Universal Pictures' family fantasy adventure movie Vampire Assistant released its first trailer, and its trailer was also exposed a few days ago.
The Vampire Assistant is directed by Paul Witz, the director who started the American Pie series. He is also the producer of the fantasy blockbuster The Golden Compass. Darren Shan, the hero of the film, is played by the newcomer Chris Kelly, josh hutcherson of Bridge in Wonderland plays his good friend Steve, and Crep Sley, the circus leader and vampire, is played by John C.Reilly, who has recently been promoted to the leading role. Besides, we can also see quite familiar faces in the trailer, such as salma hayek's The Witch with a Beard, the head of the circus, and Japanese actor Ken Watanabe. Willem dafoe, a famous movie star, also plays a vampire in the film, which is his third time to play a vampire after Shadow of the Vampire in 2000 and Dawn, which will be released this year.
Although the novel itself is not clear about its country of origin, the film is set in the United States, and the story tells that Darren Shan, a teenager who is eager for a new life, and his friend Steve go to see a circus performance in the town. There they opened their eyes and saw werewolves, vampires and their strange spiders (Miss Okta). The spider's cage accidentally fell off, and the spider ran out and bit Steve (because Steve hated spiders and wanted to kill her), which made him unconscious. Because the doctor could do nothing about it, Darren had to turn to vampires for help. Only when Darren became a vampire and became Steve's assistant did the vampire offer to save Steve. In desperation, Darren reluctantly agreed to start his vampire journey. ...
Different vampires
Irish novelist Darren Shan's vampire novel The Legend of Vampire Darren Shan is a fantasy novel second only to Harry Potter in the eyes of many British and American children readers, and it has also been strongly recommended by J·K· Rowling himself. This adaptation into a movie is very exciting.
Talking about this role, starring John C.Reilly said: "This vampire is so different from the traditional vampire in my mind. I read the original work specially for it. I found that this character has many characteristics different from ordinary vampires. It is more like a human than a vampire. In front of children, he is sometimes even a teacher. Although the author has endowed this character with so many different qualities, he still looks like a devil. For example, he has bloodsucking fangs, a scar on his face, red hair and a pointed tail, that's all. I didn't refuse such a costume. Anyway, this is the costume of the character. This reminds me of Faust. That's my favorite play. I always think of the devil in the same dress. I played opposite several children under the age of 20, and watching them shivering on the set, I couldn't help thinking of myself when I was young. But these children have little experience, sometimes they don't know where to put their hands and how to play with other actors. After all, working with them is still very tiring. "
However, according to director paul weitz, this costume is well founded, and it is not a simple costume. He said, "That's what the original author Darren Shan wrote in the novel. Red hair and pointed tail are symbols of age. Riley's vampire is 220 years old. The long dark life changed his hair from black to red, and also made him grow a satanic tail. However, he is not Satan at all. When you saw him, he was teasing the children in the circus. This is the uniqueness of this film. The author of this novel and I both strive to make a relaxed and funny movie. So I deliberately shaped the image of vampires in a fun direction. This movie is PG- 13, so there are few violent scenes in it. Besides, it's a comedy, which is why I asked Riley to star. Besides Riley, willem dafoe, Ken Watanabe and salma hayek are all my actors. It's really a pleasure to get these people together. In the past, I didn't even dare to think about such a good thing. "
Shooting process
Although the whole movie is a light and humorous comedy, the shooting process is not as funny as the last movie. In these difficult shooting processes, the first problem is makeup. Many actors need to wake up their faces for "plastic surgery" in order to modify their roles to meet the standards of novels and directors. Riley had a chin pad treatment, and he scratched a deep scar on his face. For some actors with special roles, it is useless to make up or dress, so we have to use body double. For example, Mr. Gao, played by a Japanese actor, is 1.83 meters tall. However, in some distant scenes where two actors appeared at the same time, because he could not walk on stilts or stand on the bench, the crew had to find a basketball player with a total height of 2.09 meters from the local basketball team. This 2.09-meter-high, 265,438+00-pound behemoth really shocked other actors and directors at the other end of the camera. So that in the later scenes, as long as there are no facial shots and body language shots, Weitz will find this basketball player to replace Ken Watanabe.
After solving the makeup problem, there are still some action scenes that need to be completed by directors and actors. Riley, who is not good at fighting, suffered a lot this time, because in this movie, Riley plays a vampire and has a lot of action scenes to deal with, and Riley, who is mainly comedy, naturally suffered a lot when performing these scenes. He said: "The vampire fight is really surreal. They can move in the air in an instant, with great power and supernatural ability. These elements make me feel like I'm dreaming, not making a movie. Because I often forget to bring my sharp fingernails, I always cut myself. There are many shots that I need to jump from a height, and I sometimes fall-all this is the result of not watching action movies often. Sometimes when I see two people fighting in the air, I always think it's two birds. Hanging wires also made me suffer a lot. Because I have never hung a steel cable before, my balance is not good, and I am often hung to death. I'm always black and blue. However, when I saw that I could fly around the screen, I still felt very cool. "