Paul:  So when you guys got together and decided you were going to write a zombie movie did you think that anyone would take notice of you?

Michael:  When we initially made this movie we certainly had no idea that we would be here now with Lions Gate releasing the film.  it was certainly calculated making this movie we knew that we could never afford big stars so we knew that making a drama would be much harder to sell then making a zombie movie.  It is much easier to sell a monster movie then it is a drama if you have no stars.

Paul:  Is it calculated to make a film like that because you assume that it gives you cache so that you eventually are able to do other things? I mean is it a foray into other things?

Peter:  I mean we made it cause yes we had a plan but also we are such big fans of the genre it does certainly, but if you look at the career paths of people like Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson or James Cameron, so many great film makers have come from low budget horror and so many great actors that it seems like horror works incredibly well at a low budget level. We also wanted to make a kind of a B movie and have some fun with it...

Paul:  So what do you do to take a genre like this and make it actually interesting, make it different?

Peter:  You take what people know and get them to think that they are going to see something that is exactly like every other film and then you kind of twist it and you try and put something new and different in there...

Michael:  And some people may love that and others may ......if you kind of mess with the genre a bit and try something a little different people either love it or hate it.  I think there is no middle ground with these types of films.

Paul:  You also decided to imbue this with a very specific Australian humour.  Was that very important to you?

Michael:  Absolutely it was.  Peter and I have been I don't want to say annoyed with the Australian Film Industry but we have been a little disappointed in their lack of exploring different genres.  So we said we are going to make this movie, we are going to show the Australian film community that Australians can make this type of movie and we are going to make it really Australian and show that it can be done and you know we are here now we have sold it to 40 countries all around the world and it is very, very Australian.

Paul:  How surprised are you that the film worked out so well in Australia?

Peter:  We are pretty surprised I mean I thought that there might be a chance that we could sell it in Australia; I thought maybe the Asia market, maybe.  But I certainly had no expectations of the US and all through Europe it is just quite extraordinary, because when you are making a film in backyards and warehouses that just never registers you never think that someone in Romania is going to sitting down watching your DVD.

Paul:  Was international success larger than Australian success or where they both comparable I mean commercially?

Michael:  Because I say the Australian Film Industry is so hesitant to support these types of movies we had to get the US sales agent sell it to several foreign markets and then eventually sell it back to Australia before Australia actually started to notice.  So the Australian sale of 'Undead' was actually a foreign territory.

Paul:  How weird.

Michael:  That is kind of the lack of support that you get from the Australian Film...

Paul:  Does that make you very cynical about The Australian Film Industry?

Michael:  I am not cynical at all [laughs].  Absolutely it does, absolutely it does.

Peter:  But it is more just frustration you know, to this day no one has contacted us from any of the Australian funding bodies to say hey what are you guys doing next, not one.  Every single studio in this town has.  So you know...

Paul:  So you guys are...first of all it has been 2 years since this film has opened in Australia.  How strange is it to be here 2 years later talking about it and are you a little bit kind of petard that it has taken this long?

Michael:  I think for it even to get to this stage is great, because the prospect of this happening is very, very rare and Peter and I have suddenly been busy working on another film as the same time.  It is...this thing has been with us since 2001 so it has become, it has basically become our lives for over 4 years and I am glad that it is finally reaching its' end but I love this film, it has changed our lives, it has given us a career, it has done everything we hoped it would do for us and more, so I am extremely proud of it.

Paul:  Were you two always intending to work together and do your professional growths mirror your personal relationships and your own growths as brothers?

Peter:  Yeah I think it does and I think we work really well together and that is because we grew up together, we have the same influences, we have the same friends you know we went to the same schools, like the same movies.  So the choices that we make are going to be very, very similar, the reaction that we have to a particular idea or a scene in the film or a take is almost exactly the same and I think that is something we will continue to do for a quite a long time.

Paul:  Let me ask you about the Vampire movie, which is apparently the next one.  How are you going to make a Vampire genre a little bit more interesting?

Michael:  The Vampire project we hope is quite different to all the other vampire movies...

Paul:  So it has no title I take it...

Michael:  No it does have a title it is called 'Day '.  It is basically a film about...it basically set about 10 to 15 years in the future and what's happened is that the world has almost been completely taken over by vampires, but what's happened is that the vampires have kind of accepted their life and returned back to their suburban homes and back to their daily jobs.  So we are dealing with a world now that tries to live day by day and accept their lives as vampire.

Paul:  Are they doing this at night or are they...

Michael:  They are doing this at night but they have also modified their lives so they can function also in the daytime.  Like they have modified their houses so they can block out their windows, they have built walkways so they can walk around during the day, they have modified their cars so they can drive during the day.  But the problem is what has started to happen is this new world what's started to happens is they are running out of their food supply, which is human blood.  There is very few human beings left in the world and vampires are starting to starve.  So the film is essentially about 2 brothers strangely enough.  They go on 2 completely different paths...

Paul:  So there is no human's in it?

Michael:  There are a few humans but they are just prey that is out there to be hunted you know, majority of the film...

Paul:  Are humans only like animals and the vampires are kind of like...

Michael:  No humans are still human beings but they are the hunted...

Peter:  They are living in fear...

Michael:  Yeah, they are living in fear...

Peter:  They are hiding...

Michael:  The film doesn't focus on human beings it focuses on vampires and like I was saying there are two brothers.  One is on a path to try and find a cure to become human again because he feels that if he stays on the path of the vampire you completely loose your humanity.  While the other brother loves the life of a vampire, gets to live forever, gets to do whatever he wants you know not a care in the world so they head down two very different paths and in the end they ultimately meet up and there is a greater resolution to this whole vampire life...

Peter:  But there are also a few sorts of twists and turns along the way none of which we've really mentioned to you but there are additions to the mythology.

Paul:  Is it going to be a darker film in some ways then 'Undead'?

Michael:  Absolutely, this is not a comedy at all; this is a drama, action movie.

Paul:  What about casting and are you going to make the film in Australia?

Michael:  We are going to hopefully shoot the movie in Australia we are after some American names in the lead, but we will definitely be casting some actors out of Australia as well.  This is going to be a US movie so we are going to use some US actors.

Paul:  When do you hope to be able to announce casting?

Peter:  The next month is a pretty critical time there will be some major decisions made, maybe not on casting but certainly on when this thing is going to happen and then hopefully there will some announcements made...

Paul:  And you guys made 'Undead' as a purely independent film there was no interference from anybody.  Here you are going to do deal with the American studios or something and yes they are a small studio but they are studio none the less, corporate minded studio.  How nervous are you about that?

Michael:  Peter and I...yes of course we are a little nervous but we spent quite a few years about 3 or 4 years directing television commercials. We dealt with clients; we've dealt with agencies we've dealt with all of these types of people before so it is not completely foreign to us.  We are excited at the prospect of not having to worry about spending our own money on a project, we are excited about the prospect of not having to drive the art department truck to the location, we excited about the prospect of Peter not having to drive a generator truck to a location, he didn't even have a truck licence.  We are excited about that prospect; we are excited about being able to focus purely on being directors.  So yes, yes there will a studio involved, but the prospect of not having to deal with all these other problems is very appealing.

Paul:  When is the principle photography you do begin?  When do you hope to start shooting?

Peter:  We hope that it is towards the end of this year early next year.  We are hoping that that will be in our home town, it seems to be everybody wants to go to Australia the studio is excited about that idea, the locations are there, the post productions houses are all in Australia and New Zealand and it just makes a lot of sense.

Paul:  Do you think that horror is going to be a genre that you are going to specialise in or after the vampire project are you looking at non specific genres to delve into?

Peter:  Certainly the next project will be a horror film, maybe another project after that will be horror or thriller but we are sort of interested in all film, all different genres of films, all different styles of films and you will see with 'Day Breakers' that it is a completely different style to 'Undead'.  I think that we are after good scripts and good stories and if that is a horror or it is a romantic comedy then so be it you know, it has just got to be a good story that can be well told.

Undead opens in limited U.S release on July 1.