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Monday, April 25, 2011

Karl Urban plays vampire leader in upcoming thriller "Priest"

Potato On-the-Go:


When I first heard about the movie "Priest", my first reaction was there's already a drama film (about a gay priest) of the same title several years ago.  But when I saw the teaser, I then realized that this up coming one is the movie adaptation of the comic book!  And I immediately get awed and excited on the film. 

Columbia Pictures recently shared that Karl Urban (“Star Trek,” “Lord of the Rings”) is part of the cast of the new, post-apocalyptic horror thriller “Priest” as Black Hat, the evil leader of the bloodsuckers. He’s a former priest and vampire hunter, but now fancies himself the god of vampires.



“Priest” is set in an alternate world -- one ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest (Paul Bettany) from the last Vampire War who now lives in obscurity among the other downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church. When his niece (Lily Collins) is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on an obsessive quest to find her before they turn her into one of them.


Urban, in an interview, said that "Priest" is not just a vampire film.  "It’s about a man who chooses to go against the system, to walk away from his life and everything that he has worked and fought for in order to do what is morally right," explains Karl Urban.

Urban also shared the preparations he took for the movie.  "Paul Bettany (another actor in the cast) and I underwent extensive training for the fight and action sequences.  We were fortunate to work with some extremely talented people whose job it was to make us look good," shares Urban.


Karl  was engaged in the process of creating the character and he did his assignment.  He researched and I then studied  the comic book version. The actor said, "We were quite inspired by the graphic novel. It’s a good platform to start out. We certainly incorporated some key elements directly into my character. The hat, with the notch is a direct nod to the graphic novels."

Shooting "Priest" was not all hard work as shared by Karl Urban.  "It was fun. I had a really great time working with Paul. He’s a professional. He’s very charismatic, witty, and a real gentleman. Even when I accidentally crushed his fingers while shooting the epic train fight," Urban candidly shared.


"For me, I guess the best thing was probably the people involved - the cast, and Scott. The worst thing was probably the day where we were shooting a fight sequence. Paul is hanging onto the side of a train and I’m supposed to smash my boot down onto his hand. We’re in the take, I stomp on his hand and Paul screams out in pain, I'm thinking, “my God, he’s such a good actor {laughing}. So brilliant.” He took his hand off and started running around the set screaming. The ball of my foot had missed his hand, as rehearsed, but the heel of my boot did not. I’m tethered to the top of the train, I can’t move, can’t get to him to say “Sorry mate!”


Distributed by Columbia Pictures, the local office of Sony Pictures that is releasing the film worldwide, "Priest" is coming soon in theaters across the Philippines.

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