Vampire films in 2009--extended info

As I've mentioned before, I've recently updated my list of upcoming vampire films and will continue to keep it up-to-date throughout the year. Here's a slightly more detailed list of some of the films expected to come out in 2009.


1. Blood: The Last Vampire
Stars: Gianna Jun, Allison Miller
Director: Chris Nahon
The rundown: The 400-year-old daughter of a vampire mother and a human father uses a military mission and her samurai skills to hunt down an evil vampire patriarch--all the while looking like a 16-year-old girl.

2. Cirque du Freak
Stars: Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Willem Dafoe
Director: Paul Weitz
The rundown: Darren Shan, an everyday kid, stumbles upon a traveling freak show that involves monstrous creatures and a vampire feud. Based on the children's series by...um, Darren Shan, the same name as the protagonist.

3. Daybreakers
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Isabel Lucas, Sam Neill
Directors: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
The rundown: In the year 2017, a plague has transformed most every human into vampires. No, they don't all look like Edward Cullen or Gerard Butler's Dracula.

4. High Midnight
Stars: Thomas Kretschmann, William Baldwin, Ted Raimi
Director: Mary Lambert
The rundown: The tagline says it best--"In the Wild West a lot of blood was spilled... but it didn't go to waste."

5. Lesbian Vampire Killers
Stars: MyAnna Buring, Silvia Colloca, Vera Filatova, Ashley Mulheron
Director: Phil Claydon
The rundown: The women of a rural Welsh town have become enslaved by a local pack of lesbian vampires...so the menfolk offer two young lads as sacrifices to save them.
Bonus: The trailer was just released. To better showcase this horror/comedy, here's a sneak peek:


6. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead
Stars: Jake Hoffman, Devon Aoki, John Ventimiglia, Ralph Macchio, Jeremy Sisto
Director: Jordan Galland
The rundown: An out-of-work ladies' man lands a job directing a bizarre adaptation of Hamlet written by a master vampire. Vampires for theater geeks like me! Hooray!!

7. Suck
Stars: Iggy Pop, Malcolm McDowell, Dave Foley, Henry Rollins, Jessica Paré, Moby
Director: Rob Stefaniuk
The rundown: A comedy centered on a rock 'n' roll band that will do anything to become famous. Finally, a vampire film my husband will be excited about seeing with me because of the presence of Iggy Pop.


8. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
Stars: Michael Sheen, Rhona Mitra, Bill Nighy
Director: Patrick Tatopoulos
The rundown: The prequel story traces the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires known as Death Dealers and their onetime slaves, the Lycans. Coming January 23 in the U.S. International release dates.

There are plenty of other vampire projects in the works for 2009, but I hope this little road map will help you find your way while navigating the undead cinematic landscape. Check out my extended list for more info.

Have a safe and happy New Year!

Music Monday--The Bella Cullen Project

A couple weeks ago I had a request to include The Bella Cullen Project on one of my Music Mondays. My daughter just helped me pick out which of their songs to play. Here's "Bella's Lullaby"--and, yes, this is a Twilight-based band.



Reminder: Two more days left to vote on my Best Vampire Entertainment of 2008 poll.

A hodgepodge: T-shirts, feminist horror, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and MaryJanice Davidson

I've got bits and pieces of vampire info today that I wanted to post before Christmas keeps me busy.

1. If you're as excited as I am about the upcoming vampire movie Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead, you might want to check into the "fundead" T-shirts and fangs at the R&G Are Undead Store. The collector's items were created for the movie's upcoming Slamdance premiere.

2. Interested in a feminist take on the horror genre? I was alerted to the feminist horror zine Ax Wound. According to the publication's mission statement, "Ax Wound will create a dialogue about gender in the horror/slasher/gore genre — a genre typically thought to reinforce patriarchal values." The editor found Suburban Vampire after reading my review of the movie Teeth.

3. Fans of Sherrilyn Kenyon: Macmillan is running a promotion for the release of their new Sherrilyn Kenyon website. Here's the info from the publisher:

We are seeking committed, skilled fans to write a short synopsis of their favorite Sherrilyn Kenyon books. Every synopsis written will be reviewed by Sherrilyn’s own editor, and the best ones will be selected as official Dark Hunter summaries. These summaries will be posted online in multiple locations—our website, Wikipedia, Facebook, and more—to catch new readers up on the series.

Summaries should:

* Range from 300­­­—500 words
* Include FULL information about the book’s major plot points (don’t worry about ‘spoilers’)
* Be sent to Macmillan ( ami.greko@macmillan.com) no later than January 15th, 2008
* Be available to Macmillan and Sherrilyn Kenyon rights-free, for posting online at several different sites, including Wikipedia, Facebook, Myspace, and more.

4. Speaking of vampire fiction, I'd like to give a big shout out to MaryJanice Davidson, author of the humorous Undead Series, for being a really gracious person. Be sure to check out her delightful books.

Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Music Monday--Happy Holidays!

We're snowed in here in the Northwest, which sometimes happens for a day or two, but we've been stuck inside for over a week with only two days where roads could be driven somewhat easily. We don't usually get much snow in our region, so we don't have the snow plows available to take care of all the roads.

To help me with my cabin fever, I'm going to share some vampire Christmas videos today. Two weeks ago we celebrated vampire TV shows and their theme songs. This week, I've got a Buffy the Vampire Slayer version of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" and a Dark Shadows-style "Twelve Days of Christmas." Happy holidays!!!

BUFFY:


DARK SHADOWS:


I'll start taking care of more vampire music requests next week, so feel free to send vampire or other related tunes my way.

Best 2008 Vampire Film: The Tale of Despereaux?

I think I have another candidate for the Best Vampire Entertainment of 2008: The Tale of Despereaux. Yes, the new film about a heroic, big-eared mouse voiced by Matthew Broderick. My vampire radar first went off during the opening narration, when we're told about rats avoiding the sunlight. Soon after, a rat that could tolerate the sun is thrown into a dungeon sewer, down to the sunless world of the rats, who have all been banished from living among humans. He is greeted by an ominous character who tells him, "You're one of us now." Who is this sinister creature? None other than Count Orlock from Nosferatu--in rat form. At least he looks like Count Orlock, the memorable 1920s cinematic vampire...who happened to have resembled a rat. I won't spoil any plot points, but let's just say if you're familiar with Count Orlock's demise, our ratty version of him undergoes a similar experience.

I haven't read The Tale of Despereaux, the novel by Kate DiCamillo, so I don't know if the vampire and Nosferatu undertones originated there or in the movie. But if you absolutely have to see a kiddie movie--and you're in the mood for a vampire tale at the same time--it doesn't take too much of a stretch of the imagination to see The Tale of Despereaux's world of banished rats, and one rat who doesn't quite fit in, as a compelling vampire story within a so-so tale about a mouse.

Vampire odds and ends--including the name Isabella

It looks like Twilight fans have discovered my Best Vampire Entertainment of 2008 poll. The Twilight movie has now taken a tremendous lead. Moonlight continues to make a strong showing, but True Blood and vampire fiction don't have the votes I'd expect. Let the Right One In is more of an indie that not everyone has discovered yet, and I haven't ever heard from any Lost Boys: The Tribe fans in any of my comments sections, so I'm not shocked that those two are lagging behind, although personally I'm rooting for the indie. The poll will stay open until New Years Eve, so anything still goes at this point.

Speaking of Twilight, the series has influenced US baby names in 2008. The top girl name chosen by parents in 2008? Isabella. You can read the full article about the topic, which includes a reference to Twilight, at MSN.

Moonlighters: a visitor alerted me to a recent article on Fancast called "Best of 2008: 5 Shows That Shouldn't Have Said Goodbye." Moonlight is listed as the number one show on the list.

Best of 2008 poll: Current mind-blowing status

Wow!!! Moonlighters are out again in large numbers. They helped the short-lived vampire series Moonlight win a People's Choice Award earlier this year. They voted it the Best Vampire TV Show of All Time on my recent poll. And they've given it a major lead in my current poll that asks, "What was the best vampire entertainment of 2008?" (And you can pick more than one answer.)

Vampire heavy hitters True Blood and Twilight (the movie) have a huge way to go to catch up. Also in the running are critically acclaimed Swedish film Let the Right One In, the Lost Boys sequel, Lost Boys: The Tribe, vampire fiction, and an "Other" category. I'm giving vampire fans until New Years Eve to vote.

Music Monday on Tuesday: Edward Scissorhands

I almost didn't post a Music Monday because I've got so much else going on at Suburban Vampire right now. But in honor of our rare week of sub-freezing, iced-over, snowed-in weather in my part of Oregon, I'm offering one of my favorite haunting winter tunes: the theme song from Edward Scissorhands. We took our kids to see The Nutcracker a few weeks ago, and during the snowflake scene, my four-year-old leaned over and said the music sounded like the music from the new Willy Wonka (he knows both Willy Wonkas, so he did indeed phrase it that way). Personally, I think that part of The Nutcracker, with the chorus singing "Ahhhh," reminds me more of the beauty and fantasy of this other Danny Elfman score, but I didn't debate the issue with my four-year-old. Here's a haunting, somewhat sad, and lovely wintertime offering...





If anyone has any haunting and/or vampire holiday music to share for next week's Music Monday, I'm taking requests.

Quick note about another blog with my name on it

It's been brought to my attention that there's another vampire blog that has someone posting messages under the name Catherine Karp, including messages about interviews with real vampires. While there may very well be another Catherine Karp out there who is interested in vampires, I want to make it quite clear that I'm not affiliated with that other blog.

Vampire films in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012

NOTE:
I'm now updating this list at the following page: http://suburbanvampire.blogspot.com/p/upcoming-vampire-movies.html.

Here's my 2009 list of upcoming vampire films/TV series with links to the movies' IMDB sites (when available) and the estimated US release dates. The IMDB link will typically contain non-US release dates. The trailer links will take you to one of my posts where I've posted the preview. I'll be updating this list throughout 2009. Enjoy!

Being Human (2009) (UK TV series) TRAILER
Bled (2009) (DVD)
The Bleeding (2009)
Blood (2009)
Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) TRAILER
Bram Stoker's Vampire Diaries Renfield (2009)
Carmilla (2009)
The Coffin (2009)
The Dead Matter (2009) TRAILER
Dead of Night (2009)
The Death of Alice Blue (2009)
Doomsday County (2009)
The Eternal (2009)
Hello Darkness (2009)
High Midnight (2009)
The Informers (2009)
Kiss of the Vampire (2009) (DVD) TRAILER
Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009) TRAILER
Let the Right One In (2009--Italy, France, & UK) TRAILER
New Moon (2009)
Live Girls (2009)
Patient X (2009)
PCP... A VanGuard Chronicle (2009)
The Revenant (2009)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2009) TRAILER
Shadowland (2009)
Sodium Babies (2009) TRAILER
Suck (2009) TRAILER
The Teeth of the Night (2009)
Thirst (2009) TRAILER
Transylmania (2009) TRAILER
True Blood, Season 2 (HBO TV series, June 2009)
Twilight (2009--various countries) TRAILER
Twilight Watch (2009)
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) TRAILER
Valemont (MTV web series) (2009)
The Vampire Diaries (TV series, 2009) TRAILER
Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009)
Vampire in Vegas (2009)
The Vampire's Assistant (formerly Cirque du Freak)(2009) PHOTO TRAILER
The Vampires of Bloody Island (2009)

30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010)
Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire (2010)
Bite (web series) (2010) TRAILER
Daybreakers (2010) TRAILER
Dead Sucks (2010) TRAILER
Dracula: The Undead (2010)
Eclipse (2010)
The Fixer (TV series) (2010) TRAILER
The Historian (2010)
The Knights Templar (2010)
Last Blood (2010)
Let Me In (Let the Right One In U.S. Remake) (2010)
Lost Boys 3 (2010)
Love at Second Bite (2010)
Priest (2010)
Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell (2010)
Soulstice (2010)
Stake Land (2010)
The Un-Dead (2010)

Bubba Nosferatu and the Curse of the She-Vampires (2011)
Breaking Dawn (2011)
Castlevania (2011)
Dark Shadows (2011)
Dracula (2011)
Dracula Year Zero (2011)
Hotel Transylvania (2011)
House of Night (Untitled Project) (2011)
The Night Projectionist (2011)
Virulents (2011)

Blood Brothers (date TBA)
Blood Type (TV series, date TBA)
Damned Friday (date TBA)
Damn Nation (date TBA)
Dear Dracula (date TBA)
The Hunger (date TBA)
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (date TBA)
Pangs (date TBA)
Vampire Tales (date TBA)
Vamps (date TBA)

Best vampire entertainment of 2008

Announcing the Golden Globes of the vampire world--the Suburban Vampire Best Vampire Entertainment of 2008 poll. I've listed vampire TV shows and movies that were new in 2008, and you can pick as many of your favorites as you want. I've also put "Vampire Fiction" as an option if your favorite fanged entertainment came in the form of books. If you'd like to mention which 2008 book release you liked most, feel free to add a comment in my post Best of 2008: Vampire fiction.

I've also included "Other" on the poll in case your favorite isn't listed. There were some smaller 2008 movies with very limited releases or releases outside the US (for example, Blood: The Last Vampire). If a medium other than TV, movies, or books provided the top 2008 vampire entertainment, in your opinion, feel free to share with others.

Personally, I'd like to vote for the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead trailer, but I'll leave that for a future poll involving the most anticipated 2009 releases. Keep that in mind before marking "Other" for a trailer.

Most importantly, have fun with the poll. I'll leave voting open until 11:59 PST on New Year's Eve.
(SEE THE FULL POLL RESULTS: "Twilight & Moonlight top Best 2008 Vampire Entertainment poll.")

Best of 2008: Vampire fiction

From now until the end of 2008, I'll be celebrating the best vampire entertainment of the year. Because the list of vampire fiction published this past year is immense, it's pretty much impossible to create a poll without leaving out a multitude of titles. Therefore, feel free to comment here: What was the best vampire novel you read in 2008? If you found a nonfiction vampire book you preferred over the fiction releases, feel free to comment on that.

Publishers were generous in placing vampire fiction on bookshelves in 2008. Let's give a nod to the best of the best and tip our hats to the dark and creative writers out there.

MOONLIGHT voted Best Vampire TV Show of All Time

On my latest poll, 516 people voted on the Best Vampire TV Show of All Time. While some vampire fans commented that they had a hard time picking just one favorite, many felt passionately about their show of choice.

The winner: Moonlight, a series that only ran for 16 episodes, yet it managed to acquire a devoted following and took 27% of the votes on my poll. If you've never seen Moonlight, I'm posting the first part of the original episode below.

Here's how all the shows ranked. (The Blogger system's percentages always round down and don't add up to 100%, so I've calculated the more accurate numbers.)

1. Moonlight (27%)
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (23%)
3. True Blood (22%)
4. Blood Ties (17%)
5. Angel (5%)
6. Dark Shadows (3%)
7. Forever Knight (2%)
8. Ultraviolet (1%)

Two other favorite series that people mentioned in the comments section were Blade: The Series and Kindred: The Embraced. Thanks to everyone for participating and adding your two cents.

And now for Moonlight's moment in the spotlight:

Vampire TV poll ends soon / Golden Globe noms

Just a reminder that the current Best Vampire TV Show of All Time poll ends tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM PST. Moonlight took a huge lead in the last day or so, but True Blood is catching up again. And, hey, Ultraviolet received a few more votes! Anything still goes at this point.

Congrats to True Blood for receiving two Golden Globe nominations this morning (Best Dramatic TV Series; Best Actress, TV Drama). As I've said before, awards for anything vampire related are rare, so it's exciting when a show, movie, or book gets acknowledged.

Blood Ties credits

Thanks to Suburban Vampire visitor Rae Lori, I now have the Blood Ties opening credits to share. I don't know why I had such a hard time digging that one up. Enjoy!
(NOTE: My apologies for originally calling the show True Blood in this post. I really shouldn't blog while multitasking.)

R and G Are Undead screening

Those of you who have read Suburban Vampire for a while know one of the upcoming vampire films I'm most looking forward to is the indie Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead. It finally has its world premiere screening coming up at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, January 19 and 22. Hopefully, this vampire underdog will pick up a distributor there and move beyond the festival circuit.

To do my part to get this movie in theaters, I'm posting the trailer again. Need I mention one more time that The Karate Kid's Ralph Macchio appears in the film? Plus Dustin Hoffman's son stars and John Lennon's son composed the score. I'm a former theater geek who loves quirky indies, so perhaps that's why I'm so excited, but hopefully the film will appeal to the non-geeky vampire fans, too.

More vampire opening credits

To be fair to the other vampire TV shows on this week's poll, I'm including more theme songs. I couldn't find the opening credits for Blood Ties, but I did find a Blood Ties music video that looks to be a special clip that was once played at the end of the show. I couldn't find any clips at all for Ultraviolet. That show seems to be the obscure underdog of the poll.

ANGEL (1999-2004):


BLOOD TIES (2006):


MOONLIGHT (2007-8):

Music Monday: Vampire theme song history

In the spirit of my current poll regarding the best vampire TV show of all time, today's Music Monday is a brief, visual history of vampire theme songs. Starting with the supernatural 1960s-70s soap, Dark Shadows, and ending with the most recent contribution to the genre, True Blood, here are four examples of theme songs through the decades. It's an interesting transformation from spooky to sexy music and visuals. Speaking of Dark Shadows, the Tim Burton movie version starring Johnny Depp as reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins is still in the works. It looks like they'll start filming this summer. You can read more info at ComicMix.com. Very groovy.

DARK SHADOWS (1967-71):


FOREVER KNIGHT (1989-96)


BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (1997-2003):


TRUE BLOOD (2008-?):

Best vampire TV show of all time

Some of you have already noticed that my new poll is up and running. What's the best vampire TV show of all time? For choices, I've listed Dark Shadows, Forever Knight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ultraviolet, Angel, Blood Ties, Moonlight, and True Blood. If I've left your absolute favorite off the list, feel free to sound off in the comments section.

Speaking of vampire TV, thanks to Vampire Wire I discovered that the upcoming TV movie The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice involves "Russians who are trying to resurrect Dracula in their attempt to create an ultimate army." I've seen previews for The Librarian in the preshow clips at movie theaters, but I don't remember vampire references ever popping up. Perhaps I was too busy with my popcorn to catch the parts involving fangs. In any case, the show will air December 7 on TNT. Here's a preview:

Best Overall Vampire Website

Wow! There was a huge last-minute upset in this week's poll. Bitten by Books took the lead with 51% of the votes. Amberkatze's Book Blog started pulling ahead at the last minute, as well, and for a while I thought she might be the winner. Congrats to all the nominees.

If you haven't visited the site that was picked as the quintessential vampire stomping ground, check it out at BittenbyBooks.com. According to the site, "Bitten by Books prides itself on offering our readers honest book reviews, author interviews, interesting guest blog spots and fun contests."

I'll have a new poll regarding vampire TV tomorrow. I'm knee deep in revisions again, so I probably won't be posting a whole lot this upcoming week. Music Monday will be related to the upcoming poll, so be sure to check it out if you're a fan of vampires on the small screen.

I saw one of my characters yesterday

You can probably file this post under "Crazy Author Ramblings," but I saw one of my characters yesterday. In Vampire Book #2 (which, incidentally, I'm now revising with my agent's suggestions), I have a character with long black hair who knits in a coffeehouse (an indie, not Starbucks!). Yesterday, I was in a coffeehouse (an indie, not Starbucks!), and to my surprise I looked up and saw a woman with long black hair who was knitting, using the same color yarn that my character uses! It was kind of creepy.

So, to the knitting coffee woman out there--I hope you're nothing at all like my fictional version of you. Perhaps I've fallen into a Stranger Than Fiction or Deconstructing Harry universe where the author's characters come to life. But considering the fact that my knitting woman is often scarier than the vampires in Vampire Book #2, I'm really hoping that's not the case.

I see fictional people.

Best Overall Vampire Website deadline approaching

Just a reminder that you have until Thursday morning, Dec. 4, at 8:00 AM PST to vote for the Best Overall Vampire Website. Nominations were submitted by Suburban Vampire visitors. Will Best Vampire Author Website winner Marta Acosta end up being a two-time winner for her Vampire Wire blog? She's our Cate Blanchett-style double nominee.

You can check out all the nominees here:

Amberkatze's Book Blog
Bitten by Books
Patricia's Vampire Notes
Reading with a Bite
Vampire Wire