BloodRayne
Director Uwe Boll
"I
got the video game from Majesco after BloodRayne 1 was released.
Last year they released BloodRayne 2 and during that process we
developed the script. We shot the movie in Romania with Ben Kingsley,
Kristanna Loken, Geraldine Chaplin, Udo Kier, Meatloaf, and Michael Madsen.
A lot of stars in the movie. It's really dark vampire movie. The movie
is harder, bloody..more disturbing. We don't have superheroes. BloodRayne
needs blood. Also in the video game, she needs blood to survive. We also
have that in the movie.
We went to Romania because there were original castles, original old cities,
so it looks real because it is. CGI is in every movie. We have about 300
CGI shots also on BloodRayne. But in a way you don't really see
it, like wire removal, enhancements, speeding elements up and down. What
I don't like is that everyone works in front of blue screens or green
screens and non-existing rooms. I like that actors to have a bed, to have
a chair and a table to play off of.
Guinevere Turner, you know from American Psycho, she was the co-writer,
she wrote BloodRayne. We got fifteen treatments and pitches from
different writers. I liked hers the most even if she is not a video gamer.
I also liked that a woman wrote BloodRayne. She had a connection
to the character.
We start in a prequel situation how BloodRayne became BloodRayne
in the 1700's, in the original Transylvania.
“Kristanna
Loken wants to do another one. We thought of already doing it in the wild
west. She arrives with a ship in New York in 1880. I never seen anything
like this and it could be really really cool.”
Kristanna Loken wants to do another one. We thought of already doing it
in the wild west. She arrives with a ship in New York in 1880. I never
seen anything like this and it could be really really cool. I want to
get away from the Blade kind of thing, and the sci-fi Matrix
with the body- suit-kind of thing. I never wanted to do that with BloodRayne.
Kristanna is really tall, tough in doing the physicality, the wire work.
She's doing action on her own. I think because she is such a strong person,
it's hard for her to do other type parts. She picks her parts like this
one. That's the reason she also appears in In The Name Of The King:
A Dungeon Siege Tale, as an amazon rope woman. She is really classical
and perfect for the part of BloodRayne."
Kristanna
Loken
"Her coming of age story really. Knowing that she's a little different knowing that she is unique, but not quite knowing how or why. This is basically her quest. Her journey to retaliate from the source of which she was made, her father Kagan, Sir Ben Kingsley, the all mighty powerful, evil vampire. She finds out that she is a bit like a Jekyll and Hyde, the human-half and the vampire-half, needing blood to sustain herself, but not liking the fact that she has to kill to survive. She's very conflicted and it's it very real to her. She's rational as well as irrational. Her human-side has to deal with her vampire-side.
“She
finds out that she is a bit like a Jekyll and Hyde, the human-half and
the vampire-half, needing blood to sustain herself, but not liking the
fact that
she has to kill to survive.”
I wasn't familiar with the game but I am certainly a fan of vampire films. So I checked out the game and my job being human is to bring breath to the character from the game. I wanted to make her as human as possible. I also wanted her to keep some of the signature moves from the game into the film. At the end of the day it is a prequel, and you really want to create her own character and hope that people will identify with you towards the game.
It is a
very eclectic mixture of people (cast) which makes for an interesting
colorful piece, which was a lot of fun.
Romania was the ideal local to do a vampire movie. The monasteries and
the castles that you see and the people and the extras were real. They
really lend themselves well to the subject matter and the time period
of the film. You cannot You cannot recreate sets like we found in Romania
and just the energy that is there. You feel the history when you are
shooting in locations that are hundreds of years old and you can just
imagine what has gone on there in the past. I am grateful to travel
to places such as Romania and really get a flavor for the culture and
the history there, and learn a little bit about the country.
Obviously a lot of stuff in the game is physically impossible to do in real life, unless we try to do that kind of Hong Kong-style which wasn't the way we decide which wasn't the way we decided to go. We wanted to most of the stuff practically. With this I just wanted to get a feel for the weapons.
I have a dance background so just learning the choreography is like a dance and incorporating the weapons. It's always challenging . These were heavy, they're sharp. The weight is uneven. You have to look like its effortless. Thankfully, my character in the film finds her own power and strength through training. So initially I didn't have to be as good as I was at the end. It was good for me because I could work myself up.
Podcasts
Kristanna
Loken
A challenging role for this up and coming actress is to play BloodRayne,
who is half-human and half-vampire in the adaptation of the hit video
game. She discusses the role plus her role in Terminator 3: Rise Of The
Machines and the upcoming In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.
Taped November 17, 2005.
Download >>
Uwe
Boll
Interview with this German born director of such films as Alone In The
Dark and House Of The Dead. We discuss his new projects, BloodRayne and
Dungeon Siege. Taped at Gatecon 2005. Mr Boll will be a guest in 2006
at Timeless Destinations Convention in Vancover, BC.
Download
>>
Will Sanderson
Will Sanderson plays the number one man to Ken Kingsley's Vampire leader,
Kagan in the film, BloodRayne. Additionally, Will stars In The Name Of
The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Taped on November 18,2005
Download
>>
I really love working with Uwe. I have since done another film with him, In The Name Of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. I think we really get along well. Like I said I love the vampire genre, I like that she feels remorse for what she's done. It's not just heartless killing. It gives me more a human aspect to play. It's raw, it's dark and sexy. With Uwe, he lets you just go for it. Not every thing gets wrapped up at the end. Because it's his (Uwe Boll) movie and he owns all the rights, we don't have to worry about a studio saying," No, we can't do that because this age group of audience isn't going to respond to it." Uwe's idea is to make a film that we want to make and the people who want to come, will come to see it. For me that's a lot of fun because I as in life, I like to go for it.
Will Sanderson
"He would like to be a vampire but is not one. I am a human doing vampire's bidding called a Thrall. I am the head of the Thralls. Ben Kingsley I play his right hand man. There are several instances in the film where I exploit the fact that BloodRayne who is half vampire-half human cannot be exposed to light and such. My training consisted of mostly horseback riding and sword training. Mostly swords. I had kind of a long broad sword that I got to use, a two-hander. With a bit of training I managed to do all of my horseback riding save a few a scenes where I had a double. We were right in Dracula country. You look at the castles and the sets that we had. Because you travel with the same group, you get to be part of an extended family.
Michael Pare
Uwe and I have worked together on four or five movies. I will be in his next movie. Far Cry also. In BloodRayne, he called me up and said, " Mike, do you want to come to Romania for a few days. We'll have dinner and hang around." And I said, "Sure." I play the armorer that Michael Madsen and Kristanna Loken..after they lose their weapons, they come to me as I am kind of an armorer for that organization that is fighting the vampires, The Brimstone Society. They stop by and I give them the swords. It was my second time in Romania and fifth time working with Uwe. I thought it would be fun.
All
Photos courtesy of Wanstrom And Associates
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