I want to thank Melissa George Fans over at Livejournal for the heads up. As mentioned there, nobody’s sure whether or not this is actually legit, but it sounds like it. Hopefully Triangle does get released then because I’m so excited to see it! I’ll see if I can find some more information about this.

The title says it all! lol. Melissa is up for Best International Actress at the Australian Film Institute Awards that are coming up this December! Congratulations, Melissa! See who she’s up against:

• Rose Byrne. Damages. Foxtel
• Toni Collette. United States of Tara. ABC1
• Melissa George. In Treatment. Foxtel
• Mia Wasikowska. In Treatment. Foxtel

Rest of the nominees can be viewed here.

I just added a couple HQ photos of Melissa at the Film4 FrightFest Opening Film of her new movie Triangle. These are from August, but I’m just now getting hold of them. Enjoy!

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Public Appearances > Events from 2009 > Film4 FrightFest Opening Film Triangle

It’s been confirmed. Melissa will not be returning her role as Stella in the sequel to 30 Days of Night.

Moments after the report came in that actors Mia Kirshner, Diora Baird, Rhys Coiro, Harold Perrineau, and Monique Ganderton had joined the cast of 30 Days of Night: Dark Days (the follow-up to 2007′s vamp thrill-ride 30 Days of Night), the series’ writer and producer Steve Niles called this scribe to confirm the news (we held off on running this until Sony signed off) and also to provide us details on the flick’s plot, shooting schedule, and more.

[Click here for the full casting breakdown, which came courtesy of Bloody Disgusting.]

“I actually co-wrote the sequel with Ben (Ketai),” said Niles, correcting the leak, “who’s also directing.”

The flick, which is slated as a direct-to-DVD release and began shooting in Vancouver, Canada (standing in for Los Angeles) on October 20th, is the cinematic incarnation of the comic Dark Days, said Niles, and is being set up as Part Two of a 30 Days of Night trilogy.

“If we make a good enough movie, we’ll get some theatrical screens. said Niles of the film’s planned eventual distribution through Sony. “If not, the worse that can happen is that we wind up direct to DVD, which to tell you the truth, I’m liking more and more as a medium. Case in point: Trick ‘r Treat. Everyone looked at it (going DTV) as a bad thing, and it wound up breaking sales records. So I’m hoping people will see the positive side of that. For Ben and I as creators, we are looking at being able to do the whole trilogy, and the chances of us making it if it was to be a big-budget, studio release are probably zero, so I’m very happy, and for me, it’s also going to allow us to be more accurate to the comic than the first film was.”

“We had to make certain adjustments,” said Niles in regards to the source material. “There’s the comic reality and the movie reality, but I think we found a balance. There are a few new set-pieces and a few new locations, but all of the characters (from the comic) are there, and I think people will be really into it.”

As for the plot, “If people remember the comic at all, Stella’s original plan was to expose the vampires (for what they were) because the one thing she discovered from having her town destroyed was that basically what vampires fear most in the world is having their existence proven. Just like in the comic, her initial idea is to tell the world the truth of what happened in Barrow, Alaska, because it was covered up as an ‘accident’ like every other vampire attack. So that’s her first mission, but then she realizes that hunting them might be more fun and more effective.”

As for who’s taken over the role of “Stella” (originally portrayed by actress Melissa George), Niles told us that Kiele Sanchez (she who starred in last year’s Jeff Buhler-helmed horror feature Insanitarium) will fill her shoes. “She’s been in ‘Lost’, and she’s really good,” said Niles. “We are really happy about the casting. We are casting slightly younger on this because of our hopes of moving right into (film versions) of the other books. There’s what, ten (30 Days) graphic novels now? So we are hoping at the very least that we can tell the main trilogy, which is 30 Days of Night, Dark Days, and Return to Barrow.”

The original 30 Days of Night was heralded as a return to form for the vampire genre in that it was a vamp flick which made vampires scary again. This scribe queried Niles in regard to whether he intended to keep this feel with Dark Days.

“I came at this from a total fan perspective,” said the co-writer, “in that I love vampires – Nosferatu and Dracula and the Christopher Lee films and all of them – but as time moved on, they got less and less scary and more and more romantic, and to the point where people wanted to be vampires. I just wanted to make them scary again and make them not romantic. These vampires don’t want to seduce anybody.”

Dread was happy to hear this, particularly given the current and consistent clamor over the rather saccharine Twilight series. Given such, we did ask Niles if his sequel is intended in any way to appeal to the Twilight demographic.

“Well, in the comic, we do get exposed to our first sympathetic vampire – a character who has fought his hunger and who has found other ways (of feeding) other than killing people to survive. We also bring in a new character we are really excited about: Agent Norris. He’s the equivalent of the ‘Ben Foster’ character (from the original). He’s the human spy, and he’s this really despicable FBI agent who wants to become a vampire and who abuses the power of being a law enforcement officer on top of wanting to be a vampire. He can do a lot of damage.”

Dread Central is expected on-set soon, so stay tuned.

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Melissa George has revealed she cried all day to make her eyes blood-shot for her new movie.

The former Home And Away actress plays Jess in psychological thriller Triangle, who suffers a mental breakdown after being stranded on board a ship in a storm, and she needed to look tired and drained for the part.

The 33-year-old said: “I wanted to make my eyes look really demented, like she’s been living for like 200 years without sleeping and I think I achieved that – it was very hard, but there was something freeing about playing the role.”

The actress went on: “I was sitting in that film thinking I haven’t seen an actress doing a part like that or had that much screen time in a long time, so it was great to do that kind of film.”

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30 Days of Night: Dark Days is starting production in Vancouver this month, but its studio is yet to confirm whether Melissa George, who played heroine Stella in 30 Days of Night, will return. Steve Niles, the comic book’s creator and co-screenwriter of Dark Days, told MTV he wants George to return for the sequel.

“What we want to do is try to get Melissa back. Basically, she’s the only survivor of the first movie, really, so there weren’t that many people to bring back because they got killed. So we’re going to try that, and all the other casting is new characters. We’re actively doing that right now.”

Stella will have a larger role in Dark Days, which sees her traveling to Los Angeles to join a group of vampire hunters and seek revenge on those who attached her Alaskan home town and killed her husband (Josh Hartnett).

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LIFE has certainly got rosier for actress Melissa George since she has packed her bags and said her goodbyes to Summer Bay.

It’s been more than 13 years since the former Home And Away star swapped her native Australian shores for the bright lights of Los Angeles, like fellow soap actors Isla Fisher and Guy Pearce.

Since then, the 33-year-old has won a Golden Globe nomination and become a respected member of the Hollywood community, winning roles in Friends and Grey’s Anatomy among others.

Melissa counts the Best Supporting Actress nomination by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association earlier this year, for her role in award-winning drama In Treatment, as her proudest achievement to date – even though she walked away empty-handed.

She got the news four hours after she did her last scenes on hospital drama Grey’s Anatomy.

“It was the last thing I thought would ever happen – almost like a joke really. I didn’t even know I was up for one,” she admits, with a smile, as we meet in a luxurious hotel suite in London.

Flicking her blonde hair, she continues: “It’s just nice to hear from people you admire, like Shirley MacLaine and Al Pacino saying, ‘I’ve watched In Treatment over and over again’. Al Gore and former President Bill Clinton too.

“I don’t think for a career it really means much, except you’re getting accolades from people and maybe you’ll work with better directors and get better quality work, but to me it means more than anything – more than what it brings, it means all that hard work was recognised.”

Melissa certainly had her pick of the plummest parts, and has worked with heart-throbs like Josh Hartnett, Clive Owen and Michael Sheen, yet the actress turned her back on big-budget productions for her next project – choosing Triangle which doesn’t star any A-listers.

“It’s a very cerebral psychological drama about a woman called Jess who you think is a woman who boarded a boat and then an ocean liner, who starts to have cases of deja vu,” she explains.

“Throughout the course of the film, more Jesses appear but it could be a case of Groundhog Day, or a case of amnesia. What I love about it is you think you’re watching a certain type of film and then 20 minutes in, it’s not.”

Shooting the nail-biting thriller took its toll on Melissa, who cried all day to make her eyes blood-shot and tired.

“I wanted to make my eyes look really demented, like she’s been living for like 200 years without sleeping and I think I achieved that,” she recalls. “I was sitting in that film thinking I haven’t seen an actress doing a part like that or had that much screen time in a long time, so it was great to do that kind of film.”

Having starred in fright films like 30 Days Of Night, The Amityville Horror and Turistas, Melissa now prefers to distance herself from the horror tag.

“Over the course of a career, I think you will double up on many genres from drama to thriller to whatever.

I like them all. My TV work from In Treatment was definitely a drama, not a thriller, and Grey’s Anatomy was fun, so I like to break it up.”

Work aside, Melissa has been happily married to Chilean film director Claudio Dabed, whom she met in Bali, for more than nine years, and is stepmother to his 15-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. The family split their time between Los Angeles, NewYork and Buenos Aires.

She admits that motherhood has yet to knock on her door.

“I am still young but I’ve got to have kids soon, big time. I am renovating my apartment in New York right now and I really want to raise my children in Manhattan and Buenos Aires so I am thinking that I am going to get pregnant next year,” she hints.

Her dream is to do a period piece, and act under the direction of acclaimed film-makers Pedro Almodovar and Woody Allen. Despite admitting to being fiercely ambitious, Melissa stays grounded.

“I never show it, never,” she says. “I have these lists that I write at night: what to achieve the next day, and it has to be done.

“And at Christmas, before New Year’s Eve, I write what I want to achieve the next year and then I put it in an envelope and don’t open it until the following year.

Then I look at what I have done. Have I done what I said? I first did that two years ago and now it’s my ritual.”

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Chris Smith’s Bermuda Triangle thriller, aptly titled Triangle, coasts into England on October 16. And courtesy of Empire magazine, here’s a clip featuring star Melissa George on a cruise ship being stalked by a masked person with a gun. (Click on the title above for a full synopsis.)

Smith previously directed Severance and Creep; he’s currently at work on Black Death. Triangle should be hitting our shores early next year.

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Up-and-coming British writer director Christopher Smith made a cheapo horror debut with Creep, followed by a cheeky black comedy in Severance. Now he moves in the direction of psychological thriller, with mixed results.

He certainly succeeds in creating an atmosphere of mounting horror and psychological breakdown, as a stressed- out single mum (Melissa George) goes on the sailing trip to hell, encountering a storm that capsizes her boat and a sinister cruise ship where the crew has disappeared, all the clocks have stopped and a mysterious sniper is on the

The final scenes of the movie are nonsensical and pretentious.

George gives a strong performance, but the script never gives her character sufficient depth – all we really know about her is that she loves her very autistic son.

I think Smith is trying to liken the bringing up of a disabled child to the unending labours of Sisyphus, but he doesn’t bring off his central metaphor.

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The latest offering from director Christopher Smith (Creep, Severance) is a twisty-turny time bending horror set aboard a mysterious cruise liner. Melissa George stars as Jess, a young woman with an autistic son who meets up with her friend Greg to go sailing with a party on his boat. Things take a turn for the worse when an electrical storm hits their ship, smashing it to tinder and leaving them stranded. When a ghostly cruise liner shows up, the group board the apparently deserted vessel, and that’s when things start to get interesting…

What follows is a convoluted series of events that touch on familiar facets of time travel theory and mythology. As in the recent Spanish thriller Timecrimes we are witness to key events several different times, from a slightly different perspective each time, as our heroine tries vainly to alter the tragic events that befall her and her friends.

Having premiered at Frightfest this year, with Timecrimes taking its bow the year before, Smith was at pains to point out that he had come up with the idea four years previously. However Triangle does feel like something of a diet version and shares too much with its Spanish cousin (even down to the “villain” wearing a sack to disguise their features). The inevitable comparisons are a shame because otherwise the film is trying hard to be original and distinctive.

Melissa George has always been an actress I’ve enjoyed watching, and she is very good in this, taking on multiple versions of her character, each slightly different as they’re weighed down by knowledge of what’s to come, and what’s happening. I was particularly impressed with the scenes bookending the movie that take place in her quiet, suburban home. It’s here, as a violent, abusive mother, that she displays the best acting I’ve seen from her, and indeed in any recent horror, with the possible exception of Martyrs.

Triangle contains some great imagery (one scene in particular will stay with you for a while), and benefits from effective sound design, not least the unusually impactful gunshots, all of which adds to the film’s few geniunely scary moments – the woman next to me jumped out of her skin a couple of times.

Overall, Triangle feels like it falls under the weight of its own logic, and at times the timeline and concurrent events don’t make all that much sense. This isn’t for the Final Destination crowd, it’s more interesting and intelligent than that, but it doesn’t quite fulfil its ambition.

Our Rating: B-

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