Angelinos know that there are innumerable benefits to living in the City of Angels, from consistently perfect weather to excellent food to famous beaches, but a less-remarked-upon perk of residing here is the preponderance of unique screenings of films both new and familiar. This Saturday, IAR Managing Editor and all-around swell guy Jami Philbrick hosts a special screening of Transit at the Chinese.

Transit – starring Jim Caviezel, Diora Baird, Harold Perrineau, Elisabeth Röhm, James Frain, and Sterling Knight – is the latest release from After Dark Action, the subset of After Dark Films devoted to creating original, unabashed action thrillers.

The film’s theatrical release is scheduled for this Friday, May 11th. The special screening takes place at 7:50 pm, where Jami Philbrick will introduce the feature, and following the show, he’ll moderate a Q&A session with director Antonio Negret, as well as stars Diora Baird and Elisabeth Röhm. While Philbrick will discuss the film with those esteemed guests, attendees will also have the opportunity to ask the director and stars their own questions.

You can purchase tickets at Movetickets.com by clicking right here.

Source: I Am Rogue (thanks to Diora for the link)

I have updated the gallery with screencaps from the 30 Days of Night: Dark Days and Night of the Demons trailers. Check out the new, kick ass Night of the Demons trailer at Bloody Disgusting. A few words from Diora regarding the trailer:

Due to some of your comments, let me make this clear. In the trailer for, well, lets just call it ‘Film by idiot f*ck heads’……

…I am NOT naked. That is NOT me. Nor do I get naked in the movie. What you see is just a prosthetic piece. In the movie, that is obvious.

And there you have it!

Speaking of the movie, Night of the Demons New York premiere screening will take place Friday, October 15, 2010 at 11:30pm @ Cinema Village, New York.

Diora Baird was drawn to the film because these were “vampires minus the glitter. These vampires are not sexy or hot. You see these vampires you want to run.”

Here’s a report of the 30 Days of Night: Dark Days panel at Comic Con last week, courtesy of ShockTillYouDrop.com. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any videos or all that many photos from the event but we’ll continue to keep our eyes peeled!

I’m a bit late to the panel as I had to come across SDCC to get here. Much of the cast minus Mia Kirshner and Harold Perrineau are on the panel along with the writer/director Ben Ketal and writer Steve Niles.

Luckily, I didn’t miss much. They show the trailer to Dark Days just as I get in and it looks pretty cool. Lots of vampires. Lots of big, tough characters and so on. How well it will carry to entire film is another story. Overall not too shabby.

They then take Facebook questions? What the hell? The room is standing room only, although there are plenty of seats, and you are taking Facebook questions?

Someone on Facebook asks about the language of the vampires and the creators call it an ancient tongue that has been crafted throughout the centuries.

The host asks for someone on the panel to make the scream of the vampires and they all scoff at the idea saying they’d pass out.

Kiele Sanchez is in this film taking over as Stella. Anyone remember her as Nikki from Lost? Yeah, worst character ever.

Luckily, she redeemed herself in A Perfect Getaway and looks to continue to make amends with this film.

They try and show a clip from the film but the sound is FUBARed so they try again. And again. No luck. And again. No luck. Pausing to figure it out the crew and cast are not happy.

They take questions in the meantime and someone asks when part three will come out. They say it will depend on the fan response to part two. But they have plenty of material with the graphic novels for a part three so if it happens they won’t have trouble finding material.

Someone asks about the difference between this film and the original and the response is this is more of an action horror film rather than the original which was more visceral and confined. Interesting, as they told me earlier this was about scary vampires not action horror. But we’ll see what happens.

Sanchez says she almost got the character of Stella the first time around so she read the graphic novel already. She says she has many friends that are huge fans of the graphic novel and they told her “not to ‘f’ it up.”

Diora Baird was drawn to the film because these were “vampires minus the glitter. These vampires are not sexy or hot. You see these vampires you want to run.”

They try the clip again and it works … sorta. Good enough for government work. The scene is dark, wicked dark with only a handful of glowlights and weapons fire for any light. Lots of gunfire. I keep expecting Sly Stallone to come out. The compared it to Aliens earlier and I can see it now, nearly right down to the soundtrack. Copyright infringement? Anyway, it is a pretty cool scene and I’m a bit more hopeful for the film.

Some dude asks about if Sanchez or Baird feel as if they have been objectified in horror films. Both say not in this film, but Baird felt a bit in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Baird actually goes on to say that chicks are kick ass in this film and she wants to do it again.

Sanchez said that the actors that were nameless vampires seemed to be almost too into the part and the rest of the cast kept their distance. They seemed to take it very seriously and when the makeup came on, they became a different person. Baird and Sanchez both said they had to warn a female vampire that they were acting and that she didn’t need to hurt them. Baird went so far as to tell the chick “this is not real.” Funny stuff.

How do they cast their vampires? Ketai says they actually had people audition to be a vampire for the larger roles. For the smaller roles, the extras casting director brought 100 people and lined them up and each one tried to come up and scare him. The best then got a role in the film as a nameless, extra vampire.

Which does Sanchez like better – film or TV? She likes both (shocking) and gives her reasons why – TV you get to connect more with a character but with movies you get a finite period and a more gypsy lifestyle that she is also fond of.

An uber Sanchez fan asks for her name card and she gives it to him even though it is misspelled. And that’s how the panel ends.

7:30 P.M.-8:30 P.M.: 30 Days of Night: Dark Days (Room 7AB) – Director/co-screenwriter Ben Ketai, graphic novel creator/co-writer Steve Niles, stars Keile Sanchez, Diora Baird, and Rhys Coiro, and producer J. R. Young are on hand for an exclusive sneak peek, panel, and Q&A session.

I’d like to thank Mikaela for her help with the high quality pics!

More event photos will be up after the holidays. For now, enjoy these!

Night of the Demons was directed by Adam Gierasch, and produced by Seven Arts Pictures, from a script written by Adam Gierasch and Jace Anderson. Night of the Demons is a remake of the cult classic ’80s film.

Night of the Demons stars Monica Keena (Entourage, Freddy vs. Jason, Ripe), Diora Baird (My Best Friend’s Girl, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Wedding Crashers), Edward Furlong (American History X, Pecker, Terminator 2) and Shannon Elizabeth (Thir13en Ghosts, Scary Movie, American Pie). Greg McKay and Michael Arata produced the film.

FILM4 FRIGHTFEST is the UK’s premiere fantasy and horror film festival. Now in its tenth year, each August thousands of horror fans gather in the heart of London’s West End at the legendary Empire Cinema for five days of premieres, previews, personal appearances, signings, and events.

Peter Hoffman, CEO of Seven Arts, commented, “We’re delighted with audience reaction to Night of the Demons and we’re hoping that this will be the beginning of a meaningful relationship between Seven Arts and FILM4 FRIGHTFEST. FILM4 FRIGHTFEST attracts hard core horror fans, who are very sophisticated as well as active on the internet, and their word of mouth reviews and blogs are an important component to financial success.”

Alan Jones, founder and director of FILM4 FRIGHTFEST, stated, Night of the Demons event went exceptionally well. The audience really liked it as all the posts on the forum attest. Literally everyone has said it was a pleasant surprise and great fun to watch with terrific shocks. So I feel we made a great choice. Having the director, Adam Gierasch and co-writer Jace Anderson, as well as cast members Bobbi Sue, John and Joe in attendance added enormously to the special feel of the world premiere. Movies like Night of the Demons are what FrightFest is all about and yet again Seven Arts Pictures supplied us with another highlight. The FrightFest team is humbled by your continuing support and long may our relationship prosper.”

About Seven Arts

Seven Arts Pictures plc (“SAP,” “7 Arts” or the “Company”) was founded in 2002 as an independent motion picture production and distribution company engaged in the development, acquisition, financing, production, and licensing of theatrical motion pictures for exhibition in domestic (i.e., the United States and Canada) and foreign theatrical markets, and for subsequent worldwide release in other forms of media, including home video and pay and free television.

Cautionary Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made under the Safe Harbor Provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated.

Source: marketwire.com