Discuss the upcoming book based movie here.


Martinez Tastes Blood and Chocolate

Olivier Martinez (Taking Lives) has signed on to star in the upcoming werewolf film Blood and Chocolate, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Based on the Curtis Klause novel about a female teenage werewolf, Blood and Chocolate was adapted for the screen by Ehren Kruger (The Ring, The Skeleton Key).
Agnes Bruckner (24, The Woods) will star as the werewolf, who must choose between her love for a human and her pack family after her relationship with a visitor threatens to expose her secret, the trade paper reported. German filmmaker Katja von Garnier will direct. Lakeshore is co-financing and co-producing the picture, which will likely be released through Sony, the trade paper reported.



I read this book back in 10th grade and it ROCKED!!!!! I did a book report on it and, with help from my folks, made a kick ass version of the cover using Clip Art & the cover of a favorite book of mine at the time. I got an A on it.

EXCL: Blood & Chocolate's Agnes Bruckner
21-year-old Agnes Bruckner has found a nice niche for herself in the 
four years since appearing in Karen Moncrieff's indieBlue Car, and 
her latest adventure is an action-thriller love story based on 
Annette Curtis Klause's young adults' novel Blood and Chocolate. In 
it, Bruckner plays a young orphaned woman living in Romania as part 
of a den of "loup garou" (more commonly known as werewolves), 
something that poses a problem when she falls for a human artist, 
played by Hugh Dancy. ComingSoon.net had a chance to talk with this 
talented actress about her latest movie. (Though we hadn't had a 
chance to see the movie at the time we spoke with her.)

ComingSoon.net: So this movie is based on a book, right?
Agnes Bruckner: Yeah, it's based on a book, but I think it's a 
little different from the book in many ways. I actually myself 
haven't read the book, just because I knew it was going to be 
different, and I went as far as reading the script and doing 
research on wolves and stuff, but I never actually read the book 
myself.

CS: How'd you first find out about the movie, and why did you want 
to do it?
Bruckner: I first read the script and just was really intrigued as 
far as the whole werewolf story. I've loved werewolves and vampires 
ever since I was little, so that was definitely the first thing that 
drew me to it. I don't know, just the character and how strong she 
is, and what a cool, kick-ass role it was, but then also, everybody 
getting involved. The director Katja von Garnier and working with 
people from Lakeshore [the production team], Olivier Martinez, Hugh 
Dancy, amazing actors. So everything just kind of one-by-one made me 
want to do it more and more. 

CS: Were you involved fairly early on in terms of the casting, even 
before the two male leads?
Bruckner: I believe I came on after Olivier Martinez, I'm pretty 
sure. I knew it was all kind of cast at the same time, so I think we 
were all involved around the same time. 

CS: How long ago did you shoot the movie and where? It certainly has 
a very distinct look.
Bruckner: We shot it in Bucharest, Romania, which was an awesome 
setting just because it's such a perfect… as far as the atmosphere 
goes… how like the city is so dark and kind of dirty, but at the 
same time, so beautiful and the buildings are so original and old. 
It was such a cool atmosphere to work in, but yeah, that's where we 
shot it. It was a pretty cool to work in. 

CS: In the movie, you're actually one of the werewolves?
Bruckner: Yes, my character is Vivian, she's a werewolf and Olivier 
Martinez is the leader of the pack who plays Gabriel. Hugh Dancy is 
not a werewolf, he's just a regular human, and he comes into her 
life and they fall in love with each other. I think it's just the 
struggle of having to deal with the werewolf side of her and also 
dealing with human side of her and how she wants to be a part of 
both, but how do you do that and how do you work it out with someone 
who's not a werewolf. Gabriel, he wants to destroy all humans. He 
thinks they're disgusting and doesn't want anything to do with them. 
I'm also next in line as far as the legend of the werewolves go, I'm 
next in line to be Gabriel's mate. I don't want to be a part of 
that, so it's a bunch of different things going on. At the end of 
the day, it's kind of a dark love story and then also throw in 
action and turning into a wolf and everything else. 

CS: What's involved with you turning into a wolf?
Bruckner: The cool thing about this is that we don't actually turn 
into like half-werewolf- half-human, we turn into full-on wolves, so 
they actually brought real live wolves that were with us pretty much 
the entire time we were shooting, and shot them separately and 
sometimes together. As far as us turning into them, we had 
harnesses, and we did a lot of stuntwork for it, but it was mostly 
CGI. We wore contacts, which were really cool, to kind of help the 
CGI turn us into the wolves, but other than that, we didn't have to 
put on fake hair or fangs or anything like that. 

CS: Did you shoot any scenes with the wolves yourself?
Bruckner: Yeah, there were a couple scenes where I'm in the same 
space as the wolves and it was really amazing. They were real-life 
wolves. They were trained in a certain way, but they're such wild 
animals, you can't train them, and they were just the most amazing 
creatures. During the rehearsals, we got to spend time with them and 
see they had like an Alpha Male and an Alpha Female and a bunch of 
puppies

and teenage ones and see how they interact with each other 
and see how they walk and the way they look and communicate with 
each other, which was really, really amazing. It was so cool, and I 
think it was really helpful when we were working with them. It was 
really an amazing experience. 

CS: And what about action? Is there a lot of it and did you get into 
any of it?
Bruckner: Yeah, there was quite a few scenes where I had to kick a 
little butt, which was a lot of fun. Hard work, but at the same 
time, it was so much fun, you kind of put it past you, but it was 
definitely a cool experience to do that. When I saw myself on screen 
doing it, I was like "Whoa, I kind of look cool!" Yeah, there's 
definitely scenes like that, and playing with guns and all that kind 
of stuff I thought was so interesting and so much fun to play. 

CS: Katka kind of has an indie background, so was she comfortable 
doing the action scenes?
Bruckner: Oh, definitely. She's such an amazing person. Being a 
director, just to begin with, is just, I think, one of the hardest 
jobs just because you have to work in every way. You have to work 
with actors, you have to be involved with the producers and the 
writing and the action. Every department comes to you, you have to 
deal with everything. I think she handled it so well, and she made 
very good choices and decisions, and she was really a pleasant 
person to work with as far as a director to an actor. She helped me 
through a lot of things, and she was a pleasure to work with. She 
really was very, very smart, and she knows how to handle her stuff, 
definitely. 

CS: And she did okay dealing with the burly 300-lb men on the 
Romanian crew?
Bruckner: (laughs) Yeah, I think we all kind of got along, and we 
all really meshed well as far as the crew and the director and 
actors, and we all got along. It was really a pleasure to work on 
this movie, and I think it turned out really good, and I'm very 
proud of the director and everyone else involved. I think it's a 
really cool movie. 

CS: Were the two of you able to bring any of your indie 
sensibilities to the movie or did it feel more like a studio film?
Bruckner: You don't really feel that, as far as I'm concerned. It's 
the same job for me. Whether it's an independent movie or not, I put 
just as much into a bigger production movie and vice versa. As far 
as the trailer goes, and actually seeing the movie, it definitely 
looks like a bigger movie, more money and everything else, but at 
the same time, we put just as much work and our hearts into it as we 
would an independent film. 

CS: Of course, Lakeshore are the producers who did "Underworld, " so 
is the feel of this movie very different, besides of course, the 
absence of vampires?
Bruckner: Yeah, there's no vampires. I think it has a lot of 
similarities, but at the same time, it is different in its own way, 
just because the story is different and it has werewolves and 
everything else. I think Lakeshore is really good at putting a movie 
like this out there and making these movies happen. Lakeshore, those 
guys are just so awesome. 

CS: Where does the chocolate come into play? I must have missed it 
in the trailer.
Bruckner: To be honest, I think a lot of people are talking about 
the title and how it's weird and everything else, but to me, it kind 
of represents both feelings or personalities of my character, which 
is blood being the werewolf side and then chocolate being the female 
side and how they go together and how they don't and her dealing 
with it. That's how I looked at the title. 

CS: So there wasn't actually chocolate on the set or anything? 
Bruckner: Well, I do work at a chocolate shop, if that has anything 
to do with it. (laughs)

CS: This movie is rated PG-13, so I assume there won't be a lot of 
people being mangled or lots of the gore people might be used to in 
werewolf films.
Bruckner: It doesn't show a lot of gore and blood and all that 
stuff, but there's definitely a lot of action and fighting sequences 
and stuff like that. But I don't think the base of the movie is 
based on the gore of it, but it is an action-thriller movie, so it 
does have that sense to it as well.

CS: You said that you liked werewolves, but do you prefer less gory 
movies yourself?
Bruckner: No, I've worked on both, I've seen both, I like both. I 
like gory stuff; I also like things that are more like thrillers 
that you have to figure out in your head, but also being a horror 
movie. I think this has both involved in it. 

CS: I understand that there's a lot of romance in "Blood and 
Chocolate", but do you think there'll be enough action for guys to 
enjoy it?
Bruckner: I think it's a

fairly decent mix of the two, because it's 
not a love story in a gushy way, I think it's more of a darker love 
story. When I saw it, you don't think of it and go "Awwww, they're 
in love…" It's more of they're in love but they also have to deal 
with Gabriel and her being a werewolf, and maybe even her turning 
against him, so it's definitely not a gushy love story. There is a 
lot of depth behind it and a lot of action, so I think it's a really 
good mix of both.

CS: As far as the other movies you've done, I know you put a lot of 
work into them, but is it disappointing when a movie doesn't get 
released or delayed like "The Woods"?
Bruckner: Yeah, it just came out on DVD not too long ago. Yeah, I 
don't know. I just kind of involve myself with projects that I like 
and that I fall in love with and I want to work on, then whatever 
happens as far as it coming out, we have no say in. That's not a 
part of my job. My job is to just do good movies and to be good in 
them, pretty much. (laughs) But as far as it being delayed and not 
coming out in theatres--as far as "The Woods" goes--I thought it was 
a really cool movie and it's very different, and [director] Lucky 
McKee who I'm also a big fan of, I thought did an amazing job, and 
Patricia Clarkson was really good in it. But for whatever reason, it 
didn't come out, only straight to DVD, I think that's fine, too. 

CS: It probably just ran into problems because of the whole MGM buy-
out…though of course, "Blood and Chocolate" is being released by the 
new MGM.
Bruckner: I honestly have no idea about that kind of stuff, but it's 
out there and some people will see it. (laughs)

CS: What else have you been working on that might come out soon?
Bruckner: Yeah, I have a movie I just finished shooting about two 
weeks ago called "Last Resort"--that' s what it's called right now, 
but the title might change or it might stay the same. So yeah, 
that's coming out in August I think or around that time. It's 
directed by Chris Moore ["Project Greenlight" producer] and it's his 
directorial debut, and it's a really cool thriller movie. It's about 
seven characters, they all go away to this vacation house after 
school, and there's a killer that's kind of watching them and gives 
them this whole thing about there can only be one person living by 
morning, whether they kill each other or kill themselves, there can 
only be one person living, so it's kind of like having that 
situation and how you deal with it, because I think it was really 
cool because in a weird way, if it actually happened, what would you 
do in that situation when you're with your closest friends. It's a 
really cool movie. 

CS: It's been a few years since you did "Blue Car" which was a 
breakout movie for you. That movie's director, Karen Moncrieff, just 
came out with her second movie, "The Dead Girl." Have you had a 
chance to see it yet?
Bruckner: Is it out yet? Oh, wow, that's awesome. I'll definitely go 
see that.

CS: Have the two of you kept in touch since you each played such a 
big part in each other's early careers?
Bruckner: No, we've definitely seen each other maybe a couple times, 
but I know she's been extremely busy and she just had a baby not too 
long ago with everything else. I wish her all the luck. I think 
she's such an amazing person, and I hope to work with her again.


Blood Star Was Wolflike
Katja von Garnier, director of the werewolf romance Blood and Chocolate, told SCI FI Wire that she cast lead actor Olivier Martinez because he had a lupine quality in his auditions. "Olivier walks and looks like a wolf," she said in an interview. "He has the look in his eyes. He has a very strong spirit, and he brought a lot of that spirit to the film. His character is hunted by men, and he totally got that."
Martinez portrays the leader of a werewolf pack in Romania. But when told of von Garnier's comments, he demurred. "I take that as a compliment," he said. "Honestly, it's difficult for me to picture it myself. The only way that I can see myself is through the eyes of others, as an actor especially, but Katja said that and she told me that [on the set]. I cannot explain it."
To make the movie, von Garnier used 25 real wolves. Martinez related immediately, he said. "I have a natural feeling for wolves," he said, adding: "We are part animal. We're bred on this Earth, and we decided because we're human beings and we have a great capacity for intelligence and adaptation with civilization to put ourselves above animals. Now when we say that someone is an animal that's very bad. That's quite contrary when you see that we're the baddest by far, but we don't picture ourselves like that, because we have a superiority complex with our breed, and I try to work with humility. So I don't think that I'm more important than a wolf on the Earth. We are all important."
Blood and Chocolate is based on the best-selling novel by Annette Curtis Klause and also stars Agnes Bruckner, Hugh Dancy, Bryan Dick and Tom Harper. It opened Jan. 26.

Blood Saved The Wolves
Real Romanian wolves were used in the filming of the werewolf romance film Blood and Chocolate, and after production, many of the cast and crew received "adoption papers" for the wild animals, who were subsequently moved to a nature reserve in Wyoming. "I got this gift certificate that I adopted a wolf at the end of the shoot, but there's no continuing communication with it," star Agnes Bruckner (Venom) said with a laugh. She plays a reluctant werewolf who falls in love with a human (King Arthur's Hugh Dancy). "I hope my wolf is all right."
The producers of the movie, which was shot in Romania, sponsored a wolf adoption for each of the cast and major crew members. The animals are not protected under Romanian law.
Olivier Martinez plays the leader of a werewolf pack, to whom Bruckner's character is betrothed. Martinez said in an interview that his adoption certificate was one of the more unusual presents he has ever received after wrapping a film. "It was a wolf adopted in my name, so there is a wolf running around in America called 'Olivier,'" Martinez said. "In Romania, the wolves are not protected. They don't care about them, because there are plenty. In America you have to take care of them, because they will go extinct."
Blood and Chocolate is based on the best-selling novel by Annette Curtis Klause and is directed by Katja von Garnier. The film also stars Bryan Dick and Tom Harper. It opened Jan. 26.

Blood's Wolves Are Smooth
Katja von Garnier, director of the werewolf romance Blood and Chocolate, told SCI FI Wire that she agreed to helm the movie only if it featured a smooth werewolf transformation. "It was so important to me that the transformation look smooth and that it seem beautiful and natural," said von Garnier, a German director who previously made Bandits. "I also wanted to work with wolves; that was a motivating factor."
Blood and Chocolate, based on the best-selling novel by Annette Curtis Klause, centers on a clan of werewolves that meets once a month to hunt a human and run free in the woods. As the people run, they leap into the air and transform into large wolves. Unlike previous films in the genre, the movie doesn't require its actors to wear prosthetics or fake hair during the transformation scenes, nor are the werewolves man-beast hybrids. "I didn't want that," the director said. "I wanted this to be a werewolf version of Romeo and Juliet."
Von Garnier worked closely with her cinematographer and art director, as well as a Romanian wolf wrangler, to get the scenes right while filming in Bucharest, Romania. Stunt coordinators Gary Powell and Franklin Henson used the French discipline of parkour, or "free running"—most recently on view in the James Bond movie Casino Royale—as part of the transformation scenes.
"We had a wolf camp [for the actors] to learn how to run and jump," von Garnier said. "The actors also had to feel comfortable with the wolves." Real wolves were used on the set, but always kept at a distance.
Blood and Chocolate stars Olivier Martinez, Agnes Bruckner, Hugh Dancy, Bryan Dick and Tom Harper and opened Jan. 26.

Blood Used Real Wolves
Blood and Chocolate, the werewolf romance film, made use of real wolves while shooting in Romania, and the authenticity made for some interesting interactions with the cast and crew. "We had a 'wolf camp,' where we actually got to spend time with real wolves," director Katja von Garnier said in an interview. "The wolves had to get used to us, too."
All told, the film made use of 25 wolves, who were wrangled by Hungarian wolf trainer Zoltan Horkai. "Zoltan had a special relationship with them," said star Agnes Bruckner, who plays one of the werewolves. "He would start howling, and they would all start howling with him. They were wild animals, and it was very bizarre to have them around, but very cool."
Most of the cast kept their distance, Bruckner added. "I probably could have pet one, but I didn't," she said.
In wolf camp, the cast learned breathing techniques and received physical and psychological training to get in the mind of a wolf. Hugh Dancy, who plays a human chased by werewolves, rehearsed by standing in front of the lead wolf every day.
Olivier Martinez, who plays the leader of the werewolf pack, said he didn't touch the wolves, but wasn't afraid of them. "No," he said. "They smell your fear, and then you become potential prey."
Martinez added: "They were wild, and we were taught that they were unpredictable, but this was a movie, and we're actors, and it was our job. So everyone was very cautious and proficient. ... I [had] a thing for wolves before even doing the movie. They're not like dogs. You don't pet wolves too much. ... It's about respect and no fear and behavior. You cannot mess with them, and that's what I like."
Blood and Chocolate is based on the best-selling novel by Annette Curtis Klause. It also stars Bryan Dick and Tom Harper. The film is now in theaters.