Josh Hartnett looking like hell after watching his town burn to the ground in 30 DAYS OF NIGHT(2007).
© Columbia Pictures

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Hartnett Talks 30 DAYS OF NIGHT

The upcoming adaptation of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT hits theaters this Friday, October 19, 2007 so press for the film is kicking into overdrive. There's two interviews with two key parties of the film published this morning detailing their parts in the upcoming horror film. On one side, Ryan Rotten at Shock Til You Drop had an interesting interview with director David Slade. In the interview, he mentioned that he had no overbearing studio suit looking over his shoulder, the fact that they kept the mythology from the Steve Niles comic as accurate as possible (Which should please fans of the comic.) and what it was like filming a genre horror film so soon after wrapping up HARD CANDY in 2005.

Shock: The comic book has such a great ending, and I'm glad they kept that and didn't cop, because I was worried that would be changed.
Slade: With all due respect to the studio they never enforced anything like that upon me. As far as Columbia Pictures being an eight hundred pound gorilla, you know it actually wasn't a bad experience at all. They just wanted the best film. They trusted Sam Raimi obviously and Rob Tapert to deliver a decent horror movie and there was very little in the way of intervention in the terms of, "That's too much" or "That's not Hollywood enough for us." There was none of that really, so I was lucky with that.

To read much more from director David Slade, click here.

On the other side, our friends over at Wizard Entertainment had a chance to talk shop with the star of the film, Josh Hartnett. They covered a range of topics about the role, filming in New Zealand, what injuries he sustained and more...

What brought the project to your attention in the first place?

David sent me the script and the comic book. They came up to Minnesota, where I’m from, and we had lunch. And I decided I would like to make stuff like this. Then I saw [David’s previous film] “Hard Candy.” The subject matter was difficult to take, but the filmmaking was astounding. He showed me a test of what he wanted the vampires to look like, too, which was terrifying.

You said Slade sent you 30 Days of Night, but did you read comics growing up?

I didn’t, actually. The two comic books that I’ve read are Sin City and 30 Days of Night. Actually, when I was doing “Sin City,” just for the few days that I was there, someone gave me Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.

Aside from comics, are you a fan of vampire movies?

I grew up watching all sorts of scary movies. That’s what kids do. You sneak out of the house and try to go see movies that you aren’t supposed to see. When I was growing up, there weren’t a lot [of vampire movies] coming out. There were movies like “Poltergeist” and “The Exorcist.”

To read much more, click here.