Overview
They cleaned up at the New Zealand box-office last year, attended film festivals across the globe, gained promising reviews from international press, and even managed to add a V to the ‘Wellington’ sign in the Capital; but now local filmmakers Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi are looking to take their fangtastic horror mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows stateside, with a little help from some friends.
The film is the first feature since Waititi broke all kinds of records with his breakout comedy Boy. A far cry from Hollywood’s typical ab-flaunting, vampire romance-fantasy, What We Do In The Shadows follows the lives of four vampire flatmates Viago, Deacon, Peter, and Vladislav as they lead their night-to-night lives in modern-day Wellington.
On the auspicious date of Friday the 13th of February, the duo will release the film independently, without a studio distributor. The film is already set to open in New York City (at Landmark's Sunshine Cinema) and in Los Angeles (at The Arclight Cinemas/Hollywood), though the ideal scenario would see them take it further to cinemas across the country.
With some of the best independent film buffs in their corner, Clement and Waititi have put together a plan to reach as many cities around the US as possible - 70 to be exact. The plan of course comes with a healthy price tag. To cover the cost of posters, trailers, advertising, publicity and so on, the pair have reached out via crowd funding website Kickstarter to try and raise the $400,000 needed.
Rewards for contributions range from t-shirts and posters to a 30 second personal video message, a Skype chat with the vampires, a personal meet and greet and a featured extra role in Jermaine and Taika’s next directorial project.
