In a recent interview, Priest director Scott Stewart (Legion) talked about how he managed to cast some familiar vampires from both True Blood, and the Twilight franchise, while also staying true to the tone and theme of Min-Woo Hyung’s TokyoPop manga.

Stewart said,

“It was funny,actually – when casting ‘Priest’ it was kind of hard to find someone who hasn’t played a vampire before,” he laughed. “There are so many people playing vampires these days. … But I love genre movies and I love to take them very seriously, even when the tone is meant to be fun. That means trying to cast them with really great actors.”

The familiar vampires of which he’s speaking, are True Blood star Stephen Moyer and Twilight star Cam Gigandet, who play a pair of humans (not vampires) in Stewart’s Priest adaptation.

Stewart said,

“Cam Gigandet is great, This is really the role for him. … You’ve got some James Dean and Brad Pitt happening with him, and he’s not even trying. It’s pretty awesome to see. We really gave him a look and a character that allowed him to be that. We also gave him some grit and some challenges as a character, and I think some emotional struggle to go through, which was fun.”

As for Moyer, Stewart praise for the actor known to many as brooding vampire Bill Compton on the hit HBO series.

“What a treat, I had never met him before and we had dinner, talked about the part. He just embraced it and took it. … There’s a good reason why every girl I know, when they found out he was going to be in the movie, was like, ‘Can I visit in the days he works?'”

Stewart added,

“It really makes sense that everyone is paying attention to him now, You just see it when you’re working with him. He and Paul [Bettany] play brothers in the movie. The scenes they have together are just great. Paul loved him and I loved him.”

Priest is slated to hit theaters in January, 2011.

 

 

[Source] MTV