Joss Whedon

November 1: Another vampire movie THIRST to bite

Yesterday, we showed you the posters for Mindfire Entertainment/Lions Gate’s HOUSE OF THE DEAD II here. Today, in another Mindfire update, the company has begun production in LA on a new vampire film called THE THIRST (no relation to the Tony Todd bloodsucker opus we last told you about here). Directed by Jeremy (THE ATTIC EXPEDITIONS) Kasten, THE THIRST stars Jeremy (MAY) Sisto, Adam (SERENITY) Baldwin, Serena Scott Thomas (a BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and SHE-WOLF OF LONDON guest star), Clare (GRAVEDANCERS) Kramer, Matt (SCREAM 3) Keeslar, Tom (BUFFY) Lenk, Neal (OZ) Jackson and Erik (DEAD & BREAKFAST) Palladino. “It’s a very edgy vampire film that’s shaping up to be something special,” Altman tells Fango. “I’m really excited about it.

“THE THIRST can best be described as TRAINSPOTTING meets NEAR DARK,” he continues. “It’s vampire story which is a metaphor for addiction, and Clare and Matt give very poignant and powerful performances which ground the film in reality. Clare plays Lisa, a woman dying of a terminal illness, who discovers that the only way to save herself may be death itself. Jeremy Sisto plays Darius, the leader of the vampire family, who is a cross between Charles Manson and Quentin Tarantino. He’s fantastic.

“I’ve wanted to do a vampire film for a long time,” the producer notes, “but it wasn’t until this script came across my desk that I found a project that was fresh and original and dealt with vampirism in a totally new way. That was the approach that Jeremy Kasten, DP Ray Stella and I decided to bring. Unlike our other recent films, this one isn’t slick; we’re going for a very real, ragged documentary style with lots of jump-cutting and handheld camerawork. It’s very cutting edge and extremely hardcore and gory. My partners at Mindfire, Mark Gottwald, Chuck Speed and myself really wanted to work with Jeremy again [after ALL SOULS DAY], and he really got the material and the cast is absolutely superb.

“Our makeup effects are by Autonomous Effects, the new shop headed by Jason Collins of Almost Human and Elvis Phillips,” Altman adds. “This film is very, very bloody; it is by far the most violent film we’ve done, with blood gags that are original and very, very sick...in a good way. If we’re lucky, this could really be the NEAR DARK of the 21st century. We’re playing it very real-no capes and fangs-and Ray is giving the film an incredible look. This movie has incredible potential-but tomorrow we’re shooting a massacre at a fetish club, so I’d better go get some sleep because I don’t want to miss one bloody minute of that!”