Black Friday. I swore I was taking today off – and I am. But I wanted to share the interview that was supposed to go up last Friday. So here’s the last Vampire Academy Friday for this year. Producers Don Murphy and Susan Montford sat down and talked with us, Hypable, and Page to Premiere when we were on our set visit. Thank you so much to the producers and everyone.
We can’t thank everyone enough for the time, and the knowledge that they gave us. We firmly believe that Vampire Academy will be a hit. Here you go!~Fangirlish
Let’s start with you and your involvement and why you wanted to option it?
Don Murphy: Susan and I had been working with a guy named Mike Preger who is one of the producers, he’s based in Florida, on a project…
Susan Montford: On a modern day version of Day of the Triffids.
Don: Yes, a modern day version of Day of the Triffids. It’s an
old classic British Science Fiction Novel. He called us up one day and
said I have another project that I want you to do based on a series of
young adult books called Vampire Academy. I said, “Are you crazy? That
sounds horrible.” (laughs) Our reaction was we already have a project,
we don’t need any other projects, thanks. He was like No, No you gotta
read it. He just kinda kept at it until we read it, and we kinda woke up
in the middle of the third one and said this is amazing, we have to try
to get involved with this. That started when we were on the set of Reel
Steal a couple of years ago, a Hugh Jackman movie we did together. So
we put together a real nice pitch book, sent it out to all the studios,
the sales, synopsis, and why this is going to be the next big thing.
They all said that we were crazy. But, considering that they said that
about Transformer’s too, we didn’t listen to them.
Susan: They were also saying because Twilight existed there wasn’t a need to making it.
Don: Ah Vampires, vampires are done you know. We would go into
meetings and say that the Twilight crowd is not 95 year old ladies, it
was a different crowd.
Do you think it’s an integrity thing?
Don: No, I think they thought we already had the Vampire thing. The Vampire in the title didn’t help things.
Susan: The title was problematic.
What was the special thing that you saw in the books that made you want to take on the project?
Susan: They were really cheeky, also it was from a female
perspective and there was also the bond between the two girls which was
particularly engaging because you don’t see that too often. You really
feel a strong understanding of a teenage girls mind. She’s like really,
really devoted to her best friend and it was a really interesting angle
rather than it being all about boys. We have got boys and all that
stuff, but it’s really about the two girls.
It’s a beautiful cast isn’t it really?
Susan: It’s a wonderful cast.
What was the audition process like?
Susan: Well, we used Marci Liroff and a website, where we
invited all to post their auditions and then we played through these
relentlessly until we found the perfect cast. We’re pretty excited to
making it.
Don: My answer to your other question, another attraction is
what you are always looking for in a project, is that Richelle created
such a mythology, such a world going on. It’s rare that you are like,
Wow, I wanna know what’s next, what happens in that world.
Page Turner.
Don: Ya.
There is always something happening in it, and the whole concept
of three different types of Vampires is something that they haven’t
seen. And they love the fact that it is from Rose’s point of view, when
usually it would be set in something like Lissa’s point of view, because
she’s the princess.
Don: There are two types – Strogoi and Moroi. The other are Dhampir, but they aren’t actually Vampires.
Susan: These are all very, very well researched traits based on actual existing mythology.
Don: She actually went back to Romanian vampires.
Susan: So she’s really done all this incredible work. All of
the research and everything. Which is why it resonates with people who
love it so much.
(~We are Sure we will love it! Cause its amazing! And we cant Wait! All the cast and crew did amazing job! well Done to all the VATeam)
No comments:
Post a Comment