Daybreakers
Short description
Daybreakers takes place in 2019, a decade after a disease swept the world and turned most people into vampires. Humans have become a scarce resource, hunted or farmed for their blood, while the vampire population faces its own crisis as supplies run low. Edward Dalton, a vampire haematologist, refuses to drink human blood and works on a synthetic substitute that could feed his kind without wiping out the remaining humans. His position changes when he meets a group of survivors who believe the condition can be reversed, an idea not everyone in power welcomes.
The film is written and directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, the first feature in their directing filmography, followed by Predestination, Jigsaw, Winchester and Fall 2: Deadpoint. Ethan Hawke plays Dalton, with Sam Neill as Charles Bromley, Willem Dafoe as Lionel Cormac, Claudia Karvan as Audrey Bennett, Isabel Lucas as Alison Bromley and Vince Colosimo as Christopher Caruso. It is an Australian and American production with a budget of about 20 million US dollars, and it took roughly 51 million US dollars worldwide.
Audience scores sit close to the critics' rating of 6.2/10 from 156 reviews, with 6.4/10 on IMDb from around 141,000 votes and 6.3/10 on TMDB from a smaller base of 2,259 votes. The spread suggests a film that drew a modest but broadly consistent response rather than a sharply divided one.
What's left behind the scenes
- Edward Dalton's car is a Chrysler 300C.
- The screenplay was purchased by Lionsgate in November 2004. Filming took place from July to September 2007 in Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia).
- Twelve actors auditioned for the role of Edward Dalton, including Jason Cope, Christopher Eccleston, and Christoph Waltz.
- At the 76th second, in the scene where the girl is writing in her diary, a calendar is shown. It indicates that April 1, 2019, is a Tuesday, but in reality, that date fell on a Monday.
- According to Sam Neil, he was convinced to participate in the filming of this movie by an episode in the script where vampire businessmen buy coffee diluted with human blood before starting their workday.
- Shortly before the start of filming, Ethan Hawke quit smoking. When smoking was required by the plot, he smoked electronic cigarettes on camera.
- Vampire riots, with participants protesting the lack of blood, were not filmed specifically for the movie. The film shows real-life unrest and the dispersal of protesters by law enforcement.
- The vampire attack on a human convoy in the desert was initially planned to be filmed differently. It was supposed to be a vampire siege of a human shelter (a Gothic mansion) in snowy mountains. Changes were made to the script due to budget limitations.
- The scene where Claudia Karvan's character orders Ethan Hawke's character to drink some blood was not initially in the script. Karvan and Hawke came up with it during one of the rehearsals.
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