New Orleans helps 'The Vampire's Assistant' gets its freak on

New Orleans helps 'The Vampire's Assistant' gets its freak on
October 24, 2009
By Mike Scott
NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune

Forget Method acting, forget in-depth role research, forget any of that fancy-dancy stuff they teach you in acting school.

1024 cirque du freak the vampires assistant.JPGJohn C. Reilly, left, and Chris Massiogla in 'Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant.'All Chris Massoglia really needed to get in touch with his freaky side for his lead part in Universal Pictures' fantasy adventure "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" -- which opened Friday (Oct 23) in theaters and marks the 17-year-old's first major-studio role -- was to step off the airplane at Louis Armstrong International Airport.

"The first day we were there was during Mardi Gras, " the Minneapolis native remembered Tuesday morning, calling to discuss the New Orleans-shot film, "so I flew into a world of craziness."

It was in the thick of parade season, just before Fat Tuesday, he said, and the town was in its traditional Carnival-season frenzy. As they drove to the French Quarter apartment in which they would be staying, Massoglia's Midwestern family of six -- his parents, little brother and two kid sisters came along -- found a real-world freak show unfolding outside their car windows.

"I remember getting into the car and we couldn't use certain streets because it was all blocked off, " Massoglia said, laughing. "It took like an hour to go five blocks, but it was fun. . . . I remember we were in the car, and my brother goes, 'Oh, my god! There's a guy peeing on a fire hydrant!'

"Just that whole Mardi Gras experience was pretty crazy."

Welcome to New Orleans, America's very own, flesh-and-blood cirque du freaks.

After the throes of Carnival came and went -- and as the city gave way to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the French Quarter Festival after that -- a number of people associated with the four-month shoot would come to discover that with all its bizarre charms and its well of creative inspiration, the city was an ideal place to shoot such an offbeat fantasy film.

1024 cirque du freak michael cerveris.JPGMichael Cerveris, center, as Mr. Tiny in 'Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant.'

'CIRQUE' SITES

No major New Orleans landmarks crop up in the locally shot fantasy adventure 'Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, ' but eagle-eyed local viewers might recognize some out-of-the-way places. Here's a sampling of some of the film's shooting locations:

* Rosa Park Street: The quiet, tree-lined Uptown street, just off St. Charles Avenue near Loyola and Tulane universities, served as the neighborhood of the film's main character, Darren.
* State Palace Theater: The former Loew's State Theater on Canal Street hosted the film's big finale, a donnybrook between warring vampire factions.
* City Park: Exterior scenes of the Cirque du Freak camp were filmed at a full-size, sideshow-style campground set up near Harrison Avenue.
* Old Winn-Dixie warehouse in Elmwood: The cavernous complex -- which would go on to become the now-defunct Louisiana Film Studios -- was where all interiors shots set at the Cirque campground were shot. Also, a second version of the City Park set was re-created at the warehouse for certain exteriors.
* Central Business District: The fictional "Dix Theater" facade where the movie's characters buy tickets to the Cirque du Freak sideshow was constructed by the film's crew in what actor Michael Cerveris described as a CBD alley.
* Baton Rouge: The movie's cemetery scenes were shot in Louisiana's capital city.

Based on the first three books in Darren Shan's 12-volume children's literature series, director Paul Weitz's movie focuses on two bored teenagers (Massoglia and co-star Josh Hutcherson) who attend a back-alley "freak" show -- the Cirque du Freak -- populated by the likes of a bloodsucking John C. Reilly, an unusually tall Ken Watanabe, a regenerating Jane Krakowski, a Vincent Price-like Willem Dafoe and a bearded Salma Hayek.

Fascinated by what they see, the boys hang around after the show and end up in the dressing room of Reilly's vampire main character. Eventually, and inevitably, they are drawn into the lives of the Cirque's otherworldly characters -- and smack into the middle of a war between rival vampire clans.

There are lessons to be learned along the way for Massoglia's character, but the mostly bloodless "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" is just as much about a vibe -- a fantastical, spider-webby and cartoonishly creepy vibe -- as it is anything else.

While no New Orleans landmarks make their way onto the screen -- the movie is set in an unnamed town -- the city became a part of the film anyway.

"It's not a New Orleans-set movie, " producer Andrew Miano said last year shortly after principal photography ended. "We don't hang out in the French Quarter. There's not a discussion of New Orleans. (But) there's a flavor, I'd say, of the city that runs through."

Actor Michael Cerveris, who dons a fat suit to play the diabolical Mr. Tiny in "The Vampire's Assistant, " is among the cast and crew members who discovered that flavor while in town, and who have found that New Orleans has a way of creeping into one's blood (which, for the record, now runs black and gold for newfound Saints fan Cerveris).

The Tony-winning actor (for "Assassins" in 2004) had been in New Orleans only once before, during a brief visit years ago. Since production on "The Vampire's Assistant" ended, he's found himself drawn back several times, most recently on Monday night to host an advance screening of the film for local cast and crew, followed by a benefit for the Tipitina's Music Foundation.

"The out-of-town cast and crew were soaking up New Orleans culture and the sights and sounds and flavors of the place, and I think it has to affect the character of the movie, " Cerveris said, calling Wednesday morning from New York. "It puts you in a great creative frame of mind when you walk down the street and hear so much great music every place and there's art and just life affecting you all the time. You bring all that with you when you come to work the next day.

"It's just a creative, fertile place, New Orleans, (and) I think it's got to seep into the work that you're doing, especially when you're doing creative work."

1024 cirque du freak salma hayek.JPGSalma Hayek as Madam Truska in 'Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant.'With a project such as "The Vampire's Assistant, " which is build around dark themes, it only bolsters the aesthetic texture.

"People kept saying, 'Oh, you're shooting a vampire movie in New Orleans. Of course, ' " Cerveris said. "But it's even beyond that, it's the whole 'Cirque du Freak' thing, and the kind of bizarre parade of characters and people living on the fringes of society. If there's anywhere those people are going to feel at home, it's in New Orleans."

With nine book left in Shan's 12-volume series, the big unanswered question is whether any sequels would also be shot here. The official line is that any talk of sequels is premature. If enough people go see the movie, which was made for a reported $70 million, then Universal would figure out how to proceed.

If a sequel does happen, however, Miano and Cerveris agreed it would only make sense -- logistically and aesthetically -- for it to shoot here.

"I'm contracted for three (films) if they make them all, and I think most of us (in the cast) probably are, " Cerveris said. "I don't know when they make those decisions and how they do -- but I'm sure the people in 'Lemony Snicket' ('A Series of Unfortunate Events') thought that they were in for a bunch of movies, too, so I'm not counting on anything.

"It would be great if it happens, and it would be especially great if we could talk them into doing them all in New Orleans, because it's one thing to be doing that kind of movie and wearing a fat suit and working from month-to-month when your downtime gets to be in New Orleans. It's a whole other thing when your downtime is in Torrance, Calif."