Steve Niles Interview

The release of 30 Days of Nights is imminent, much like a vampire plague. We sat down with Steve Niles to sort things out and to discuss Cal McDonald, Bad Planet and his idea for an all-new Grand Theft Auto experience. Read on and see why Niles deserves the recognition he's already received and will garner more after 30 Days of Night terrifies audiences into seeing it over and over, ultimately driving them mad with delight and fear. But don't take our word for it, take his:

UGO:With 30 Days of Night being your first original title to be brought to the big screen, what was your involvement and how happy are you with the outcome?

Steve Niles:

Well, first with the involvement, I wrote the first draft of the screenplay and then was pretty much kept in the loop the whole time. It's kind of hard to explain because when everyone talks about their experiences in Hollywood it's always what a nightmare they went through, but I've absolutely had the anti-Hollywood experience throughout everything. Because they've kept me in the loop throughout everything, wanting to keep the property as accurate to the comic as possible. I think a lot of that has to do with Sam Raimi knowing how important it is to stick to the material a la Spider Man. There's a reason people like this stuff. David Slade was actually a fan of the comics when they came out on the newsstands, and he really wanted to direct this movie, so I think that really comes through. To answer the second half of the question, I love what they did. I honestly couldn't be happier.

UGO: You just mentioned David Slade, have you seen Hard Candy?

SN: When they hired him, I got a call from Sam and he said, "this is the guy Slade I want to hire, why don't you check out his movie." I went to Lionsgate and watched a screener alone in an office. I couldn't have been happier, I was blown away by how cool that movie was, especially what he did with two characters and, basically, two or three sets. I was very impressed.

UGO: Which is perfect for 30 Days of Night, because there's not a whole lot of characters beyond people fighting for survival.

SN: Exactly, it's that claustrophobia that I really want to get across. The violence is frantic in Hard Candy, and now that I've seen what he did with the movie, Raimi made a really good call. David Slade made a really scary horror movie.

UGO Were you nervous about the adaptation from comic book to movie?

SN: Honestly, I put it out of my head. If I wasn't working on it, I wasn't thinking about it. I've heard too many horror stories, I've seen too many. Even with everyone trying to make the best movie they can, there are disasters. It's one of those things, a crap shoot that way. I made up my mind that I wasn't going to think about it. Now that all the movie posters are appearing and I've seen a cut of the film, the trailer and all that...I know it sounds impossible but I've just now started to let myself get excited.

UGO: With the potential success of 30 Days of Night, do you see any follow-ups with Dark Days?

SN: Oh, absolutely. It is, if anything, because 30 Days of Night is so accurate to the original, we could slide right into Dark Days effortlessly. Although I'd love to see a movie studio end a movie like how Dark Days ends. That would be really fun.

UGO: We'd love to see Cal McDonald on the screen.

SN: You and me both! That is my next big one; between Cal and Freaks of the Heartland. Those are my two favorites that I really want to do something with. With Cal, the obstacle there is, every studio that I've tried to set it up with wants to clean him up. They go, "How about you just make him hard-drinking?" And I'm like, "How 'bout I write you Monster Cop and you leave Cal alone." It doesn't make any sense to me. Why would you read Cal McDonald and say, "Wow, that's a great character," and then rip his cape off. Cal, to me, was always the logical progression of the hard-boiled detective. They're flawed characters. Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade were hard drinkers. That was their kind of thing. But you can't do guys who wear fedoras and drink hard now. It plays like retro; it plays like a tribute. To me with Cal, a strength of it is that now a modern problem is, and this is the key point that no one seems to hear, he's a recovering drug addict. He's right at the cusp of trying to get past that. The hard drugs are in past, these are demons that follow him around, and I was like, you can't take them away from him. I'm talking to a couple people and hopefully we'll find someone who will make it that way, and if not, I just won't sell.

UGO: One of things we love about your work is you seem to know when to end something.

SN: Thanks. That comes from being surrounded by people who aren't comic book fans, and I want them to read my stuff. I would see their reactions to me going, "here, you gotta read this, this is great, this is The Watchmen, best comic book I've ever read." Boy, if you don't get it, like why The Watchmen exists, then there's just no interest. So, that's something I'm really aware of. The comic market is so small, and we need to create stuff to pull people in. That's why I'm really comfortable doing horror, and besides, I just can't get Marvel or DC to hire me. I've been saying let me write The Hulk for free for a year. But now I'm starting to re-think that one, you have to do all their events and stuff and, but maybe they think that I'm going to have the Hulk biting people's heads off.

UGO: We know you've done novels, you've done comics, you've had your hand in the 30 Days of Night screenplay as well. Beyond comics, where else do you want to go?

SN: Virtually everything that is comic, Wake the Dead, 30 Days of Night, Freaks of the Heartland, Cal McDonald, I've written in other forms. All those things I've written as movie pitches. 30 Days was a movie pitch before it was a comic; about half the stuff I do. I sort of have this reaction where I jump, I get a story idea and I want to get it out anyway I can. There're the Cal McDonald novels, 3 or 4 of them, plus short stories collections, and, actually this week, I'm interviewing for some directing gigs. I am going to look into possibly writing and directing my own stuff. It's funny, even though I've written 4 or 5 novels, I'm just now signing a contract for my first novel. I come from a music background. I played in a band for 10 years and toured when I was in my 20s. I love stuff. I love doing this stuff, and I could wind up anywhere. I love comics dearly and that's why I think I'll always do things in comics. I want to try others stuff too. At this point, it feels pretty unlimited to me.

UGO: And, Bad Planet...

SN: Bad Planet is finally up and running again. We had a thing go on, where we were stuck with an artist who was sick. We thought he would be to get better and get back to work, and he decided that getting back to comics wasn't the most important thing. But, we waited almost a year for him at that point. What we decided to do was go and Tom and I wrote all the scripts and we got a new artist Jim Daly, and with Tim Bradstreet inking, matches perfectly. The new issues 1 and 2 are out now, and all the books are done, and they will come out monthly till the series is finished.

UGO: Well it sounds like you have your hands in everything. It's great 'cause as a writer you know where everyone else is at and what piques their interest.

SN: I wish I could say that I'm just doing research, but I love this stuff.

UGO: That's more important than anything else, It's your own passion.

SN: Exactly, I can't wait to start applying some of my own stories to some of my gameplay. Believe me, I've thought about doing Cal McDonald in a Grand Theft Auto format, but the goal is, all the humans are the people you don't want to shoot. There are actually monsters in amongst those crowds; and play it real time, so it goes dark. Just like that but you make Grand Theft Auto Cal's world. I love the idea of the Grand Theft Auto play where you sort of turn it on its head a little bit, where its still just as crowded on the streets but this time you want to avoid clipping everybody.