MOONLIGHT VAMPIRE SOCIETY

Universal Picture has announced that the film formerly titled Cirque du Freak has now been renamed The Vampire's Assistant and will be released on October 23.

The film stars John C. Reilly, Ken Watanabe, Chris Massoglia, Josh Hutcherson, Patrick Fugit, Ray Stevenson, Michael Cerveris, Frankie Faison, Jane Krakowski, Orlando Jones, Kristen Schaal and Salma Hayek. Paul Weitz directed from a script he co-wrote with Brian Helgeland. The studio also released a new synopsis for the film, which you can read below:

The Vampire's Assistant tells the frightening tale of a boy who unknowingly breaks a 200-year-old truce between two warring factions of vampires. Pulled into a fantastic life of misunderstood sideshow freaks and grotesque creatures of the night, one teen will vanish from the safety of a boring existence and fulfill his destiny in a place drawn from nightmares.

14-year-old Darren (Chris Massoglia) was like most kids in his suburban neighborhood. He hung out with his best friend, got decent grades and usually stayed out of trouble. But when he and his buddy stumble upon a traveling freak show, things begin to change inside Darren. That's the exact moment when a vampire named Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) turns him into something, well, blood thirsty.

Side Note: This is based on a series of books (which, for the record, began in 2000, predating the Sookie Stackhouse books by a year and the Twilight series by five). There's twelve in all. . J. K. Rowling gave the first book a good review and her quote appeared on all the covers afterwards. Overall, its a decent series that gets better as it goes along, but its clearly meant for a younger audience and shows.

As for the title change...Cirque du Freak was the name of the first book (and the series overall) and The Vampire's Assistant was the name of the second. The title change is probably to cash in on the vampire craze, but at the same time, it does fit better. The Cirque du Freak plays an important role but the focus is more on the vampires than it is the freak show.

About the books............thank you Wikipedia

Cirque du Freak (Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare in the United States) is the first novel in The Saga of Darren Shan by Darren Shan. It is part of the "Vampire Blood Trilogy", which comprises of the first three of the 12 book saga. Cirque du Freak was first published in Great Britain by HarperCollins in 2000, and was later published in the Vampire Nonsense Series in 2003 and 2004.

SNYOPSIS

Young Darren Shan has been fascinated by spiders from an early age. His best friend, Steve "Leopard" Leonard has grown up reading horror comics and stories of the Wolfman and vampires.

One day, their other friend Alan comes across a flyer advertising the "Cirque Du Freak" and eagerly shows it to Darren, Steve, and Tommy. All the boys wanted to go. Each flyer could only get two tickets, however, so they play a game of chance to see who will go with Steve, which Darren wins.

Darren and Steve are mesmerized by the fantastic and disturbing show, especially by the act of the mysterious Mr. Crepsley and his giant spider Madam Octa. After witnessing a confrontation between Steve and Mr. Crepsley after the show in which Steve declares the latter to be a vampire, Darren sets his sight on Madam Octa, planning to steal her and use his knowledge of Mr. Crepsley's true nature to his full advantage.

Darren's plan succeeds, and after a few weeks of training Madam Octa, he is fully comfortable with having it in his bedroom, using Mr. Crepsley's flute as an excuse for privacy. During this time, he grows more and more detached from Steve due to overhearing Mr. Crepsley calling him evil and deeming him unsuitable to become a vampire's assistant. Steve figures out that Darren lied to him and witnessed what he did, but still chooses to be friends with him.

One day while Steve is at Darren's house playing with Madam Octa, Darren's younger sister Annie barges into his room unknowingly and shocks him, causing him to drop the flute and lose control over the spider, which bites and fatally wounds Steve.

Steve's only hope for survival is if Darren makes a deal with Mr. Crepsley to become his assistant and pay off the cost of the spider antidote. Steve lives, but Darren is turned into a half-vampire and is thrust into the dark world of the vampires. In order to successfully free Darren of all previous bonds, including family, Mr. Crepsley helps his to-be apprentice fake his own death by numbing Darren's entire body, breaking his neck, and throwing him out of his bedroom window, perfectly simulating a fatal fall. Following the events of Darren's human body's funeral, Mr. Crepsley returns and digs Darren up. Unbeknownst to Crepsley, however, Steve tries to kill Darren, but fails, instead swearing revenge on Darren for stealing his rightful place of being Mr. Crepsley's vampire assistant.

Interesting... never heard of this series before. Anyone read them?

I don't think I ever even remember seeing this book series mentioned in our book threads.....seems a little too creepy for my tastes. Not really into the whole traveling freak show thing.

I've never heard of these books or this movie, but it definitely sounds interesting . . can't picture John C. Reilly as a vampire . . unless it's a complete joke, but I would be totally down for seeing this movie. It definitely sounds strange and interesting at the same time.

This is John C. RIley


He is one of those acotrs you see in a lot of movies, know the face but can't think of the name...

Reilly made his film debut in the Brian De Palma film Casualties of War (1989) as PFC Herbert Hatcher.[5] Although the role of Hatcher was written as a small one, De Palma liked Reilly's performance so much that the role was significantly expanded. Also notable in his film work throughout the 1990's was his supporting role alongside Mark Wahlberg in Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 film Boogie Nights, in which he played the pornographic film star Reed Rothchild.

His profile as a film actor was significantly raised in 2002 when he appeared in three of the year's Academy Award for Best Picture nominees - Chicago, Gangs of New York and The Hours. The three movies were nominated for a total of 32 Oscars, including one for Best Supporting Actor for Reilly's performance as Renée Zellweger's trusting husband in Chicago. Ultimately, Gangs of New York won none, Chicago won six, and The Hours won one.

Reilly appeared in Martin Scorsese's 2004 Howard Hughes biopic, The Aviator, as Hughes' trusted business partner, Noah Dietrich.

Reilly has appeared in over fifty mostly supporting roles since his debut in 1989.

You can see Trailer #1 here

http://www.moviefone.com/movie/cirque-d ... 1864063001

You knew it had to be somewhat of a comedy since John Riley was in it. I loved the trailer. "Are you 21?" "Say yes." LOL! "You take a sip, it's refreshing" I'm actually really interested in seeing it. Smart work by them. People are dying to get their vampire fix as they wait for New Moon so lets put this out a month prior. Good work.

Creepy cool!

My thoughts exactly! The eyes are freaky and yet oh so awesome!

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant



Did you read the books before signing on to the movie?
I was a big Tolkien fan when I was a kid and know how important those [Lord of the Rings] screen adaptations were to me, so I wanted to read the books to get a sense of what the expectations of readers of these books are. I found them to be a great resource, and I really ended up getting into them. In terms of discovering the character, I have my own personal ideas I want to bring to it. Paul [Weitz, the director] also has his own ideas, so there's this great bridge we both have which is the books. It helps us move close to what's true in the books. I think young people will be really happy. Paul has gone through great lengths to make the movie very realistic in terms of what young people are going through during the teenage years. He doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of what the kids in the movie are attracted to. That's what brings them to the Cirque in the first place: they disobey their parents, sneak out, and meet these morally ambiguous people. That has been one of the great thrills in the movie for me to play somebody's mentor. My best friend is much older than me and I've had a really rich relationship with him over the years, and I recognize a lot of that in this character, that mentor-pupil relationship, and that's something Paul really thought was important to the film. A mentor will let you do things and make mistakes that a parent won't let you do. One of the coolest things Paul kept with this movie was that bad things can happen to characters. I like this conception of the vampire character that he's not immortal, but just ages more slowly. It's fantastic enough to be interesting and real enough to seem relatable.


Did you get to develop your character much from the book?
A lot of it was dictated by the book. He has a scar on his face and red hair and pointy nails. The most collaboration I had on the character was the costume. It was based on the idea if you were 220 years old, what would be your worldview? What would you wear and what matters to you?


Were you involved with casting Darren and Josh?
No, not at all. It takes a long time to find kids. Paul had already met Chris and Josh by the time we talked and he had a good feeling they were the guys he was going to go with.


What are your fight scenes like?
There are these fantastic elements. We're super strong and can leap from the floor of a theater to a balcony. We're very strong and have these razor sharp nails but if we get hit and fall on the ground, it hurts. Another character and I have this fight where we are like two birds battling in mid-air, scratching and clawing and all the things that are unique about us are what we highlight in this fight. The action in this movie is going to be really cool. You see the friendly, fantasy vibe, but are going to be shocked by the violence in the movie.


What inspires you with these scenes?
I went to a theatre school, so a lot of the improv classes we did everything had to be space objects so it feels like that to me. I can't wait to see everything in the movie completely filled in.



Cirque du Freak hits theatres October 23!









I know it’s a lot of text at the beginning but its a short interview over all. I thought it was a good explanation of his character from his perspective. And I’m glad he pointed out that they aren’t shying completely away from the violence in the books, but I guess we will just have to see how it turns out when it hits theatres.


http://community.livejournal.com/ohnoth ... 84963.html

Wow, this movie looks and sounds like it's going to be so crazy! I'm really excited to see it.

Was not sure about this at first...but after seeing this trailer -- I might go see it -- seems like there is some good "snark" and interesting characters

Review (not by me - will see this next week and Spoilers....

John C. Reilly's Vampire Seduction Is A Love/Hate Experience

Our vampire glut continues with Vampire's Assistant, which replaces fangs with fingernails and gives vampires "healing spit" powers. The good parts are enchanting, but the copious bad parts will leave a "bad blood" taste in your mouth. Spoilers ahead...

This little teen flick is based on a popular YA series by Darren Shan, Cirque Du Freak. The long-running book series folows Darren (Chris Massoglia) through his half-vampire life, with his undead master Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly). The film is based on the first book of the series with a collection of strange supernatural creatures, freaks and multiple vampire fingernail-scratching face offs.

In Darren Shan's world vampires don't have fangs — instead, they have super sharp nails which they use like sorority girls to scratch each other to death, when they're not flinging tombstones at their opponents' heads. The vamps also have "super spit," which will heal skin slashes. As someone who's more grossed out by germs than blood, I cannot even begin to describe the seat-squirming I endured in the final vampire battle, when each blow was followed by a hand lick and spit rub. UGH GERMS.

But I'm getting ahead of myself: the heart of this story is about two boys. Too terribly acted, horribly constructed, dialogue-mumbling boys, who fall head-first into this world of supernatural mystery. Besides our hero Darren, there's Steve (Josh Hutcherson). Darren is good and Steve is evil, and that's pretty much all you need to know about their characterizations. Through a mix of happenstance and destiny, both boys become vampires, and end up on opposite sides of the Vampire-versus-Vampaneze war. And let me tell you, reading the word "Vampaneze" isn't nearly as funny as hearing John C. Reilly say it over and over, deadly serious. Quick, hide — the Vampaneze are coming!

The — ahem — Vampaneze are evil, and murder humans for their blood, while the Vampires are goodly creatures who sedate humans with their super breath and only take a little bit of blood, then heal the wound. Oh yeah, they have magic breath too, and they can fly/flit around.



John C. Reilly is a Vampire, and he and the foppish Willem Dafoe used to be generals in the war against the Vampaneze. But now they are neutral, and Reilly lives in the circus. One of the things Vampire's Assistant has going for it is a sick list of actual actors cast as carneys in the Cirque Du Freak, 30 Rock's Jane Krakowski can rip her arms off and regenerate them back — which she sometimes eats, skeeving me out like the kid that ate his scabs in grade school. Patrick Fugit is the Snake Boy, Ken Watanabe is Mr. Tall, who is tall, Salma Hayek plays the psychic bearded lady Madame Truskaand, there's a freak with two super stomachs, a man with no midsection, an adorable freak with a set of powerful chompers, a wolf-man, and more. The freaks were by far my favorite part of the film, but sadly they were on screen all of 20 minutes. Still the circus freaks were wonderfully enjoyable and even magical, and they should have their own series on VH1.



But it does get a bit old, when the members of this talented troupe keep calling their place of work "the Cirque." Why did you join The Cirque? I've been in The Cirque for years. That's life in The Cirque. You need to prove yourself to stay in The Cirque, Forget it Jake. It's Cirque-town. Enough already — I get it. You're just using a fancy way of saying Circus over and over.

Yet, the vampire war is the main axis on which this story revolves, and sadly those D*mn Vampaneze had to go and make Steve, Darren's besty, their evil leader — so too much time is spent fighting Vampaneze and not in THE CIRQUE.

But this allows for plenty of scenes of John C. Reilly being a wise and sexy old vampire. Even when he's delivering the most bat-shit ridiculous lines like, "You have bad blood — I can't make you a vampire. Oh, you have good blood," he totally makes them work. I did not think he would win me over as Crepsley, but D*mn it if he didn't have the audience laughing at even the lamest of jokes. He's that good of an actor. He sold the vampire bit, and even mastered some strange sort of sing-song talk that apparently vampires have. Crepsley takes Darren under his wing and teaches him the vampire ways, meanwhile his mean bestie is being groomed to be the Vampaneze King, which I assume comes with some sort of t-shirt that says "That's Vampaneze, B*tch!"

So the battle between good and Japanese vampires, no wait, sorry — vampires and Vampaneze — is on, and Darren and Steve, who's now become completely evil — but it's okay, because he tells you his Mom is a drunk twice, so you know, issues — have to fight. See they really hate each other now....



And that's pretty much what happens. Ridiculous, no? It's not True Blood insane, but it walks the fine line between "that's weird," and "I don't get it." But if you're going to the movie for Salma, don't — she's not in it nearly enough. But you should go if you like tween vampire movies, if you like tween movies generally, to hear people use the word Vampaneze in a sentence, and if you want to see something fun. When this film is good — and that means with John C. Reilly is on screen — it's a lot of fun. But when the two main kids or anyone else who's not a freak takes the wheel, it's a mess. Like "MacBeth death scene quoting" mess. Still I left laughing and wanting more hot John C. Reilly vampire action, which is a new experience for probably everyone in cinema.