On February 22nd, I interviewed Trevor Munson, creator of cult favorite Moonlight and newly published Titan Books author. (Make sure you check out part one of the interview.) Although we all know the deal about Moonlight, we don’t quite know everything about the original text, which Munson just published post-cancellation. Actually, you might know, if you’ve tracked the book since its February 1st publication.
However, for those who don’t, Angel of Vengeance surrounds Mick Angel, a hard core private LA investigator hired by a bodacious burlesque dancer to uncover her runaway kid sister. While the first half focuses on introducing readers to the noir genre and on re-imagining vampire lore, the second half, which I enjoyed, followed the twists and turns that typically occur in noir mysteries. And, oh yea, with an addiction to hypodermic needles and the hard drink, the lead character’s no Saint John. In fact, I think you already know what side of the (k)night Mick walks on, so I’ll skip the dramatic reveal.
While I posted part one yesterday, below find the transcript of our conversation. Clack on to learn about why Munson wrote Angel of Vengeance and how he transitioned the novel to the screen for Moonlight.
Munson on Angel of Vengeance
So, for Angel of Vengeance did you make any modifications to it before you published it with Titan?
I was allowed to publish the underlying novel that existed, so I didn’t make any changes to make it more like the show. There were some edits and some logistical things that the editor brought up. There were some very small things at the time. Essentially, it is in the large part, vastly the novel that I wrote.
Going back, is there anything that you would change or rework?
If I could take something from the show, I still probably would still keep the novel now as-is. Going forward in the future, in the future, I think it would be good to have a Josef or a character like that to populate Mick’s life a little bit, but I don’t know if that would be an option.
Taking out Moonlight, the TV show, from the equation and focusing on Angel of Vengeance as its own work is there anything else structurally or character-wise that you would do differently?
I would definitely take another look at it. I went through the whole thing again [before publishing]. I think I might look at it from a distance — have a little more perspective at this point — and look at a couple things. I liked the roles and things. I liked the idea in the novel when Mick is really feeding for blood. I described it as an attrition in his limbs, causing him to curl up into a little ball, and eventually he’ll be completely weak and powerless without the blood. And I do like that idea about a stage in between the two where the need for blood turns into a blind blood lust. I think that would be a cool element to have where at some point the thinking vampire through no fault of his own will become an absolute monster because of the body’s need for blood.
I thought you had that in the second meeting with the producer.
There is definitely an element of not being able to suppress that urge at earlier stages. That’s true. There is that. It would seem it would actually only get worse and worse where he’s in the police station and he’s getting weaker and weaker without it.
I believe fans will probably enjoy the first half where you re-imagine vampire issues. Why do you think no one ever addressed these common sense issues such as mainlining blood or refrigeration to slow decomposition with vampire lore before?
When I really got interested in vampires, these were things that I thought were fun and interesting questions to raise. I really wanted to, as much as possible, figure out what makes sense to me — things I wanted to change like not casting reflections. But, I still wanted there to be some sort of underlying reason why there is the mythology about something like that. I just wanted to take a look at those things and raise them.
Also, in terms of decomposition, I wanted there to be more of a cost to being a vampire. It seems like a lot of times a lot of vampires look fantastic and great even after your humanity is just an easy decision to make. … I wanted there to be more substantial reasons why someone might not be happy to be a vampire and might view themselves as a monster as a result.
Another thing I liked is you maintained the Stoker connection to the earth where the vampire needs to carry his mortal earth with him to re-heal.
You know your vampires. The other thing I changed is really for practical reasons. I wanted my vampires to be staked, but not killed. In doing some research, it made even more sense to me with the change as initially in folkloric vampires, the staking process was just to pin the vampire to the ground in order to immobilize them not destroy them.
When I first read Dracula, the one thing the text gave me is the color red and I like that you maintain that vampires are color-blind and the only color they can see is red. Is there a reason for it, other than blood or did you have another impetus?
I liked the imagery. I was always planning on writing a feature version of it. I thought if I was going to write that script, when you see the perspective through Mick’s eyes, I think you could do some really cool things with this black and white world that only has flashes of red. And, I thought it sort of boiled the whole idea down to the things that are stripped away from you when you become a vampire. One of the things is the beauty of the coloring world because the world has become a place where you are a greater predator. That is why some of the changes have come about. That is what Mick’s trying to fight against.
In contemporary vampire Hollywood society, there’s always the idea of the vampire who repents. The Mick here seems a bit more human as he allows himself to enjoy women, enjoy flesh and enjoy the pleasures of blood.
In some ways, he really does embrace what he is in ways that the Mick of the show wasn’t able to.
I like the idea of the vampire anti-hero. You mentioned in other interviews and here that you wouldn’t mind adding a Josef character. But, it seems as if the Mick Angel we have right here in the text is both good Mick St. John and Josef from TV.
Yep, that’s true. There is a tiny bit of all of them. In a lot of ways, spart of what makes him who he is is alienation from society. So, having that sort of support system would kind of strip away some of the things I actually liked about the book.
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on Mar 29, 2011 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
