Bloodsucker Tales

It writes itself: all you do is happen to watch some Northern Exposure, or a National Geographic special, or catch a showing of Christopher Nolan's Insomnia (or rent Erik Skjoldbjærg's original), and then you say to yourself, man, imagine if one of those places where it's dark for a month had vampires show up? And so [conjecture] Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith published the three-issue comic 30 Days of Night in 2002. The dialogue is no great shakes, and it doesn't exactly scream originality, but the atmospheric art and why-didn't-I-think-of-that simplicity of the premise, combined with the quickness of the thing, make for an easy and enjoyable enough read.

The comic hit big, launching the careers of Niles (now a top name in horror comics) and Templesmith. Eighteen hundred days of night later, we have eight more miniseries and a couple annuals, a line of novels in the works (the first one, Rumors of the Undead, is published) and the movie hitting screens today, directed by David Slade (of the well-put-together Hard Candy).

30 Days was made for a sizeable $50 million, but it'll take first place at the box office this weekend; if it tops $20 mil, expect a tentative greenlight for the the sequel, Dark Days. Melissa George and Ben Foster both sound willing to reprise their roles; no word from Josh Hartnett. Since the source material is ready to go, it should be an easy matter to find a writer - possibly Steve Niles himself, who seems humble in interviews and just excited to be part of the whole thing. Niles took a pass at the script for 30 Days, and while it was subsequently handed around to a few more writers, much of his draft (particularly since he included a fair bit of his own dialogue from the comic) remained.

In spin-off/prequel/marketing news, the production company (Sam Raimi's Ghost House) must have felt there was source material to spare (though Blood Trails doesn't directly correspond to any of the comic miniseries) and shot seven short episodes of content, just over half an hour's worth, to lead fans up to the release date. The task fell to Víctor García, mentioned earlier this week for his work on Return to House on Haunted Hill. If you're in need of a pre-theatrical vampire fix, they can be seen free at Fearnet.