09.00 pm, Monday February 13 2012

Daybreakers no Twilight-style flick

08:16 AEDT Wed Feb 3 2010
By Alyssa Braithwaite
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Peter Spierig, Vince Colosimo, Michael Spierig (L to R)
Peter Spierig, Vince Colosimo and Michael Spierig (L to R) turned out for the Daybreakers premiere.

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The Twilight films have attracted millions of fans around the world but Peter and Michael Spierig aren't among their number.

The Aussie directors are dismissive of the teenage love story about a vampire who falls in love with a human as "that sparkly s**t".

Their latest film Daybreakers is also about vampires, and its hero is a guy called Edward who shuns human blood but that's where the similarities end.

"I haven't seen the new Twilight film so I don't know what the new film's like, but they're not our cup of tea," Peter says with a smile.

The Spierig brothers wrote the script and shot their movie on the Gold Coast in 2007 - long before vampires became flavour of the month.

While they might prefer the kind of vampires that rip you apart in a feeding frenzy than the sparkly-skinned variety of Twilight, Michael says he thought the current interest in bloodsuckers would work in their favour.

"If we made a romantic vampire movie I'd think, OK, we're probably in a bit of trouble here, but because it's so different I think it's helped us," he says.

"People who like the other vampire stuff that's out there and they're looking for something else in the genre, well, our film is certainly something different."

Daybreakers is set in the year 2019, when a plague has transformed much of the world's population into vampires.

Humans are an endangered, second-class species forced into hiding as they are hunted and farmed for vampire consumption to the brink of extinction.

Boasting a cast led by Hollywood stars Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe and Love My Way actress Claudia Karvan, the $20 million horror flick also features local names like Isabel Lucas, Sam Neill, Vince Colosimo and Michael Dorman.

It's a big step up from the brothers' first feature, Undead, made in 2003.

It featured a cast of acting students, was shot in their parents' backyard, and had a budget of just $100,000.

"We make the comparison that the shooting budget of our first film was less than the contact lens budget of Daybreakers," Peter says.

"We had 200 pairs of them - I think we had the most number of contacts ever bought for a film in Australia - or maybe ever," he explained of the yellow and red contact lenses that much of the cast had to wear as vampires.

Michael said none of the cast had made a horror film before and weren't fans of the genre.

"When we spoke to all of them I said, 'Do you like horror films?' Ethan was like, no, Claudia, no, Michael, no, Isabel, no," he says.

"I just think there's a stigma to horror for serious actors that it's all about cheap scares and exploitation."

Peter adds: "For actors it can be seen almost as one step above porn."

But Michael says once the actors got out and learnt to shoot a crossbow and did their stunt training, they were in their element.

"All actors love to be kids playing cowboys and Indians."

Daybreakers opens across Australia on February 4.

 
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