Night's Reign

Night's Reign is a 2006 dark fantasy romance action film directed and written by Ryan McDaniel based on an idea by Marc Moreno and featuring the voices of Jamie Bell, Emily Blunt, Ben Bishop, Goran Višnjić, Bill Paxton, Olivia Colman, Gerard Butler, Colin Firth and Robin Williams. The film is about a young donut shop worker named Harrison "Harris" Fairbank, who finds himself drawn to a mysterious girl named Rosaline Carline, however, there is a secret about her that makes her the target of a group known as The Dark Ones, who's leader, Herewood Broadbante, plots to overthrow the balance between good and evil and unleash a war on Earth, with Rosaline and soon Harris standing between the city's survival and ultimate destruction.

Originally a concept created by Marc Moreno, the idea eventually landed in the hands of Ryan McDaniel, who decided to direct and write the film, and, departing from his usual live-action style, decided to do it as an animated feature, with Japanese studio J.C.Staff providing the animation. Unlike his previous films, which were co-financed by Working Title Films and distributed by Universal Pictures/PolyGram Films, Night's Reign was produced by Celador Films and DNA Films and distributed by 20th Century Fox and Fox Atomic, making it the first film released under the latter company.

Night's Reign had it's theatrical premiere in London on September 22, 2006 before being released in the United States and United Kingdom on October 6, 2006 and in Japan on January 13, 2007. Despite only grossing $73 million against a budget of $20 million, it received positive reviews from critics, with praise towards its plot, characters, animation, voice acting and Mark Thomas' score, and has since gained a cult following after release. It was the last film Ryan McDaniel directed whilst still living in Britain (the last film he contributed to before moving overall was Teddy 2) before he moved to the United States in 2009. A graphic novel prequel, entitled Night Before it's Reign, was published by Fox Atomic Comics as a tie in for the film; it was released on January 9, 2007.

Plot
Coming soon!

Additional Voices

 * Ray Gillon
 * Emma Tate
 * Eric Meyers
 * Trevor Swanscott
 * Rob Rackstraw
 * Teresa Gallagher
 * Melanie Cooper
 * Tim Everett
 * Martin Sherman
 * Jo Wyatt
 * Ben Bishop
 * Joanna Ruiz

Development
The original concept of Night's Reign was developed by Marc Moreno as a film idea he had been trying to pitch to film studios since the mid 1990s. Eventually, the idea fell into the hands of director and writer Ryan McDaniel who, upon being impressed by the concept, agreed to turn it into a feature film. McDaniel wrote a spec script in 2001 containing several ideas of his own; in particular, the romance aspect and the mystery behind the character of Rosaline, similar to some of the themes explored in his earlier films, and it was at this time he decided to have the feature be done as an animated film. He had various reasons as to why he decided to go in that direction, notably, it was because he wanted to give it a try, and because he felt not only were there very few animated films targeted for older audiences, but also, save for Aardman Animations' films, animated films produced in Britain.

McDaniel first presented it to Working Title Films, who he had worked with since 1992, however, they wanted to produce it as a live action film as they felt making it an animated film would hinder its performance. This ultimately led to a falling out between McDaniel and Working Title, and resulted in him taking the idea elsewhere. He would eventually find favor with Christian Colson and Paul Smith of Celador Films, who agreed to finance it as one of their first feature films alongside Dirty Pretty Things, The Descent and Separate Lies, and the film began pre-production from there. The UK Film Council soon joined to help finance the feature as well. In 2003, the film was presented to Ralph Kemp and Andrew MacDonald of DNA Films, who had recently forged a distribution partnership with 20th Century Fox. From there, DNA Films joined the production and 20th Century Fox secured the worldwide distribution rights.

Release
Night's Reign had it's theatrical premiere in London on September 22, 2006 and was given a wide theatrical release on October 6, 2006. 20th Century Fox handled the distribution in the United Kingdom and most international territories, whilst Fox Atomic released it in the United States. It was released in Japan by the local branch of 20th Century Fox on January 13, 2007.

Home media
The film was released on a double disc DVD in the United Kingdom by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on March 5, 2007. The DVD release came in two editions, a standard double disc edition, and a "Gift Set" edition. Special features on the DVD release include a behind the scenes documentary on the film's production, a shorter making of featurette, deleted scenes and audio commentaries. The "Gift Set" edition includes a copy of Night Before it's Reign and collectible prints from the film.

Fox later released the film on DVD in the United States on March 13, 2007. It came in two single disc editions, a PG-13 rated version and an unrated version, with the latter containing five minutes of additional material that was not included in the theatrical release. The US DVD releases utilized much of the same bonus features as the UK DVD release save for the behind the scenes documentary.