Wednesday, August 15, 2007 Lucy Liu to ‘Rise’ from the dead
WHAT would you do if you find yourself waking up in a morgue and discover that you’re no longer among the living? Will you exact revenge and put an end to those who’ve wronged you too? From Sam Raimi, director of the “Spiderman” series and producer of “The Grudge” series; and from the writer of Gothika comes a new supernatural thriller starring Lucy Liu and Golden Globe and Emmy-winning Michael Chiklis--“Rise: Blood Hunter”.
Sadie (Lucy Liu – “Kill Bill”, “Charlie’s Angels” series) is an investigative reporter who has stumbled upon an underground cult that is attracting the young hipsters of Los Angeles. When these kids start disappearing then turning up dead, she wants to understand why. In the midst of her investigation, she herself falls prey to the mastermind behind all the gruesome murders and nothing is the same again. When Sadie awakes in the dark, she discovers she’s not alive, but she’s not dead either. Now, she must feed to quench her thirst and blood is the nourishment she needs. How can she kill innocent people to satisfy her craving?
Detective Rawlins (Michael Chiklis – “The Shield”, “Fantastic Four”) has lost his only daughter to this cult. Distraught over her death, he vows to find her killer and exact his revenge. When Sadie crosses his path, he believes that she is the killer but soon learns she will lead him to those that did their heinous deeds to his only child. He and Sadie are on the same mission—out to kill the same person — so joining forces makes sense even if Sadie is technically as dead as his own daughter. As they go on their hunt, Sadie and Rawlins come to an agreement. Their pact is to kill all members of the cult, in hopes of finding their leader, so that these murders of the innocent will stop.
Writer/Director Sebastian Gutierrez steps behind the camera for a third time with “Rise: Blood Hunter”. His previous films were “Judas Kiss” and HBO’s “She Creature.” A respected Hollywood screenwriter, with such movies as “Gothika,” “The Big Bounce” and the remake of “The Eye” to his credit, he yearned to direct again, so when the opportunity presented itself, he jumped at it.
“This movie came to me because I like vampire movies; I just couldn’t remember the last vampire movie that I really liked. I love the myth of the vampires which exists in every culture, but for me, the moment that there are fangs or garlic, it becomes really campy and no longer scary,” offers Gutierrez. “So the idea was really to do something sort of film noir-like with a female protagonist and introduce the concept of vampires into that. As a result, we have a movie that is basically a thriller about a cult—it happens to be a cult of vampires,” he explains.
Liu immediately agreed to play the lead character of ‘Sadie.’ She admits, “I first read the script at 3 a.m. and so I understood the project from that perspective, what it needed and what the character was about. “
Chiklis remembers, “I really responded to the script, but meeting Sebastian was sort of the nail in the coffin as it were. He struck me as a guy who really loves the cinema and is knowledgeable about it. He really made me feel like he was going to make a very good picture.”
As a non-linear tale, the director promises, “The pace of the movie is very fast-moving—all sorts of things happen. And because it’s out of order, it’s sort of nightmarish. Sadie has these claustrophobic moments that she keeps coming back to and we understand where the story is going, but it doesn’t start at the beginning—it keeps going all over the place.”
Rounding out the cast is Carla Gugino (“Sin City”) and James D’Arcy (“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”). Key cameos include Oscar nominee Robert Forster (“Jackie Brown”), Samaire Armstrong (“Entourage”, “The OC”, “Just My Luck”, “It’s A Boy Girl Thing”), music icon Marilyn Manson and singer/heartthrob Nick Lachey.
The behind-the-scenes team includes two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer John Toll, ASC, who has the honor of being the only cinematographer to win back-to-back Oscars for his work on “Legends of the Fall” and “Braveheart”.
Prepare to see the dead rise to life and exact revenge as “Rise: Blood Hunter” opens on August 15 at your favorite cinemas brought to you by Viva International Pictures. (Press release)
