By ANDREW A. SMITH
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
There are parts of Alaska where the sun doesn't come up for a month in winter. Imagine how convenient that would be if you were a vampire.
Horror writer Steve Niles imagined just that in his 2002 comics series for IDW, "30 Days of Night," in which bloodsuckers terrorize Barrow, Alaska, for a month. It's now a movie by Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures, premiering Oct. 19. And a prequel of sorts has already debuted: "30 Days of Night: Blood Trails" is a series of high-quality shorts, three-to-five minutes each, appearing on FEARnet.com and Comcast's FEARnet Video On Demand digital cable service, which began Sept. 13.
So how does a horror comic become a movie? The Captain asked Niles that very question.
Captain Comics: Did "30 Days" begin as a screenplay?
Niles: It began as a pitch, just a one-page pitch, that I unsuccessfully pitched in Hollywood ... for about 12-15 years. I tried to pitch it to movies; I tried to pitch it as a comic, to Vertigo and a few other companies, and you know: rejected.
CC: Then IDW picked it up, and it ran as a mini-series.
Niles: It didn't even sell that well, and then boom! Despite bad sales, it caught the attention of Hollywood folks, and wound up turning into a giant bidding war. A big war, between three studios. ... But it was when I heard Sam Raimi's name brought into it, I said "I don't care what they're offering, I don't care what studio it is, go with whoever Sam Raimi's with. I know he'll watch over the project the best."
CC: How did "Blood Trails" come about?
Niles: The FEARnet thing came about through Sam Raimi's Ghost House. Basically what they came to me with was that they wanted to do free content that would not only tell a story, but also serve as a lead-in into the movie. We really lucked out with "30 Days," because there was an entire plotline that takes place in New Orleans in the original graphic novel that got removed from the movie. For very good reasons. Raimi and (director David) Slade both agreed that the movie should take place just in Barrow, so you get that sense of isolation.
The idea is that there are people in New Orleans that might know something about vampires and what they're doing. Not necessarily where they're going, specifically; they're getting the sense that something big is about to happen, but they don't know what. They think it's going to be an attack on New Orleans, but learn something very different, unfortunately the night before Oct. 19, when "30 Days of Night" opens in theaters.
CC: How involved were you in the movie?
Niles: I wrote the first draft of the screenplay, which involved about three months -- I got to work with Sam Raimi, in the same room, and that was a dream come true. ... They kept me in the loop every second.
CC: As a consultant, how involved were you on "Blood Trails"?
Niles: As much as I could be. ... Between (writer Ben Ketai and director Victor Garcia), honestly, there wasn't much for me to do. They really, really knew what they were doing.
CC: If I met a fan who saw "30 Days of Night" and got excited about Steve Niles, which of all of your comics would you have me recommend to him?
Niles: He'd be really bummed, because the first thing I'd recommend are the Cal MacDonald novels: "Savage Membrane" and "Guns, Drugs and Monsters." That's my favorite stuff, "Criminal Macabre" -- that's the title, the character is Cal MacDonald. I've worked on him in comics, and in novels, and now I'm working on trying to get him into a film.
CC: Have you seen "30 Days of Night" yet?
Niles: I saw it last week, for the first time. Omigod. Honestly, if somebody could erase the portion of my brain that lets me know that this is something I created, or had a hand in creating, I would be so excited. It reminds me of when I first saw commercials for "Jaws" and "The Exorcist," and just that "Omigod, I've got to see this" (reaction). I owe everything to David Slade and Sam Raimi on this, because they took my immense graphic novel and just ... put it on the screen.
(Contact Andrew Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics(at)aol.com or visit www.captaincomics.us)
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