For reasons that remain to be unclear tome, the plans to re-create Michael Jackson‘s Thrilleras a feature film are afoot. I’m not surprised at all, the music video made in 1983 by John Landis and featuring Michael Jackson himself must be one of the greatest moments of Zombies on a screen of any size, and was a remarkably great and important part in making music videos have their golden age in the 80s that lasted all the way to late 90s. So picking a good old idea since everyone seems to be completely out of good new ideas is a natural way to go. Yet, making a remake of Thriller without Michael Jackson is like making The Predator without Arnold Schwarzenegger – and look how well that went…
(By the way, Schwarzenegger stated just 4 hours ago in his Twitter that we should “stay tuned for more info on his next project with James Cameron”. I intend to.
Anyway, now the big film blogs have started to whineabout how wrong it is that the short film is being remade. The same people who think it’s just OK to do a remake of a film like Let The Right One In – the main difference there really is that Let the Right One In is a Swedish movie, made in this strange language, so it’s OK to rape the shit out of the film. But when it comes to a Zombie music video, remaking that seems to be one hell of a whining point.
Anyway, I’m not specifically looking forward for the remake of either one of them – Thriller or Let the Right One In – but I’m aware that the latter of thes two was remade only because that’s the American equivalent of subtitles. Anyway, here’s the original Thriller music video, enjoy:
A bit of Zombie news, for a change. I happened to buy the copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith quite randomly from Brisbane, and haven’t read a page of it. More than a book I want to read, it’s a book I want to own. But nevertheless, a film of it is coming up, yet it’s still quite ambiguous what kind of a film – directed by who and starred by who – it’s going to be. But more than a film I want to see, it’s a film that I’m happy to see get made. It might be directed by David Slade, or Mike Newell, or Neil Marshall, or … well, it basically could be anybody who’s done some sort of a genre hit lately. Yet I’d be happiest to see it being directed by Finland’s own AJ Annila. That would bring an interesting angle to the film indeed.
In other news, there’s been obviously a lot of talk about The Walking Dead TV-series lately, and as far as I can gather, it’s premiering on Halloween somewhere in the states, and exactly 30 seconds after it’s out, also on Pirate Bay. Latest bit of goodies are the new behind the scenes shots from the makeup studio of The Walking Dead, available here. Oh, and here’s the trailer for the series, check it out.
Ever wanted to do a Zombie film? Well, it’s easy; just follow these five simple steps, and you’ve got yourself a seller!
The remake of The Crazies is a teflon-coated horror film. It’s made carefully to entertain everyone, crafted so that it won’t offend too many people, and tuned down so that there’s not too much of gore that would push the rating too high. And as in many similar cases, when you try to do a film for everyone – especially a genre film – it becomes a film for no-one. Luckily, there’s a big mass of people called General Audience, and they’ll munch anything thrown at them like zombies. If you’ve done your math, you can’t go wrong with a general audience horror flick.
I haven’t seen Romero‘s original The Crazies (1973), so I can’t do any comparison to the original, but the film that it reminds me of is The Mist (2007). The setting, the feeling, the look and the main characters are very much alike. Both are films made with 20 million, and made their money back 2-3 times. The only main difference is that The Mist is actually quite a good film.
To sum it up, I’d say that The Crazies is a perfect horror film for the douchebags in their mating season. I can’t see anyone else finding anything even remotely interesting in it.
You shouldn’t waste your money on the film – easiest way to see it is to check out the trailer. It’s a chronological walk-through of the film with the coolest moments stitched together. Here you go:
There, I saved 10 bucks of your hard-earned money.
It seems that Universal Pictures is working on a project called The Something – which they described to be “Sci-Fi Zombieland” – “an ensemble comedy/horror hybrid set in deep space” – with the script that’s supposed to be similar to the one of Zombieland. The film is written by Rodney Rothman, who as the youngest head writer in the history of Late Night with David Letterman. (via SlashFilm)
“Fair warning to those out there who expect this to be a straight up animated version of Romero’s undead zeitgeist of a flick. For better or worse, it isn’t. Instead what we have here is a massive multimedia art project, a mobile gallery show, collected and presented on one platform for consumption, IE a TV or theater screen.”
A.D. is Zombie Room’s new favorite project out there – an animated zombie feature, that looks just plain amazing! Let’s start out with the trailer, since it’s just going to blast your brains all over the walls.
We conducted a short interview with the makers of the film – here you go!
ZR: Zombie animation. Sounds first like there must’ve been tens of them… but actually, no. This is the first. And it strikes me as being a brilliant concept – gives me an idea that one can extend the borders of this otherwise pretty well-explored genre quite much by doing it in animation. What were your main motivations to approach it from this angle, and what possibilities you find it offering?
Haylar Garcia, creator/writer: There were a few motivations, one was to take the genre and make it an original reinvention, bigger, stronger, faster, more insane than ever. The other was to have the stylistic power given to us by the medium of animation itself. There is so much more we can do, so much more we can push. The set pieces and situations in “AD” are unlike anything ever done in a zombie film, and so in many ways animation and Ben’s [Hibon, the director] vision and expertise are what make this thing possible.
Tarik Heitmann, producer: As Haylar said, the main motivation for all of us, including the director Ben Hibon and my producing partners on this, Bernie Goldmann (who produced one of my favorite movies –300) and Renee Tab was to make a cg-animated zombie film and use the medium of animation to its fullest potential. Most zombie films tend to be very self-contained, but we rarely venture out into the open road. Zombieland, which had more of a comedic approach, felt more like a road movie. A.D. is a lot bigger, though, and feels a lot more like a big action horror-adventure with characters that are fully developed.
ZR: Can you briefly tell me the background of the project – when did the idea appear and how far are you now? What’s the budget and when is it coming out?
Haylar: Many years ago I set out to write the mother of all zombie films (as I am a walking dead fanboy myself) I found Ben through his amazing work on Codehunters and knew in 3 seconds, even though he was in another continent, that this was the person I could trust to take my ideas and put them on steroids. Once the producing team came into play, the planets just aligned. Rewrites were done based on their notes, and we came up with something truly cool.
Tarik: Pretty much everything aligned. I had previously read another script of Haylar’s which had just blown me away. That one was a drama, so when I first received A.D. which was called something else at that time and with his explanation that it needed to be done as a full-scale animated movie, I was completely hooked. Ben Hibon’s work was introduced to me a few years back and his short Codehunters was completely original and cinematically outstanding. Partnering with Bernie just felt natural and he completely got what we had in mind, having produced 300 and having been tangentially involved in The Matrix as President of Production at Village Roadshow. When is the movie coming out? We literally just put the teaser out to the public to see, if there was an interest in a movie like this and we’re amazed how many people have responded favorably. Hopefully in a few years!
ZR: Where and with who are you going to do the animation with?
Tarik: We haven’t decided yet. There are so many incredible animation houses out there, but ultimately they have to be able to recreate what Ben’s vision is.
ZR: What’s your take on Zombie films in general – there was a bit of a lift for them going on for a while, but now it seems it’s turned to vampires or even werewolves – do you think zombies will hit the big screens again in near future? Maybe in the form of animated zombie films?
Haylar: Ok I’ll be the fool to say it: zombie films will never “die”, they revolve like many other genres but never seem to truly fade, sometime they go camp like Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland” but the public f ascination never really stops. I think the genre will continue to evolve and morph, our idea of making the first animated film of this kind is only a milestone in that evolution.
ZR: How about “adult animations” (sounds dirty, but you know what I mean . They’ve been shunned for quite some time, since the general atmosphere has been that animation is for kids… But now we’re starting to see more of these. Do you think there’s future in animations for adult audience?
Haylar: In a few years there will be no major demographic left that did not grow up playing video games. The Hollywood engine is always
reluctant to take huge steps, but this one is coming no matter what. Mark my words; as video game generations are becoming the world majority, stylistic adult geared animation (especially in genres where animation can be used for extreme filmic effect) is an undeniable future. The first studio to do it will reap the benefits. By The Way – AD is poised and ready to go, just the push of a button… hint hint.
Tarik: Gotta go with Haylar on that one. It wasn’t long ago that Pixar made a mark with >Toy Story, one of the first CG animated features and now everyone is doing it. Before that, it was all about traditional 2D or cell animation. Adult animation is starting to make a mark – look at 9 which was only the beginning.
ZR: Did you see Dead Snow? Did you like it? What’s your personal favourite of zombie films?
Haylar: I have not seen Dead Snow, but as of now it’s on my list. Favorite Z-film? That’s hard. Because the genre evolves it’s like comparing heads to limbs if that makes sense. I think I’d have to go with Zack Snyder’s remake ofDawn of the Dead mainly because it was both scary and fun.
Tarik: I loved Dead Snow. Freakin’ Nazi Zombies – what could be more scary!!! My favorite zombie films – there are tons. >Dawn of the Dead was the first zombie flick I saw and it scared the living hell out of me. The Return of the Living Dead was great, even newer movies like 28 Days Later….
Well, as you can see, these guys are our kind of people – and needless to say, they’re in to Iron Skyas well – for some strange reason, Nazis and Zombies walk hand in hand. Both are cool, evil and you can kill as many of them as you like, and the audience just keeps on cheering! We’ll be watching closely the progress of the world’s first animated zombie feature film A.D.!
Got too much money?! Yes, I know the feeling – nowhere to spend, but shitload of it at hands. Well, why not spend it on some cool Zombie stuff. This sunday the Zombies go shopping online – let’s see, what we found!
Everybody needs a calendar on the wall. In most cases it’s some ugly-ass paperscrap with boring pictures of nature – or even worse, Anne Geddes “funny” baby photos… Zombie Room suggests you to get something to enjoy – a Zombie Calendar! Empty Room Studios has one for you:
I’m always shocked on how utterly horrible the mobile phones – especially the ones made for iPhone – look like. I know that some of you wield an iPhone on your side. For those, Zombie Bikini Babes is probably the worst thing to spend your hard-earned money on. But they got Marina Orlova, the hottest babe on the Net – so maybe it is worth a dollar or two. Who knows.
Buying a shotgun for the Zombie Apocalypse preparations is not always easy. Here’s an experience snatched from Not Always Right:
(A customer in their 50s walks into my pawn shop, which sells weapons.)
Customer: “Yeah, can you get me that shotgun behind the table?”
Me: “Sure, do you have your license and registration?”
Customer: “Yeah, right here.”
Me: “Thank you sir. There’s a 5 day waiting period for firearms. Come back soon.”
(He looks disappointed, but forks over the cash and walks out. Five days later…)
Customer: “Okay, dude, I’m back. Where’s the gun?”
Me: “Right here, sir…
(I make the transaction and hand him his shotgun.)
Me: “Have a nice day and come back soon!”
(About one minute after the customer leaves the store, I hear several loud shotgun blasts. I look through the window and the man is firing rounds into the air! He then runs into the store.)
Customer: “The zombie invasion has begun! It’s every man for himself!”
(I hide under the desk and press the silent alarm. Five minutes later, the police arrive, taser the guy, and bring him out of our back room in cuffs. I work at an ice cream store now.)
The guy should probably check out the Guns ‘n Gardens How To Survive Zombie Apocalypse -show, so he would know what to do when he gets back from the jail – don’t go shooting around aimlessly, you have only this many bullets and there’s always more of Zombies, that’s for sure:
Since it’s Father’s Day today I though I would do something for all you daddies out there. So, let’s have look at the sexier side of the undead, because who says zombies can’t be sexy too? Is beauty and brains a combination you are looking for in a woman? If so, read on…
If you are looking for next years calender, here’s a hot tip. I found this calender from My Zombie Pinup. These girls might be brain dead, but they are still drop dead gorgeous!
Say hello to Miss February…
… Miss June…
… Miss July…
… Miss September…
… and last but not least, Miss December.
To see all the moths and buy this 2010 calender, go to My Zombie Pinup.
As you can see, not all zombies are ugly, even hot, beautiful girls can be attacked by zombies. For the most beautiful ones there are of course Zombie Beauty Pageants…
One of these Zombie Beauty Contests are held annually at the Phoenix ComiCon. The winner of the 2009 Zombie Beauty Pageant was…
… was the lovely Heather.
Well maybe not. But if you don’t care for pageants and you are looking for something wilder, there is always stripping…
The Zombies wish Happy Father’s Day to all you daddies, and have a great week!
With those glasses, you would see dead people everywhere, too.
There’s only one real thing to do on Halloween, and that is to talk about the master of all Zombie horror – George A. Romero.
Romero is the guy who set in motion the whole Zombie film genre. Yes, there had been zombie films before his Night of the Living Dead (1968), but it was Night of the Living Dead, and the two films that followed – Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985) – that basically set the rules for one of the coolest genres in film history.
If, for some reason, you’ve managed to have missed Night of the Living Dead, or want to see it again, you can watch it for free online – the film is in the public domain, thanks to the original distributor’s failure to include copyright marks on the film prints. As such, you can download and watch the film for free at the Internet Archive (thanks to Mashable for the tip!).
After the “Trilogy of the Dead”, Romero hasn’t been producing anything noteworthy to the screens, unfortunately. He has continued his trilogy – films that end with the words “…Of the Dead”, but so far – both Land of the Dead (2005) and Diary of the Dead (2007) – were quite lazy, especially compared to “modern” zombie films out there nowadays, like 28 Days and Weeks Later. Survival of the Dead (2009) is the latest incarnation in the long line of “…of the Deads”, and the reviews have been surprisingly positive compared to two earlier films. The synopsis says: “On an island off the coast of North America, local residents simultaneously fight a zombie epidemic while hoping for a cure to return their un-dead relatives back to their human state.”
The new promo teaser does promise a lot of blood and gore, but I’m not convinced. But I’m gonna see it anyway, once it lands here in Finland (undoubtedly, on DVD).
Oh, and here’s a fun diagram for you I found on the Internet the other day:
Aight, happy Halloween to all, and stay tuned for Essi’s review on The Box, comin’ right up!
It’s 8 p.m., and we are standing in front of the Helsinki Railway Station, dressed up in black leather and dripping blood, freezing our asses off. The very first snowflakes of the winter are dropping slowly from the pitch black sky. It’s the beginning of a Dead Snow zombiewalk, we set up to celebrate the first and second-to-last-ever Dead Snow screening in Helsinki. Shit it’s cold.
To be honest, nobody came. Well, not “nobody”, there was five of us, but compared to 100+ -zombiewalks they’ve had in Helsinki before, it’s close to nothing. But who the hell cares, at least the five of us are here, plus a small audience.
So we turn into zombies and creep our way through the city to the film theater where the screening is at. The house is packed – sold out, to be exact. And Stig Frode Henriksen, one of the screenwriters and main actors of the film is on stage, opening up the show. He invites all the zombies to stage, and the audience gets to vote the best zombie.
But then again, there’s just five of us, so we all get cool prices – DVDs, posters and whatnot.
But I get the main price – a very unique and special bottle of beer called Herzog. Branded and bottled for Dead Snow, and as far as I know, the only existing bottle of it. If you know otherwise, don’t tell me, or you crush my world.
The screening is an absolute success. I mean, what more could you ask – a fully packed theater, great film, people laughing, clapping, cheering and enjoying the film, and they even have a possibility to shake hands with one of the creators. Really, it’s an experience. And that’s what we’re looking when we go to film theaters, nowadays. We want to experience the film.
Francis Ford Coppolawas just recently talking about something like this: that film theater experiences becomes more of an event in the future, in order for them to compete against piracy, home theaters and retarded distribution – not to mention other millions of things that are stealing people’s attention nowadays.
“I think the cinema is going to live off into something more related to a live performance in which the filmmaker is there, like the conductor of an opera used to be,” Coppola says. “Cinema can be interactive, every night it can be a little different.”
The evening ended with 25-year Anniversary Screening of Yön saalistajat, a legendary Finnish filmmaker Visa Mäkinen finnploitation feature. Gotta say, either I’m not born with the exploitation gene in me, or I just haven’t seen too much of good stuff from the genre, but I just didn’t get the film. There was one thing, though, that I got really excited about – the bad guy, Reuna (Matti Mäntylä). His performance was quite strange in Heath Ledger’s Joker-ish way, and I wouldn’t mind if the character was to re-emerge in some form on Finnish screens in the future.
A remake of Yön saalistajat? Aleksi Mäkelä, you reading this?
There’s going to be another screening of Dead Snow during the Night Visions -festival, so if you missed the first one, but are around in Helsinki – don’t miss this. Honestly, I haven’t seen a theaterful of Finnish filmgoers go so crazy over a film in ages. It’s really worth it, like a 12-pack of ice cold beer in a very good company. With Nazis. You can buy the tickets from here.
Can’t go wrong.
Ps. Special thanks to both the people of Night Visions and Helsinki Zombiewalk for helping us pulling this zombie walk stunt together! Too bad not too many zombies showed up, but at least we were one damn devoted bunch! Thanks, and be seeing you guys in the future Helsinki Zombiewalks!
Hello everyone! Night Visions Maximum Halloween 3009 starts today and it’s time for our first official diary entry from the festival! Let’s have a look at what movies to see and what events to attend during the rest of the week. The Zombies will be attending the festival every day (28.10-1.11) and we will be reporting from the scene in a form of a daily blog. So let’s get started.
The opening night of the festival is very cool. First up is the screening of our favorite Nazi-zombie movie, Dead Snow. Some of you might also know that we have been busy organizing a Dead Snow Zombie Walk to take place just before the screening in which the zombies will drag themselves across town to see the movie. Also as a special treat, Dead Snow screenwriter/actor Stig Frode Henriksen will be attending the screening and he will also be the judge of the zombie costume competition. Keep in mind that there is also another screening of the movie on saturday 31st and Henriksen will attend that one too (but there will be no zombies).
There are still a few tickets left, buy them here.
And here is the trailer.
Right after Dead Snow we will be hurrying to another movie, the Finnsploitation gangster flick, Yön Saalistajat. Actor Matti Mäntylä, who plays “Reuna” in the movie, will be attending the screening. After the movie the Zombies will be going to the anniversary/opening party at Maxim.
Get your tickets to the classic Yön Saalistajat here.
If you are not convinced yet, just check out the trailer.
Definitely one of the coolest events at Night Visions is THE CRISPIN GLOVER EXPERIENCE! The eccentric American actor and filmmaker has been an idol of mine for a long time and I can’t wait to see his “one man live-performance”. The Crispin Glover Experience contains a screening of his film It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine! (2007), Glover’s Big Slide Show, Q & A and a book signing.
You can only buy tickets to this event from Finnkino theaters (not from the website for some reason), so go get yours. This is one show you don’t wanna miss!
Also join us after the show for the official Night Visions after party at Piano 23:00 (Rauhankatu 15). You never know who will show up
I would also like to mention two very interesting films that you can see at the festival. Richard “Donnie Darko” Kelly’sThe Box and John Hillcoat’s post-apocalyptic tale The Road. I have been dying to see The Road for a while now and at one point it was unclear if they would ever get the movie finished. But they did and on Saturday I can see if it will live up to my (very high) expectation. Both of these movies are being distributed in Finland theatrically, so if you miss them on saturday, you can still see them later. This rule doesn’t apply to most off the movies, so Night Visions could be your only change.
A complete list of movies, schedules and more info can be found from the official site.
Allright, stay tuned because tomorrow we will be posting photos from the Zombie Walk and the anniversary screening of Yön Saalistajat.
For reasons that remain to be unclear tome, the plans to re-create Michael Jackson‘s Thriller as a feature film are afoot. I’m not surprised at all, the music video made in 1983 by John Landis and featuring Michael Jackson himself must be one of the greatest moments of Zombies on a screen of any size, and was a remarkably great and important part in making music videos have their golden age in the 80s that lasted all the way to late 90s. So picking a good old idea since everyone seems to be completely out of good new ideas is a natural way to go. Yet, making a remake of Thriller without Michael Jackson is like making The Predator without Arnold Schwarzenegger – and look how well that went…
. They’ve been shunned for quite some time, since the general atmosphere has been that animation is for kids… But now we’re starting to see more of these. Do you think there’s future in animations for adult audience?
