SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2000

Behind the scenes on:
"The Shadow of the Vampire"

A lot of buzz has been generated about this film and the Oscar-worthy performance of Willem Dafoe since the Cannes film festival this past summer. Today, we got the chance to sit across from the director, E. Elias Merhige, who spoke about some of the details which went into the production of said film.

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How did you get attached to this project?

Basically, it was one of Nic Cage’s friends who knew that Nic liked all kinds of strange, older, B/W films, who gave him a copy of my film BEGOTTEN. Apparently, Nic really took to the film and called me for a meeting.

He told me how much he liked my movie and asked if I would read this film called SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE. I read it and loved it right away, but wasn’t sure what Nic wanted done with the project, whether or not he wanted to direct it himself, so I hung back until Nic asked me how I would direct it.

After hearing my interpretation, Nic said that it sounded "very poetic, a real work of art". At that point, I was sure that there was NO WAY in hell that I was going to direct the film, since any producer who uses the word art and poetry together, generally just wants you to get the hell out of their office! But as it turned out, Nic was sincere about what he was saying and allowed me the greater freedom to make the film that I had in my head.

Was it intimidating working with these two great actors?

It was a little intimidating at first, especially when you're standing outside of it, but when once you’re in it, you’re just trying to construct something that you’ve got in your own mind’s eye. It’s the sort of thing that if you’re actually physically sitting down with (John) Malkovich or (Willem) Dafoe for the first time, I’m looking at them as much as they’re looking at me.

What I found with both Willem and John is that they’re both incredibly warm people, really cool guys, and on top of that, they’re very focused…extremely focused, I don’t know if I could stress that enough.

Where was this film shot?

The film was mostly shot in Europe, Luxembourg specifically, which had about 140 castles all around. The castles were used in the film and certainly added to the film’s authenticity.

Is it a true telling of what happened behind the scenes of the classic vampire film NOSFERATU?

No, the film is a fictionalized telling of the making of Nosferatu. It’s deeply serious but also very funny. The character’s obsessions can’t help but make you laugh to yourself.

The film was also called BURNED TO LIGHT, why was the title changed?

Actually, the original title was called SHADOW OF VAMPIRE, but one late night, the producer read the line BURNED TO LIGHT from the script, and being around 4:30 in the morning, anything sounded good around that time, so I said "that’s it, let’s use that!".

Of course, it didn’t take long to change that one back to the original since pretty much everyone was pronouncing the title wrong. "No, it’s not BURNT to light…it’s BURNED!". The last straw was when Dafoe said "who is Ed?". "Ed". "Yeah, Burn ED to light?".

Originally, we didn’t like SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE because we thought it sounded too much like a "typical vampire movie title" and it is nothing like any other vampire flick.

Who were your first choices as actors?

Actually, both Malkovich and Dafoe were my first choices for the leads, even before the financing on the film had been confirmed.

And who did the make-up/costumes for Dafoe's character?

The Nosferatu make-up was originally to be done by Stan Winston et al, but ended up being done by another set of specialists in Europe. But since NOSFERATU was one of Stan’s childhood favorite films, and one of the reasons that he began doing what he does today, he decided to remain involved somehow, and will be creating the SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE action figures for this movie.

The first for his new company.

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Overall, the director of this film, E. Elias Merhige was very soft-spoken, sincere and genuinely in love with the film and the process of the making. It was a complete "labor of love" for him and the trailer sure makes you want to check it out asap.

The film was bumped from a September to December release after the Oscar buzz started on the film, and also because Lion’s Gate didn’t want people to get the impression that it was just another Halloween/Vampire movie, if it were released in September.

One more thing, the Arrow and I were lucky enough to shake the meet the director after the Q&A and get a picture with the guy. Unfortunately for us, someone stole our camera soon thereafter. Doh!

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2000

1) Day by day coverage by JoBlo and The Arrow

2) EXCLUSIVE new scenes from HOLLOW MAN

3) SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE / Director E. Elias Merhige / Behind the Scenes

4) X-MEN / Director Bryan Singer / Q& A Session

5) CROW 3 movie reviews / Panel with star Eric Mabius and producer Jeff Most

6) Harry Knowles: who is he, where did he come from and how did he get so popular?

7) HOLLOW MAN featurette / Paul Verhoeven Interview

8) The Official JoBlo/Comic Con PHOTO GALLERY!!!