Dialogue: Screenwriter Daniel Waters on Why 'Vampire Academy' Is Nothing Like Those Other YA Movies
It’s easy to look at the promotional campaign for the adaptation of Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy and brand the film another Twilight or just another one-note teen supernatural adventure, but screenwriter Daniel Waters is well aware of that and expects to prove those naysayers wrong come February 14, 2014.
The film’s first teaser trailer just dropped and, as it should, only scratches the surface of the narrative: best friends Rose (Zoey Deutch) and Lissa (Lucy Fry) attend St. Vladimir’s Academy, your typical high school filled with young love, parties, and gossip. Oh, and vampires, too. Lissa is a Moroi, a benevolent breed of vampire whose existence is threatened by the malicious Strigoi. That’s where Rose steps in. She’s a Dhampir, half human and half vampire, and is studying to become Lissa’s guardian in order to protect her from the Strigoi.
Again, that’s only the surface. The story is loaded with curious characters, varying relationships, sass, action, and a particularly unique set of world rules. The film isn’t due in theaters until Valentine’s Day of next year, but Waters took the time out of post-production work to give us an update on the project, enlighten us on his adaptation process, and offer some thoughts on the book-to-film potential beyond Vampire Academy. Catch it all for yourself in the interview below.
Movies.com: How far along are you in the editing process?
Daniel Waters: We’re just coming on our first cut, so it’s still very early on. We’re trying to get out at Valentine’s Day so everything is a little accelerated. Things are going good, but it’s still at the first cut stage.
Movies.com: Based on the footage you’ve seen so far, is there anything that you’re particularly excited to show fans – perhaps even in the marketing campaign?
Waters: Well, yeah. It’s tricky because I’m still recovering from the over-hysteria and over-analysis of the one-minute teaser trailer. I’m afraid to turn on my computer nowadays. [Laughs] But unfortunately, for me, a lot of my favorite scenes are the scenes towards the end of the movie that you don’t want to give away in a teaser or a trailer, so it’s gonna be weird to see how we end up using that in marketing. The problem I have with marketing in general when you tie it to trailers and commercials and things, is that only the surface clichés of the vampire genre are gonna come across, when the movie, like the book, is much richer and more complex than any commercial or any trailer could be.
Read the FULL interview from Movies.com HERE
