THE SPIERIG BROTHERS DIRECTORS’ COMMENTARY

We created our first film, Undead, a low-budget zombie horror-comedy, after pooling together our life savings and hiring local cast and crew from around our hometown. We never expected this gory labor of love to be released worldwide, let alone from a company as distinguished as Lionsgate…but sometimes, dreams come true.

After the modest success of Undead, executives Peter Block and Jason Constantine expressed interest in working with us again on another production. We pitched a napkin idea — Vampires have become the dominant species, and they’re running out of their food supply: human beings. It worked, and Daybreakers was born.

As the script came together so did our dream cast list.  We thought, “It would be nice to go after an Ethan Hawke type.” Jason suggested rather than go after someone like Ethan, let’s just go to Ethan. We all believed in the script, but Ethan had never done a straight genre picture like this, at least not since he made Explorers as a child.

Ethan was very receptive to the allegorical ideas in the script — the depletion of resources, and the idea of drug companies never looking for a cure, but rather looking at a drug that creates repeat business.

Once Ethan was on board, the casting floodgates opened — Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan, Vince Colosimo, Michael Dorman, and Isabel Lucas all signed on.

We shot the movie in our home state of Queensland, bringing back some crew from our first movie, including our longtime collaborator, creature effects designer Steve Boyle.

Daybreakers was an eye-opening experience, jumping from a micro-budget to a $20 million movie with Oscar®-nominated cast members. We embraced the challenge, and dove in excited…and prepared. 

Every frame of the film was carefully storyboarded, a technique we still do today. The film was shot on early-generation digital cameras, with almost every sequence photographed using practical effects. Nothing beats in-camera make-up effects…it’s why we love this genre so much.

Since Daybreakers, we have made several films in the genre, but nothing feels as expansive as this vampire world. We loved living in the “civilized” world of vampires, a world that still feels relatively untapped…a world we hope to return to in the near future.

Thanks to all the fans of the movie over the years. We appreciate your kind words and continued interest in this story.

Long live horror movies, and long live physical media.

— Michael and Peter Spierig

     …We’re the folks with the crossbows!