Prospero's other blog is called Caliban's Revenge, where he writes about Film, Theatre, TV, Politics, LGBT Rights and just about anything that pops into his head on a usually daily basis. The Zombie Zone is Prospero's semi-weekly (or so) experiment that is All Zombies, All the Time. Please feel free to leave comments, but note that they will be moderated before publishing, and comments deemed inappropriate will not be published.
Disclamer: Warning: This blog contains footage and/or stills from films, graphic novels and video games which feature graphic violence and horrific images. And while I do not believe in censorship of any kind, this blog may not be suitable for children or those of a sensitive nature.
Now don't say you weren't warned. And I do hope you're hungry...
I'm an actor, director, designer, playwright and screenwriter who has worked on stages in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania for over 35 years. I've done everything from ancient Greek theatre to
Rogers and Hammerstein, Miller; Sondheim; Weber; Durang; McNally, Rudnick and Silver - though not necessarily in that order. I'm a gay man 'of a certain age,' set in my ways and unlikely to change any time soon.
Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, and because AMC's "The Walking Dead" premieres tonight, I thought I'd wait until after midnight to post this week's Zombie Zone entry.
And since I've already started talking about ZombieTV, this week's episode of NBC's quirky comedy "Community" was one of its best, ever even if Joel McHale kept his clothes on. Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) buys the school's Halloween Party food at an army surplus store, inadvertently buying an experimental form of rabies along with it, temporarily turning the entire student body in into bite-happy zombies. It was as near a perfect parody of Horror, Sci-Fi and Zombie movies as a half-hour sitcom could be. And even though Joel kept his clothes on, who knew Donald Glover had abs on which one could grate cheese?
My review of "The Walking Dead" will appear on Caliban's Revenge on Monday, but in the meantime you can read this article at New York Magazine. It has a tidbit or two we haven't already heard, though my fellow zombiphiles will appreciate it more than anyone else.
Also in ZombieTV, via Uncle P's sister comes this link to the WWE, which has zombified it's wrestlers for Halloween. And since I'm linking to otherwise non-zombified websites, Sears just moved up a major notch on my list, for having such a great sense of humor and Halloween spirit, by zombifying their website so cleverly. You can check it out here. Funny, hip and irreverent, it's the perfect way for the stodgy old retail veteran to attract young customers. I wouldn't be surprised to see more retailers do something similar next October.
Nominally in ZombieToys, the brainiacs at BoingBoing have a link to a some Zombie Wound Stickers.Print 'em on sticker stock; cut 'em out and you have an instant Halloween costume (as long you don't sweat too much or have really oily skin, I suppose).And I am ashamed to admit that my favorite ZombieToy, Teddy Z, did not take part in this very amusing short from BBC3:
And finally, because it's Halloween, here are several ZombieClipsoftheWeek:
Please excuse the lack of a proper post this week. Uncle P has been in hard labor, giving birth to a play and really hasn't had time to post on either of his blogs, this week. If you only read the Zone and not the Revenge, then you don't know I have just directed a production of Caryl Churchill's 1982 dark 'dramedy,' Top Girls, with eight of the most extraordinarily gifted actresses he's ever had the pleasure and the privilege to direct. While Churchill's non-linear plotting and complicated, over-lapping dialog may not be to everyone's sensibilities, there is no doubt that the performances of these eight women are quite exceptional. If you are within driving distance of Central NJ, and you want to see some amazing acting in a decidedly unusual play, please come see it. We have four performances left, through October 2nd.
I have been gathering all sorts of ZombieNonsense this week and we'll have plenty to gnaw on next week.
I will leave you with a ZombieClipoftheWeek, though. Predating AMC's "The Walking Dead" by three years, here's a promo for "Lifeless," a zombie series that never played in the US (though I'm not sure of its origin, I would guess it's Canadian):
Let's start with some ZombieScience this week, shall we?
When Uncle P was a kid, he thought Mad Magazine was the pinnacle of hilarity. I loved their goofy movie parodies, Spy vs. Spy and the last page fold-ins. As far as I know Mad is still being published. It's low-rent competitor Cracked, however, has gone the way of many ink-on-paper publications and now exists online, only. The guys who run the site are often vulgar, though occasionally funny. Even less occasionally, they run something that actually has some tenuous scientific merit. Such is the case with this article: 7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail. Way to kill my Zombie buzz, Cracked. Assholes.
And the odd news aggregate site Weird Universe had a link to the video below, about a fungus that turns ants (and other insects) into zombies, of sorts. If you're a sympathetic entomologist (Uncle P dated an entomologist, once - he specialized in a very specific type of wasp, but more on that another time), you may want to avoid the very cool images of 'exploded' insect bodies towards the end of this clip:
This week in Zombie Films, Dread Central has posted this trailer for the upcoming South African Zombie flick The Dead:
And then there's the upcoming Resident Evil: Afterlife, the first major release to employ the 3D camera system developed by James Cameron for Avatar.
Milla Jovovich returns as the genetically engineered zombie killer Alice in Paul W. S. Anderson's fourth entry in the video game-inspired franchise, though 'inspired' is hardly the word I'd use to describe these films. They can be entertaining, though they're hardly what anyone would call "good." Of course, compared to a directer like Uwe Boll, Anderson is a genius.
And since it's been a while since we've visited this series, your ZombieClipoftheWeek is the next episode of Zombie College:
That's all the news that's fit to chew for this week. More grisly gristle chomping, soon. Prospero
A quickie tonight, and a note that there will be no Zombie Zone post next Saturday. That's performance number 2 of the play I am directing and I will be in attendance at both the performance and whatever takes place after. If I'm lucky, I'll be conscious enough to post on Caliban's Revenge, come Monday, the 28th. UNtil then, I am a Theatre Zombie...
The movie is premiering at some obscure film festival and while I admire the film's creators' attempt to instill something new into the genre, the trailer embedded below leads me to believe that The Dead and the Damned could probably have benefited from both a higher budget and some more experienced talent. The three leads are pretty, if nothing else. Take a look at the trailer and let me know what you think:
I'm not quite convinced...
Then there's this much more promising movie The Killing Strain, from San Antonio director Daniel Maldonado. Here's a report from San Antonio's KENS Channel 5:
The trailer and additional clips can be found here. I think I'd rather see that than the first one.
I'll be back in two weeks, with plenty of Red, White and Blue imagery to convince that zombies (despite their Haitian origins) are as American as apple pie.
That's Toronto-based band The Creepshow* in the photo above, which must mean tonight's post starts with some Zombie Music! I found The Creepshow in an odd way. I was looking for images of traditional Haitian zombies (there aren't many that don't look like horrible racial stereotypes), I came across a photo of this band, Voodoo Zombie, a Chilean psychobilly band. Intrigued by that rather startling photo, I searched for them on YouTube and came across the first video posted below for their song "Amor Psycho." Musically, it's okay and the zombies all seem to be having a mighty fine time. My chief complaint is with the vocals.
But a suggested video on that page led me to The Creepshow and their "...country-tinged, psycho punk rock 'n roll..." (via). This is a video for the song "Zombies Ate Her Brain," from their 2006 debut album "Sell Your Soul:"
I will definitely be checking out more from this very amusing band. The Creepshow's website is here.
Let's move on to a bit of ZombieNonsense, shall we? Total Film has this story about Miss Zombie Queen UK. I wish there was a video of it, somewhere. I searched YouTube, Vimeo and Flcker...
And segueing ever so-smoothly into Zombie Films, Miss Zombie Queen UK coincides with the DVD release of the positively wretched-sounding (and looking) Zombie Women of Satan, whose very unappealing tag-line is: 'It really was the wrong time of the month!' Really? The trailer says it all...
Is it just me, or does that look painfully bad in non-ironic way? I've seen better acting in David Decoteau's homo-erotic vampire movies and better special effects in a Sid and Marty Krofft TV show.
Also in Zombie Films, Salon.com is marking the release of Papa George's* 6th entry in his film Zombieverse, Survival of the Dead, with this well thought-out list of "10 Essential Zombie Movies." The list is interesting, though I would have made a few changes. Peter Jackson's outrageously over-the top Brain Dead/Dead Alive would have gotten a higher ranking, 28 Days Later, a slightly lower one and Lucio Fulchi's Zombi 2, with it's infamous Zombie vs. Shark scene, would not have made the list at all. For its sheer fun, I would have included Black Sheep, because it certainly fits the criteria, even if the zombies are sheep and the result of their bite is a were-sheep and for even more fun, I would have added Canadian director Andrew Currie's hilarious take on zombies and the coldwar, Fido. I would have replaced Romero's original version of The Crazies (an overrated, preachy and very talky picture) with last year's Zombielandand Dellamorte Dellamore with Evil Dead II, but that's just me.
Moving to some ZombieTV news, Rabid Doll shares the news that AMC has released a promo video for the their new series, "The Walking Dead," based on the very good comic of the same name. Directed by no less than one of few directors to make Stephen King *movies the way they should be made, Frank Darabont.*
Wow. I can't wait.
Almost finally, this week's ZombieClipoftheWeek,Episode 2 of the web-based film, Universal Dead:
And I couldn't end without letting you know I finally decided on a title for my latest screenplay, formerly known under the working title, Redneck Zombie Nightmare. But I'm going to end on a tease and make you wait until the final draft is completed, before revealing the title.
*I'd rather like to think of all these King/Romero/Darabont references as synchronistic, as so many things in my life seem to be, but I suspect they are simply the result of of related information and have no other impact on anything other than this post. And there I go, getting all existential again. Uncle P needs to stop over-thinking, I think.
Geeks of Doom has a sneak peak at the cover art for "Night of the Living Trekkies" which, as I am sure you can imagine, revolves around a zombie outbreak at a Star Trek convention. You can see the very amusing artwork here.
And in an amazing Zombie Music/ZombieFiction/Zombie Film cross-over, a new novel (with the inevitable film adaptation) has been announced in which the Fab Four become zombies. The Film Stage has announced the plot of "Paul Is Undead," in which a re-animated John Lennon takes a zombie band "on a tour of terror across Europe and the U.S." Sounds kind of tasteless to me, and I can't honestly imagine the estates of Lennon and Harrison signing off on the project (McCartney and Starr became whores long ago, though). But the idea does bring this to mind:
In other Zombie Film news:
None other than Sir Ian McKellan (no stranger to Fanboy Fare, what with his appearances in theLOTRand X-Men films) is next set to appear in E'gad, Zombies! a zomcom set in 18th Century England. According to ReelzChannel.com, 22 minutes of the film have been shot and it is currently being shopped at the Cannes Film Festival. Here's the teaser trailer (via):
I don't know about you, but it looks pretty funny to Uncle P.
And the Godfather of Zombies, George A. Romero (whose Survival of the Dead is making the rounds OnDemand before its theatrical run) has announced that he has two more films left to make in his of the Dead series. While I (and many others) thought Land of the Dead was the least successful in the series, I thoroughly enjoyed Diary of the Dead and plan on checking out Survival soon. According to BloodyDisgusting.com, if Survival of the Dead does well commercially, he'll shoot the two-film finale of the series back-to-back. Romero also recently announced he plans to foray into 3D with a remake of Dario Argento's classic horror film, Deep Red. I say, enough with the 3D and the remakes, already!
And this week in ZombieScience:
Apparently, a broken satellite known as Galaxy 15 has gone rogue and may well interfere with transmissions from AMC-11, a satellite which transmits signals for Comcast. This could mean that millions of Comcast subscribers won't be able to see the "Lost" finale on May 23rd. yet another reason I am so happy to have switched to FiOS. The story is here at G4 and on BoingBoing, where I first read about it.
And, in Zombie Nonsense (see, I told you there was lots tonight):
Does Howard Johnson's hate zombies? Well apparently they do in Fargo, ND. Fargo's 3rd annual Zombie Pub Crawl was held today, with hundreds of folks dressed as zombies set to take part. But the Sidestreet Grille & Pub in the local Howard Johnson's hotel has posted signs reading: "NO ZOMBIES ALLOWED!" They claim they don't want to deal with the mess, but I suspect they're just a bunch of scared pusses. Read the full story here at Inforum.com.
Last, but certainly not least, the Zombie Zone ZombieClipoftheWeek.
The loonies at RobotKitchen make these weird and wonderfully hilarious animated clips using toy cars, dolls and action figures. Please enjoy "Zombie Kill of The Week 3:"
Ah.... nothing like decapitating zombie Barbies, is there?
Well, I guess that's it for this week. Don't forget to check out Caliban's Revenge for your daily dose of weirdness; film; theatre and ramblings.
Sorry about the delay. I was a judge at a 24-hour play competition last night (more about that later tonight on Caliban's Revenge) and I got home way to late to post, so you get 'The Zombie Zone Lite,' this afternoon. So let's get started.
"Readers will witness the birth of a heroine in Dawn of the Dreadfuls—a thrilling prequel set four years before the horrific events of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." Or so says the press release on Quirk's site. Now there's nothing wrong with promoting a new book, whether its good or bad. But I've noticed this very bizarre trend of filmed trailers for books.
The first one I really remember seeing was last year, with the release of Stephen King's Under the Dome. Then I remember seeing one for a Steampunk adventure novel. And last week, I stumbled upon the trailer for PP&Z: Dawn of the Dreadfuls (I refuse to type that whole, ridiculous title). I was just sort trolling YouTube for a suitable Clip of the Week candidate and there it was, in all its infinite silliness, complete with bad acting, silly stunt fighting and lots and lots of blood. Check it out:
What do you think? I the acting is my favorite thing about that trailer.
In ZombieNews:
From True/Slant (via) comes this excellent essay by Mark Dery on Zombies, the econopocalypse, modern society and the loss of individuality.
"The zombie is a polyvalent revenant, a bloating signifier that has given shape, alternately, to repressed memories of slavery’s horrors; white alienation from the darker Other; Cold War nightmares of mushroom clouds and megadeaths; the post-traumatic fallout of the AIDS pandemic; and free-floating anxieties about viral plagues and bioengineered outbreaks (as in 28 Days Later and Left 4 Dead, troubled dreams for an age of Avian flu and H1N1, when viruses leap the species barrier and spread, via jet travel, into global pandemics seemingly overnight. Which may be why the Infected, as they’re called in both the film and the game, move at terrifying, jump-cut speed, unlike their lumbering, stuporous predecessors.)"
A truly fascinating read and one of the best essays I've read on the topic.
And tonight's ZombieClipoftheWeek:
Yes, it's Lucio Fulci's Zombie 2, featuring the infamous Zombie Vs Shark scene. I remember seeing this in a theater filled with people who spent so much time screaming at the screen, we couldn't hear a word that was being said (not the dialog was all that good, or even important), so we left and got our money back. And Tisa Farrow is indeed Mia Farrow's younger sister. Tisa made a handful of crappy Italian horror movies and then retired from acting at the tender age of 29, to be forgotten and never heard from again. Years later I finally got to see Zombie 2 on VHS and learned that I really hadn't missed much. Some gruesome effects didn't make up for the movie's overall craptitude. I have no idea why this 1979 stinker is so revered. A bad movie is a bad movie, no matter what the genre. And Zombie 2 is bad, bad movie. What say all of you?
Tonight, I thought I'd start with some ZombieTV. Comedy Central has a new animated show coming out called "Ugly Americans" about a social worker at the 'Department of Integration' who's job is to help people and 'other beings' adjust to life in New York City. His boss is a demon who is literally "The Boss from Hell" and his roommate is... a Zombie, of course. The mad brain-chewers over at I09 have several clips and more of the story, so I thought I'd just embed the first one showing on Comedy Central's "Ugly Americans" page. It looks amusing, if nothing else. Of course, embedding codes don't always work, so all you get is this link to the show's page.
There isn't really any explanation given for the why the city has been overrun with supernatural beings (though I may be mistaken) and it looks like the audience is just supposed to accept the premise at face value. I'll be sure to check it out and give my thoughts after I've seen a full episode, either here or on Caliban's Revenge. Oh, the show's webpage has an amusing ad to text for help for your "cerebral consumption addiction." I don't text, so I have no idea what you get when you text "UGLY" to the number.
Next, in Zombie Films: I'm not sure that After.Life really qualifies as a Zombie Film, but it's about a girl (Christina Ricci) who apparently dies in an auto accident and the mad funeral director (Liam Neesom) who can talk to her. Is she really undead, or is the loony old guy just a perv playing mind-games with her?Drag Me to Hell's adorable Justin Long once again plays our victim's boyfriend. It seems a little more than odd to me that Neesom's first film since his wife's death would be about this, though I am sure it was in the can long before Natasha Richardson's untimely ski accident last year.
Also in Zombie Films, you can catch my review of the remake of George A. Romero's non-zombie Zombie movie The Crazies, here. I really liked it. It's not an instant classic or anything, but it is a solid, taut horror movie with a likable cast and some fun scares. Definitely worth seeing. And in ZombieFiction, there will soon be a prequel to Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Steve Hockensmith has written Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. It tells how the zombie plague started and how our young heroine became such a proficient zombie-killer at such a tender young age. PPZ: Dawn of the Dreadfuls is scheduled for release on March 24th and joins such re-imagined classics as Andriod Karenina; The Undead World of Oz and Emma and the Werewolves. It's a good thing that Austen, Tolstoy and Baum are all long dead. I can't imagine they'd be too pleased to see their works bastardized this way, though the books are really just all in good fun. Meanwhile, Graham-Smith's latest novel Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, has been reportedly optioned for a big-screen treatment. Now why didn't I think of doing something like that? No, I had to be all original and what. Damn! And finally, this week's ZombieClipoftheWeek: From the fine, sick folks who gave us 'Happy Tree Friends' comes Zombie College, an animated series which follows the adventures of a freshman at Arkford College, which is apparently known for its Zombies. I, for one, love that Arkford references DC Comics' Arkham Asylum, itself a reference to H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham, MA, home of Miskatonic University. Miskatonic, of course, is the setting for 'Herbert West: Re-Animator,' Lovecraft's 1922 short story about a mad medical student who brings the dead back to life, which was made into the outrageous Zombie Film, Re-Animator in 1985 (a film I'll talk about, soon).
You can be sure I'll be posting more episodes of Zombie College in the future. More flying, animated intestines, soon. Prospero
I suppose that since I put up the poster for The Master's latest film, Survival of the Dead, I should start with Zombie Films.Funny, from that linked photo, you'd never guess that kindly-looking older gentleman was the father of a Horror sub-genre about cannibalistic reanimated corpses.
Anyway, Romero's latest entry (his 6th, if I'm counting correctly) has started making the rounds and had a sneak peak in NYC last weekend. It concerns a remote island and the inhabitants' efforts to find a cure for zombiefication so they can bring their loved ones back to life. Survival... has been descibed as a "neo-Western." Here's a clip of an interview with Papa George, talking about making his latest, his first direct sequel which follows a character from Diary of the Dead:
And here's another "Behind the Scenes" clip:
I don't know about you, but Uncle P. is chomping at the bit to see this one (every pun you can think of, intended). In other Zombie Film news, here's the trailerThe Horde, a French zombie movie that was supposed to be released in August of last year. Maybe it slipped by my radar (unlikely), but I didn't hear a word about it:
And since The Crazies was released this past weekend (I'm seeing it on Thursday with my favorite Elf, so watch for my review on Caliban's Revenge, then), I thought I'd pass on this piece about non-Zombie Zombie movies. And in Zombie Nonsense this week, here's a clip fromthe Midlands MCM Expo of Disney Zombies:
That clip goes out especially to Uncle P's sister, a self-described "Disney Dork."
And finally, this week'sZombieClipoftheWeek:
Regular readers of Caliban's Revenge are by now familiar with the friend I refer to as My Dear D (not his actual picture, though he's certainly what you might call 'hirsute'). D is a brilliant young actor and just about the sweetest guy in the world. He's smart, funny and an even bigger movie fanatic (if you can believe that), than I am (even though I may question his taste, at times). The thing you should know about D, is that he is absolutely terrified of clowns. We were at a Pride event promoting a JTMF show a few years ago. I was talking to someone about the show, when I suddenly felt the back of my shirt being pulled on. I looked behind me and found D cowering in fear, clutching my back in abject terror. Another friend then pointed to the aisle, where a perfectly innocent-looking clown was approaching our table. Now imagine seeing Zombieland with Dear D. The poor boy spent this entire scene with his hands in front of his eyes, missing Jesse Eisenberg's beat-down of the Zombie Clown, something I'm sure he would have probably enjoyed seeing. I hope to some day get him past his coulrophobia, but until then, I will continue to protect him from images such as this one. And D, if you're reading this, I hope you didn't click that last link.
Let's start with a bit of Zombie Nonsense, shall we?
As much as I love that typeface joke (and who doesn't love a good typeface joke?) and as funny as I think it is, it still worries me that someone had the time to sit down, look at that particular font's lower-case "i" and think that it looked like a zombie, and then type it up and commit it to cyberspace, where whack-a-doos like Uncle Prospero will make sure they get spread around to other nerds who also find it funny, for the same several reasons Ido.
Fans in general can be odd. Sports fanaticism can be pretty scary. Music fans are often a little left of center and movie fans? Don't ask. Genre film fans can be downright frightening. But sub-genre film fans? Obsessive and weird in a way only our fellows can understand. The two best Zombie fans in my life are my sister (still the best person for me to see a movie with, ever) and my 'adopted' sister and co-worker, Mia, maker of the fabulous Teddy Z. I occasionally share things with them (and a few other folks) before posting it here. And so it was with tonight's clip in Zombie Films:
A.D. is a movie looking for a buyer, and from the clip I found over at io9, I don't imagine it will take long to find one. I'll comment more after you've watched:
Four things strike me most about A.D. (for which I could find no IMDb listing): One - Can an animated horror movie be truly scary to anyone over the age of 12? Two - Could this the be the movie that makes animation for adult audiences a success? Three - I think I really need to see this movie. Four - Please dear God, don't let it be in effing 3D.
In PersonalZombieFilmNews, I am very close to finishing the first act of my latest screenplay, though I am far from happy with the working title and need to find something that better describes the movie and doesn't give too much away. The concept is solid and the general plot is in place, though sometimes I find my characters behaving in unexpected ways, changing the planned events drastically. Maybe as I continue to write the thing, I'll come up with something better. And no, I don't want to share the working title - it's too silly and descriptive and sounds like an H.G. Lewis movie title. I'm about to channel another sub-genre into the movie, something I am hoping will add a not only amusing, but much -needed twist to an already well-explored Horror movie topic. In the meantime, think about what other Horror sub-genre you would mix into Romero's mythology to add a twist? As soon as it's done, I promise you a link.
Finally, I'm starting a new Weekly Feature here at the Z-Zone:
ZombieClipoftheWeek:
Each week, I'll be posting Zombie scene, trailer or short and either heap praise on it or rip it to shreds. This week's ZCW is in honor of the 70th birthday of the Father of the Modern Zombie, George A. Romero:
The only time Uncle P and his sister attended a fan convention was Fangoria magazine's first convention in NYC. It was a surreal and eye-opening event, the highlights of which were meeting and getting the autograph of Tom Savini and seeing advance footage from Day of the Dead, hosted by Uncle George, himself. Sis and I were excited to see the whole movie and when it was released the following summer, we went opening weekend... only to be a little disappointed. While Day of the Dead is certainly better than Land of the Dead, I do think (and think most of you will agree) that it is certainly the weakest of the original trilogy, leaving Dawn of the Dead in the unusual position of being one of the few sequels that's actually better than the original.
Set in an underground military facility in Florida, Day of the Dead attempts to create a claustrophobic, tomb-like feel which backfires, simply because of the facility's apparent vastness. Romero also tries to drive his message home a little too hard and bogs the movie down with an interminably boring second act filled with dime-store philosophy and bad dialog. On the upside, it introduced us to "Bud," the zombie who remembers. Funny, but oh-so-creepy, Bud was scary because he wasn't quite as mindless as we'd all like to think zombies are. And while Romero would explore zombie "intelligence" again with Big Daddy in Land of the Dead, with less successful results, Bud was the first zombie with whom audience members empathized. While Day of the Dead isn't as exciting or even original as Romero's first two films in the sub-genre he invented, it's still better than most of the Zombie movies to come after. If you're a Zombie lover and you've never seen Day of the Dead, then shame, shame, shame on you.
Oddly enough, I have lots to talk about here on the Zombie Zone, tonight. Of course, the fact that I'm home on a Saturday night talking about Zombies instead of being out and meeting potential life partners really says a lot about how lame Uncle P's life has become, of late, doesn't it? Oh, well. It's probably not best to dwell on such things... (sigh).
Anyway...
In ZombieTV:
AMC announced that they will be making a series out of Robert Kirkman's graphic novel "The Walking Dead" (which Uncle Prospero received as Christmas present this year). While I have yet to dive into the graphic novel (I have Stephen King's "Under the Dome" to tackle, first), I am excited to see that the genre will finally get its due on U.S. television, even though the BBC has explored the subject before.
Next, in ZombieFilms:
From The Hollywood Reporter comes this news that Jonathan Levin has been hired to write and direct the screen adaptation of author Issac Marion's Warm Bodies:
"In a tone like Twilight-meets-Shaun of the Dead, the story follows an existentially tormented zombie named 'R' who begins an unlikely friendship with the human girlfriend of one of his victims. The blossoming relationship starts a chain reaction that will transform him, his fellow zombies and maybe the whole lifeless world."
Here's the book's trailer (when did books start getting trailers?):
Haiti's Head Voodoo Priest Condemns Mass Burials; Fears Zombies
"...the nation's Head Voodoo Priest, Max Beauvoir is strongly objecting to the horrific mass burials on religious grounds. He met with (Haitian) President Rene Preval over the weekend to protest on behalf of the many Voodoo worshipers in Haiti."
And here I always thought it took exotic drugs and a believing victim to make a real zombie...
Finally, from the Gulf Daily News comes this story about "Blackberry Zombies," folks so consumed with their electronic gadgets, they have literally become societal Zombies. Yikes! Is it any wonder they call them "Crack-Berries?" Yet another reason to avoid getting a so-called "Smart Phone."
