It’s easy to look at the promotional campaign for the adaptation of Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy and brand the film another Twilight or just another one-note teen supernatural adventure, but screenwriter Daniel Waters is well aware of that and expects to prove those naysayers wrong come February 14, 2014.
The film’s first teaser trailer just dropped and, as it should, only scratches the surface of the narrative: best friends Rose (Zoey Deutch) and Lissa (Lucy Fry) attend St. Vladimir’s Academy, your typical high school filled with young love, parties and gossip. Oh, and vampires, too. Lissa is a Moroi, a benevolent breed of vampire whose existence is threatened by the malicious Strigoi. That’s where Rose steps in. She’s a Dhampir, half human and half vampire, and is studying to become Lissa’s guardian in order to protect her from the Strigoi.
Again, that’s only the surface. The story is loaded with curious characters, varying relationships, sass, action and a particularly unique set of world rules. The film isn’t due in theaters until Valentine’s Day of next year, but Waters took the time out of postproduction work to give us an update on the project, enlighten us on his adaptation process, and offer some thoughts on the book-to-film potential beyond Vampire Academy. Catch it all for yourself in the interview below.
Click here to read the interview.
Other than Miley Cyrus’ half-naked teddy bear romp, one of the big takeaways from the MTV Video Music Awards was the very first teaser trailer for Divergent. As someone who’s very familiar with the book, seeing certain characters and scenes come to life is an undeniable thrill, but it’s also impossible to overlook the fact that the piece is a manic, quick-cut montage with a dizzying amount of fades to black. The March release still has all the potential in the world, but its first big promo is definitely weakened by the information overload and that leaves this week’s top three spots up for grabs.
With so much straightforward supernatural and/or dystopian teen violence, Jason Lapeyre & Robert Wilson’s “I Declare War” is a welcomed and highly effective experiment in juggling preadolescent imagination and some very real, adult life lessons.
The Bad Robot mystery promo packed the intrigue, stunning visuals and a consuming tenor to get it into the Best Stuff, but we can’t jump to conclusions just yet. The piece randomly popped on EW.com and was given zero context, so it could be for just about anything – a film, TV show, Web-based project, etc. However, should Stranger end up heading towards the big screen, it could end up a Best Stuff contender soon enough.
It all began with a salesman and couch potato battling zombies in “Shaun of the Dead,” then it was a hot shot cop paired with a naïve, small-town officer trying to solve a string of suspicious murders in “Hot Fuzz,” and now the Cornetto Trilogy comes to a close with the final installment, a beer laden romp called “The World’s End.”
The book-to-film adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones hits theaters today, and the companies and people involved have a lot riding on it. Unlike most potential franchise starters, the second film in the Mortal Instruments series, City of Ashes, was announced well before the first film’s release and even went into preproduction back in May. Yes, there are long-term projections, but that early on they’re far from sound and certainly don’t make moving forward with film number two any less of a risk.
Short Term 12 has already screened at SXSW, the Seattle International Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Festival and more, and in case you haven’t heard from the ensuing buzz, this is a very, very special movie.
“Short Term 12” is infinitely dynamic, making it one of the most moving, harrowing, heartwarming, and satisfying films of the year.