VARIETY reports: Summit Entertainment has cast Native American actors Chaske Spencer, Bronson Pelletier, Alex Meraz, Kiowa Gordon and Tyson Houseman for "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."

The quintet will join Taylor Lautner in portraying members of the wolf pack in "New Moon," in which the pack defends humans against vampires.

"New Moon" stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson reprising their "Twilight" roles as Bella and Edward with Chris Weitz directing. The pic, centering on Bella being drawn into the world of werewolves, will be released domestically on Nov. 20

Spencer is Lakota (Sioux), Pelletier is Cree-Metis, Meraz is Purepecha (Tarasco), Gordon is Hualapai and Houseman is Cree. Casting was overseen by Rene Haynes, who's worked on projects involving Native Americans including "Dances with Wolves" and "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

"Twilight" has grossed nearly $380 million worldwide and sold over 3 million DVDs in its first day of release.

The casting news is rolling out slowly for the Dylan Dog live-action film Dead of Night. Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), as it's been known for some time, is Dylan and, at the start of this month, it was revealed Sam Huntington is playing his sidekick (details). But let's focus on the supernatural element of the film for a brief moment, shall we?

ShockTillYouDrop.com learned actor Taye Diggs is now set to star opposite Routh. The actor, currently seen in Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, will play Night's leader of the vampires. An official confirmation, we're told, is forthcoming. This is Diggs' return to the genre after 1999's The House on Haunted Hill. Since then he has also starred in Equilibrium, with Christian Bale, and Chicago.

Make-up FX for Diggs' bloodsucking turn, as well as Huntington who is a member of the undead himself (in a different sorta way), are being handled by Drac Studios. The film is said to feature a range of beasties, from vampires to zombies to werewolves.

Dead of Night - based on the popular Italian comic books "Dylan Dog" by Tiziano Sclavi - is shooting in the New Orleans area. Expect to see more casting announcements here on Shock very soon!

You can now check out the full Japanese trailer for the live-action adaptation of Blood: The Last Vampire, which tells the story of a mysterious girl known as Saya (Gianna Jun), who is employed by a covert US government agency to eradicate a species of vampire-demons that is about to threaten mankind. Half-demon herself, and armed with just a samurai sword and a whole bunch of attitude, Saya kicks vampire ass like nobody you have ever seen before. Forget Blade, forget Buffy, and check out the trailer to witness, in action, the hottest and gutsiest vampire slayer ever to grace the screen.

Summit Entertainment announced today that the home entertainment release of the studio's action-packed, modern day vampire love story TWILIGHT sold over 3 million DVD units in its first day of release. The DVD launch commenced this past Saturday morning at midnight with nationwide events during which time Summit and its retail partners provided TWILIGHT fans with the chance to celebrate the DVD release of the film. "TWILIGHT at Midnight" allowed participating retailers the opportunity to stay open late as fans lined up in impressive numbers to purchase the DVD of the epic romance at midnight parties.

With over 3 million DVD units sold, TWILIGHT enters the top five best first day DVD releases over the past two years along with PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END, THE DARK KNIGHT, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, and TRANSFORMERS.

Hitting DVD today is Against the Dark, the horror-actioner that pits the mighty Steven Seagal against vampires in a post-apocalyptic scenario. If you're unsure whether it's a "buy" or a "rent" feast on the four clips shocktillyoudrop.com is currently hosting in their database. You'll find the trailer, synopsis and cover art there as well. Directed by Richard Crudo, the film co-stars Tanoai Reed, Emma Catherwood, Jenna Harrison and Skye Bennett.

Variety reports that The CW is looking to take a bite out of the vampire craze, picking up a pilot based on the "Vampire Diaries" series of books.

"Vampire Diaries" comes from Alloy Entertainment, the same shingle whose past book series led to the Dub's series "Gossip Girl" and "Privileged."

Originally published in 1993 -- which, as the CW took pains to note, was years before Stephanie Meyer launched her "Twilight" book franchise -- "Vampire Diaries" revolves around a young woman who's torn between two vampire brothers -- one good, one evil -- who are battling for her soul, and the souls of her pals, family and the small town where they live.

The CW has reunited with "Scream," "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Dawson's Creek" scribe Kevin Williamson, who last produced "Hidden Palms" for the net, to exec produce and write. Julie Plec ("Kyle XY") is also on board to write and exec produce.

Warner Bros. TV, where Alloy (which owns the rights to "Vampire Diaries") is set up, is the studio; Alloy's Les Morgenstein and Bob Levy are also exec producers.

A four-book novel series, "Vampire Diaries" was originally penned by L.J. Smith. After the success of the "Twilight" series, Morgenstein suggested to HarperCollins, the publisher of the "Diaries" books, that they should re-release the books with new covers.

Since then, "Diaries" has hit the New York Times Bestseller list, and HarperCollins has ordered three more books. The first new installment, "The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall," comes out Tuesday.

ORIGINAL POST

Christoper Hutson's horror film Bled comes to DVD on April 7th. Here's the synopsis: Sai, a hip, young, new age artist living in a downtown warehouse, delves into an elusive fantasy world of the unknown. An enigmatic and handsome man seduces her to try an ancient drug that, unbeknownst to her, will make her the prey of a vampire from a dark dimension. He takes advantage of her newfound addiction and uses it to cross over from his world into hers. Bled features the film debut of Ivan L. Moody, the vocalist of music band Five Finger Death Punch.

Special makeup artist Gage (SOCKET) Munster sent along exclusive FX and behind-the-scenes pics of his strange bloodsucker stint on BLED, which hits DVDLionsgate Home Entertainment April 7. The story of a “dimensional vampire” on the prowl in seedy downtown LA was directed by Christopher Hutson from a script by Sxv’leithan Essex.

"Working on the film was one of the most radical times of my life," Munster tells us. "I had the most talented and dedicated crew in the world, without whom I’m convinced we wouldn’t have gotten anything done. We prepped all the creature effects as well as all the other blood and vampire gags in one month on a literal shoestring budget! I actually think we spent more of our own money trying to get all of the effects done than we did the budget we had, because we ran out of that fairly quickly! But it’s a testament to how much you can make with a lot of passion, hard work, a great vision and no money!" The FX artist will provide Fangoria.com a scoop on his next gigs, a series of new Charles Band flicks, next week.

See the photos at Fangoria.com

First, release date news...for our readers in the UK. Pathe is going to distribute Chris Nahon's Blood: The Last Vampire in theaters on June 12th. In preparation for this, the company has staked out BloodtheLastVampireMovie.com , so keep checking back there.

Meanwhile, it appears Universal Pictures has picked the film up for distribution here in the States. We have no idea what they intend to do with it just yet. This long in-production adaptation of the popular anime focuses on a vampire named Saya, who is part of covert government agency that hunts and destroys demons in a post-WWII Japan. She's inserted into a military school to discover which one of her classmates is a demon is disguise. Early poster art, stills and more are in the BD database.

Source:Edward Douglas

ComingSoon.net/ShockTillYouDrop.com just got off the phone with filmmaker Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) after talking briefly about his upcoming sci-fi thriller Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage. Proyas has been hard at work in the post-production of the film, but we wondered if there'd been any progress on the two other films he'd been developing, The Tripods, based on the series by John Christopher, and Dracula Year Zero, a proposed origin story for Bram Stoker's legendary vampire.

Both are still in active development so either could be Proyas' next project. "I'm working on a bunch of different things and the two projects I'm excited about are an adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripod stories that I've co-written with Stuart Hazeldine, who is one of our writers on 'Knowing', and the Dracula project," the Australian filmmaker told us. "Both are very exciting projects but at this stage, we're still in the budgeting process for both, so I can't really tell you much more than that."

"I'm not a fan of remakes or sequels — I haven't done any and I'm not really that excited by them usually," Proyas said when asked about his decision to make a movie based on a character whose had an extensive life in film. "In the case of Dracula, the reason I got excited about the project is I read a particular script that puts the whole legend on its head in every conceivable way and comes out with something that is both a kind of an ode to Bram Stoker's original Dracula, in that it's kind of a prequel to that, but it also redefines the character to such an extent that I found it quite exciting, so that is very much a kind of reinvention of that character and it's why I got excited about it."

Knowing opens on March 20, 2009. Look for the full interview with Proyas over on ComingSoon.net shortly before then.