Trivia / 30 Days of Night

• Actor-Inspired Element: Andrew Stehlin was cast in the relatively small role of Arvin, based on his stunt abilities and experience working on the Lord of the Rings. Stehlin ended up impressing the producers with his acting skills so much that he got featured in many more scenes.
• California Doubling: Set in a remote stretch of northern Alaska, shot in Auckland and Otago, New Zealand.
• Fake American: Given the film was shot in New Zealand, most of the supporting cast is either Aussie or Kiwi; including Melissa George (Stella), Amber Sainsbury (Denise), Manu Bennett (Deputy Billy), Megan Franich (Iris), Joel Tobeck (Doug), Elizabeth Hawthorne (Lucy), Nathaniel Lees (Carter), Craig Hall (Wilson), Chic Littlewood (Isaac), and Pua Magasiva (Malekai).
• No Stunt Double: Josh Hartnett did most of his own stunts, and Melissa George all her own driving.
• Production Posse: Several people from the Power Rangers franchise worked on this film; including actors Pua Magasiva (Shane in Ninja Storm) Nathaniel Lees (Master Mao in Jungle Fury), Jared Turner (Whigher in Jungle Fury & a one-off guest spot in Ninja Steel), Kate Elliott (Dayu in Samurai and Simone in Ninja Steel), and Kelson Henderson (Boom in S.P.D., Phineas in Mystic Force, Flit in Jungle Fury, Mick Kanic in Ninja Steel, and far too many voices and guest spots to name).
• Self-Adaptation: Steve Niles, author of the comics, cowrote both the first movie and the sequel Dark Days. The comic itself had first been conceived as a film anyway.
• Typecasting:
  • Mark Boone Junior also played a vampire hunter who is killed by the head vampire in John Carpenter's Vampires ten years previously.
  • Melissa George likewise starred in another horror movie where she's hunted by pale-skinned creatures, and the absence of the sun is a plot point.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sam Raimi was interested in directing before David Slade came on board. He then slotted into producer instead.
  • Director David Slade was very passionate about casting Forest Whitaker as Beau, but he would not play a supporting role after his Oscar win. Mark Boone Jr was cast instead.
  • Several scenes were chopped from the final cut, including:
    • A scene were we saw Gail Robbins' family get killed. It was filmed but cut because her appearing out of nowhere covered in blood was considered more eerie and helped trim the run time.
    • The other vampires had dialoge, which was cut making Marlow the only vampire that speaks in the final film. The vampire Zurial (John Rawls) had a larger role in the original cut. Unlike the other minor vampires, Rawls was not a stunt man and his larger role demanded an actor. Among other things, Zurial had a fight with Eben and was show killing Gail's family in the cut scene mentioned above.
    • It was explained by Zurial that feeding on the inhabitants of Barrow would be enough to keep them strong for a full year, explaining why they gorged themselves as soon as they could.
    • In the script Marlow does not Mercy Kill Iris. She was apparently already dead and he feeds on her dead body.
    • The Stranger was supposed to die in the initial attack on the police station but the producers liked Ben Foster so much they wrote him living a bit longer and squeezed the new scenes into the schedule.