the death was being investigated. Menzies' trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in October 2003 heard that he had watched the film more than 100 times. He believed he was told he would be rewarded with immortality and would become a vampire in the next life if he carried out a murder. Menzies said he had carried out the attack on Mr McKendrick after his friend insulted his vampire heroine, played by the late US singer Aaliyah. After setting about him with knives and a hammer, he drank some of his victim's blood and ate some of his flesh. Menzies had offered to plead guilty to culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished responsibility but this was rejected by the Crown. The judge described him as an "evil, violent and highly dangerous man who is not fit to be at liberty".
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4013507.stm ]
‘Vampire’ contests child sex, Internet charges
CHILTON — A New York man has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and Internet crimes involving a 14-year-old New Holstein girl. Christopher J. Burkum, who went by the name “Vampire of Darkness” in Internet chat rooms, entered the plea Monday before Fond du Lac County Judge Peter Grimm. Burkum, 32, is charged with second-degree sexual assault of a child, child enticement and use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime. He is accused of coming to Wisconsin to meet a girl he met on the Internet and having sexual contact with her in late September before he was arrested. Burkum remains in the Calumet County Jail.
[ http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_18757692.shtml ] |
TIDBYTES
Vamped
Vampires used to kill most of their victims, until the Benevolent Vampire Society decided everyone should enjoy the benefits of the undead lifestyle. After all, vampires don't age. They're nearly impossible to kill. They're invulnerable to all disease and heal instantly when wounded. They can have sex and can't get pregnant. They're freed from the need to eat or eliminate. And they're freed from a humdrum, workaday existence.
But when everyone is a vampire, nearly everyone is stuck in a humdrum, workanight existence. But nobody gets a lunch or bathroom break—or retirement. Nobody can enjoy a sunset or chocolate or coffee. Nobody can have a child. And there's no prey left to hunt. For many, undeath is far more boring than life, because there's no possibility of change—except suicide.
[ Read More ] Tsukihime Lunar Legend
When Shiki Tohno was a child, there was some sort of event—his family tells him it was a car accident, but he himself doesn't remember—and he became ill. Strange, red, veinlike threads began appearing on everything—walls, furniture, people—and Shiki noticed that when the lines on an item were broken, the item fell apart. Unable to convince anyone that the lines were real, Shiki became desperate and withdrawn, until a red-haired woman calling herself a mage appeared and gave him glasses that kept him from seeing the lines. She told him not to take the glasses off until he had to, but said that someday he would want to protect someone, and the lines would become important.
Tsukihime Lunar Legend gets into gear eight years later, when Shiki is a withdrawn, distracted high-school boy whose memories appear distressingly fluid and incomplete. His father has just died, but though he's the only male in the family, his brittle younger sister Akiha stands to inherit, because of Shiki's poor health ... and possibly something more, given that his father avoided him ever since the childhood incident. Akiha orders Shiki to leave his aunt and uncle's place, where he's lived since he was a kid, and to return to the family estate; there she attempts to enforce curfew on him and shame him into behaving as she deems appropriate. Shiki seems more baffled than offended or cowed, but regardless, following her orders proves difficult.
Especially once he finds himself incongruously and abruptly knifing a blond woman, who falls to bloody pieces. The body and the blood disappear and he wakes up at home, but the blonde, who gives her name as Arcueid, later turns up to accuse him of murdering her. Though she was dismembered, she survived; as it happens, she's a vampire. Still, Shiki's seemingly unprovoked attack seriously weakened her, so she demands his help in her work: tracking and stopping another, more callous vampire, who's been leaving behind a trail of drained human corpses.
[ Read More ] BloodRayne 2
BloodRayne is a third-person-perspective action-adventure bloodbath in which players control a Blade-esque antihero committed to wiping out vampires and doing it while wearing clothes that would impress a dominatrix.
The title character, Rayne, is a voluptuous, redheaded half-vampire whose mother was raped by a vampire. The mother gave birth to Rayne but later was killed along with the rest of the young girl's family. Raised by a scientist who knew of her nature—and of her father's—she became skilled in the art of assassination. In the initial BloodRayne, she took on her father's minions within the ranks of the Third Reich during World War II, culminating with his supposed death. This time around, she's dedicated herself to hunting the rest of her extended vampiric family, fueled by a thirst for vengeance and a certain dark love of violence.
The game's played from a fluid third-person perspective, with players controlling Rayne's movement using the right joystick and the player's perspective using the left one. This setup allows players to quickly shift Rayne's viewpoint, rapidly switching perspectives to reveal new enemies and challenges. Rayne may despise her father and his kind, but that doesn't stop her from using her numerous supernatural abilities. These include an "aura sense" that reveals the supernatural world around her, including "vampiric portals" that allow her to move to areas mortals can't see, a "dilated perception" mode in which she can battle her enemies with Neo-like ease, and a "blood rage" that increases her attack and defense capabilities. Additional abilities are gained as the game progresses, such as superspeed and special vampire-slaying handguns.
[ Read More ]
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