What We Do in the Shadows | |
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Created by | |
Original work | What We Do in the Shadows: Interviews with Some Vampires (2005) |
Owner | 2005–present |
Films and television | |
Film(s) | What We Do in the Shadows (2014) |
Television series |
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The What We Do in the Shadows franchise consists of New Zealand and American mockumentary horror-comedy installments including one limited-theatrical film, a number of short films, two spin-off television series, and one digital series. Created by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, the plot concerns several vampires who live together in shared accommodation, who are followed by a documentary film crew.
Film | N.Z. release date | U.S. release date | Directors | Screenwriters | Producers | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
What We Do in the Shadows | January 9, 2014 | February 13, 2015 | Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement | Taika Waititi, Emanuel Michael & Chelsea Winstanley | Released | |
We're Wolves | TBA | TBA | TBA | Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement | TBA | In development |
Vampire housemates (Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh) cope with the complexities of modern life and introduce a newly turned vampire to the benefits of being undead. [1]
A sequel to the What We Do in the Shadows, focused on the werewolves depicted in the film, originally rumoured to be titled What We Do in the Moonlight, was announced as being in development in August 2015. [2] [3] In May 2019 Taika Waititi said "We're Wolves is the film that Jemaine and I keep pretending that we’re making. Every couple of years we say, we’re making this new film called We're Wolves which follows the werewolves from the film,” said Waititi. “I feel bad to even mention it now because we keep saying it, [but] it’s like a dad saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll be home for Christmas.’ I suppose we’re just two dads out on the road enjoying our lives and going, ‘We’re not coming home for Christmas.’ We'll send a postcard. It's not like we don't want to come home for Christmas. We would like nothing more but we have a lot of shit going on. When are you going to die? Do you have a ... deadline before your death? I guarantee it before then. Five years, 10 years? It took us seven years to write the [first] film, so you do the math. That was a sad thing to say." [4]
Film | Release date | Director(s) | Screenwriter(s) | Producer |
---|---|---|---|---|
What We Do in the Shadows: Interviews with Some Vampires | January 1, 2005 | Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement | Tyler Cogan | |
Dating 101 with Viago | May 22, 2014 [5] | Taika Waititi | Angela Meyer | |
A Vampire's Guide to Vellington | June 8, 2014 | David Perks |
The original 29-minute short film by Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement, which inspired their 2014 film. In the short, three vampires—Deacon Brugh (Jonny Brugh), Count Viago (Waititi), and Vulvus the Abhorrent (Clement)—who share an apartment are interviewed by a TV crew. [6]
A short film and advertisement campaign to promote the online dating services FindSomeone and Dating for Shoes. The film follows Dating for Shoes founder Angela Meyer giving Viago a tutorial on creating his very own FindSomeone profile: from creating a username, to describing his hobbies and interests. [7]
A short film and advertisement campaign by Wellington, as a comedic promotion that the city is a vampire-friendly place to visit. The film follows vampire Viago promoting the nightlife, cinemas and clothes shops of the city alongside his flatmates Vladislav and Deacon. As part of the campaign, the 'W' in the Wellington Blown Away sign on Miramar hill was temporarily changed to a blood-red 'V'. [8]
Series | Season | Episodes | Originally aired | Showrunner(s) | Status | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | Network | ||||||
Wellington Paranormal | 1 | 6 | 11 July 2018 | 15 August 2018 | TVNZ 2 | Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement | Released | |
2 | 6 | 16 October 2019 | 20 November 2019 | |||||
Special | 19 December 2019 | |||||||
3 | 6 | 24 February 2021 | 31 March 2021 | |||||
4 | 6 | 16 February 2022 | 23 March 2022 | |||||
What We Do in the Shadows | 1 | 10 | March 27, 2019 | May 29, 2019 | FX | Paul Simms | Released | |
2 | 10 | April 15, 2020 | June 10, 2020 | |||||
3 | 10 | September 2, 2021 | October 28, 2021 | |||||
4 | 10 | July 12, 2022 | September 6, 2022 | |||||
5 | 10 | July 13, 2023 | August 31, 2023 | |||||
6 | TBA | TBA | TBA | In development [9] |
The series follows Officers Minogue and O'Leary, who originally appeared as secondary characters in the 2014 film. They join a paranormal division of the Wellington Police Department under Sergeant Maaka (Maaka Pohatu). The show debuted on TVNZ 2 in 2018, and was renewed several times. The fourth and final season aired in 2022. [10]
The series follows four vampire roommates and one vampire familiar living on Staten Island.
In May 2020, the series was ordered for a third season, while season two was still airing. [11] Production for season three was set to start in February 2021, before being postponed to later in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [12]
Important COVID-19 Messages from Wellington Paranormal is a sixteen-episode digital web series and public service campaign released in 2020 by New Zealand Police to inform the public on health, safety, and best practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. The series follows Officers Minogue and O'Leary in home isolation, and features several guests including Sergeant Maaka and Officer Parker. The series also includes Andrew Coster and Clarke Gayford as themselves. [13]
This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in noteworthy roles.
Character | Film | Television | Short films | |||||||
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What We Do in the Shadows | Wellington Paranormal | What We Do in the Shadows | ||||||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
Viago Von Dorna Schmarten Scheden Heimburg | Taika Waititi | Taika Waititi G | Taika Waititi A | Taika Waititi R | TBA | Taika Waititi | ||||
Vladislav "The Poker" Pokeris | Jemaine Clement | Jemaine Clement V | Jemaine Clement | Jemaine Clement | ||||||
Deacon Brucke | Jonny Brugh | Jonny Brugh G | Jonny Brugh A | Jonny Brugh | ||||||
Officer Kyle Minogue | Mike Minogue | Mike Minogue | ||||||||
Officer O'Leary | Karen O'Leary | Karen O'Leary | ||||||||
Nick Macure | Cori Gonzalez-Macuer | Cori Gonzalez-Macuer | ||||||||
Wesley the Daywalker | Wesley Snipes P | Wesley Snipes G | ||||||||
Anton the Park Ranger | Rhys Darby | Rhys Darby G | ||||||||
Dion | Cohen Holloway | |||||||||
Petyr | Ben Fransham | |||||||||
Stu | Stu Rutherford | |||||||||
Clifton | Simon Vincent | |||||||||
Jackie | Jackie van Beek | |||||||||
Julian | Jason Hoyte | |||||||||
Katherine Heimburg | Ethel Robinson | |||||||||
Pauline "The Beast" | Elena Stejko | |||||||||
Sergeant Ruawai Maaka | Maaka Pohatu | Maaka Pohatu | ||||||||
Constable Parker | Thomas Sainsbury | Thomas Sainsbury | ||||||||
Demon Girl | Erika Camacho | |||||||||
Clarke Gayford | Himself | |||||||||
Mrs. O'Leary | Lynda Topp | |||||||||
Nandor the Relentless | Kayvan Novak | |||||||||
Laszlo Cravensworth | Matt Berry | |||||||||
Nadja | Natasia Demetriou | |||||||||
Nadja Doll | Natasia Demetriou V | |||||||||
Guillermo De la Cruz | Harvey Guillén | |||||||||
Colin Robinson | Mark Proksch | |||||||||
Colin Robinson II | Mark Proksch G | Mark Proksch | ||||||||
Sean | Anthony Atamanuik R | |||||||||
Jeff Suckler / Gregor | Jake McDorman R | Jake McDorman G | ||||||||
Simon the Devious | Nick Kroll G | |||||||||
Baron Afanas | Doug Jones R | Doug Jones A | Doug Jones R | TBA | ||||||
The Guide | Kristen Schaal G | Kristen Schaal R | Kristen Schaal | |||||||
Jenna | Beanie Feldstein R | |||||||||
Jim the Vampire | Mark Hamill G | |||||||||
Donal Logue | Himself |
Title | Crew/Detail | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Composer(s) | Cinematographer(s) | Editors | Production companies | Distributing companies | Running time | ||
What We Do in the Shadows | Plan 9 | D.J. Stipsen Richard Bluck | Tom Eagles Yana Gorskaya Jonathan Woodford-Robinson | Unison Films Defender Films Funny or Die Films New Zealand Film Commission Resnick Interactive Development | The Orchard Films Paramount Pictures Madman Entertainment | 1hr 25mins | |
Wellington Paranormal | Jemaine Clement | D.J. Stipsen | Tom Eagles Shawn Paper Angela Boyd | New Zealand Documentary Board | Television New Zealand | 6hrs | |
What We Do in the Shadows (The Series) | Mark Mothersbaugh | D.J. Stipsen Christian Sprenger | Tom Eagles Shawn Paper Yana Gorskaya Dane McMaster Daniel Haworth Varun Viswanath Joseph Ettinger Antonia de Barros | FX Productions 343 Incorporated Two Canoes Pictures | 20th Television Disney Media Distribution 20th Century Fox Television | 10hrs | |
We're Wolves | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA |
Film | Box office gross | Box office ranking | Budget | Ref. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
North America | Other territories | Worldwide | All-time North America | All-time worldwide | |||
What We Do in the Shadows | $3,469,224 | $5,012,132 | $8,481,356 | #6,798 | #5,750 | $1,600,000 | [14] [15] [16] |
Title | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
---|---|---|
What We Do in the Shadows | 96% (186 reviews) [17] | 76/100 (33 reviews) [18] |
Wellington Paranormal | 98% (39 combined total series reviews) [19] | 72/100 (12 reviews) [20] |
What We Do in the Shadows (The Series) | 98% (170 combined total series reviews) [21] | 79/100 (41 reviews) [22] |
New Zealand humour bears some similarities to the body of humour of many other English-speaking countries. There are, however, several regional differences.
Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's comedy and music became the basis of the self-titled BBC radio series (2005) and, subsequently, the HBO American television series (2007–2009). Most recently, they released the HBO comedy special Live in London in 2018. The special was concurrently released by Sub Pop as their fifth album.
Jemaine Atea Mahana Clement is a New Zealand actor, comedian, musician, and filmmaker. He has released several albums with Bret McKenzie as the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, and created a comedy series of the same name for both the BBC and HBO, for which he received six Primetime Emmy nominations.
Taika David Cohen, known professionally as Taika Waititi, is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor and comedian. He is known for directing quirky comedy films and has expanded his career as a voice actor and producer on numerous projects. He has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Grammy Award, as well as two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.
Yana Gorskaya is a Russian-American director, producer and film editor. She is best known for her work as director and co-executive producer of the TV series What We Do in the Shadows (2019) and her work in the editorial departments of nearly all of director Taika Waititi’s films, including Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016),Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Jojo Rabbit (2019) and the feature version of What We Do in the Shadows (2014).
What We Do in the Shadows is a 2014 New Zealand mockumentary horror comedy film written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi and the first installment in the What We Do in the Shadows franchise. The film also stars Clement and Waititi, along with Jonathan Brugh, Ben Fransham, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Stu Rutherford, and Jackie van Beek. The film's plot concerns several vampires who live together in a flat in Wellington.
Chelsea Jane Winstanley is a New Zealand film producer. She produces short films and documentaries which celebrate Indigenous peoples. She also produced the films What We Do in the Shadows and Jojo Rabbit.
Jonathan Brugh, also known as Jonny Brugh, is a New Zealand comedian, actor, and musician. He is best known for his work in What We Do in the Shadows (2014). In the 1990s he was part of the comic duo Sugar and Spice.
What We Do in the Shadows is an American comedy horror mockumentary series created by Jemaine Clement, first broadcast on FX on March 27, 2019. The series follows four vampire roommates on Staten Island and stars Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén, Mark Proksch, and Kristen Schaal.
Wellington Paranormal is a New Zealand mockumentary comedy horror television series which first aired on 11 July 2018 on TVNZ 2. The series is a spin-off of the 2014 film What We Do in the Shadows and first television series in the franchise, and its lead characters—Officers Minogue and O'Leary—first appeared in the film as a pair of incurious police officers.
Maaka Pohatu is a New Zealand actor and musician. Pohatu is also a founding member of Māori showband the Modern Māori Quartet. He co-wrote and performed songs, with the other band members, for the Modern Māori Quartet's debut album That's Us! (2017).
Kura Leigh Forrester is a New Zealand comedian, actor and writer. In 2019, she won the Billy T Award for best emerging comedian, for her show Kura Woulda Shoulda. She formerly appeared as core cast member Desdemona Schmidt on prime-time soap opera Shortland Street.
Time Bandits is an upcoming American fantasy adventure television series created by Jemaine Clement, Iain Morris, and Taika Waititi, based on the 1981 film of the same name directed by Terry Gilliam.
"Pilot" is the series premiere of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. The episode was written by series creator Jemaine Clement, and directed by executive producer Taika Waititi, both of whom worked as writers and directors of the film. It was released on FX on March 27, 2019.
"City Council" is the second episode of the first season of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. The episode was written by executive producer Paul Simms, and directed by series creator Jemaine Clement. It was released on FX on April 3, 2019.
"Werewolf Feud" is the third episode of the first season of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. The episode was written by consulting producer Josh Lieb, and directed by series creator Jemaine Clement. It was released on FX on April 10, 2019.
"The Trial" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. The episode was written by series creator Jemaine Clement, and directed by executive producer Taika Waititi. It was released on FX on May 8, 2019.
"Ancestry" is the tenth episode and season finale of the first season of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. The episode was written by series creator Jemaine Clement, co-executive producer Stefani Robinson, co-executive producer Tom Scharpling, and executive producer Paul Simms, and directed by executive producer Taika Waititi. It was released on FX on May 29, 2019.
"Nouveau Théâtre des Vampires" is the tenth episode and season finale of the second season of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. It is the twentieth overall episode of the series and was written by co-executive producer Sam Johnson, executive producer Stefani Robinson, and executive producer Paul Simms, and directed by producer Kyle Newacheck. It was released on FX on June 10, 2020.
"The Prisoner" is the first episode of the third season of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. It is the 21st overall episode of the series and was written by executive producer Paul Simms, and directed by co-executive producer Kyle Newacheck. It was released on FX on September 2, 2021, airing back-to-back with the follow-up episode, "The Cloak of Duplication".