Source: http://online.indianagazette.com/
The zombie apocalypse seems to be starting in Indiana County. At least for Clyde residents.
Filming for the movie “12/24,” a zombie horror film that is set during Christmas Eve, is ongoing in the area around Holiday Lake.
The independent film studio Gargoyle Entertainment, of Pittsburgh, is shooting scenes for this project around the lake, using many residents’ land as sets. The shoots have been going on for the last few weekends, and are to resume tonight, (as in Saturday night) with about four days of shooting to go before they take a wrap.
While scouting for sets, the Clyde area was suggested to Matt Bonacci, partner in Gargoyle Entertainment and producer of the film, by Bonacci’s brother, a resident of the area.
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Source: http://www.ew.com/
There is high trash and low trash, and then there’s Troma Entertainment, which is trash in a class by itself. More than cheap, more than squalid or tawdry, the films of Troma have a special over-the-top rancid glee. The company enjoyed a moment of mainstream visibility in the ’80s, when it put out The Toxic Avenger, a midnight mutant bash that remains its signature film. With the occasional exception, though, Troma’s titles have skipped theaters to line the grimy back shelves of video stores. Dr. Hackenstein, Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy, Star Worms II: Attack of the Pleasure Pods…you get the picture.
Now Troma is back on the big screen — and, I’m glad to report, badder than ever. Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is a soft-core scatological zombie kitsch musical complete with social commentary. It was directed and co-written by Lloyd Kaufman, the company’s fabled president, who packs every skeevy genre in history into this mad, mod exploitation mishmash. Poultrygeist is as savage as Dawn of the Dead, as slapstick nutzoid as Evil Dead 2, as gag-on-your-popcorn gross as Pink Flamingos, and as dementedly foulmouthed literate as a Kevin Smith raunchfest. It’s genuine sick fun, and there isn’t a boring moment in it.
The movie is set at a fried-chicken franchise outlet that’s been built atop a Native American burial ground. As the demon fowls come home to roost, Kaufman mocks everything and everyone: the PC protesters in the parking lot (”Collegiate Lesbians Against Mega-Conglomerates” — i.e., CLAM), the wage-slave losers in the kitchen, the disgusting neck-and-beak chicken-grinding machine, the gay Hispanic dishwasher who gets turned, literally, into a talking sloppy joe. (Yes, it’s that kind of movie.) Jason Yachanin, as a rubber-faced geek, and Kate Graham, as a pigtailed porno babe, are terrific in the film’s surprisingly catchy musical numbers, all of which help to make Poultrygeist that rare and insane thing: an exploitation movie with soul.
Source: http://movies.ign.com/
Dance of the Dead is a low-budget comedy horror gem playing at this year’s Cannes. Already a hit at America’s SXSW festival, the film takes the simple equation that ‘zombies plus prom equals laughs’, and runs with it for 90 minutes of pure, unadulterated fun.
The plot is as ridiculous as horror plots get, revolving around discharge from a power plant bring the residents of a local cemetery back to life. It also happens to be prom time, with the pupils of Cosa High School holding their Hawaiian Hula Dance, and when the zombiesmunch their way through much of the town and eventually reach the school, all hell, quite literally, breaks loose.
Every zombie film owe a debt to the godfather of gore, George Romero, and Dance is no different, referencing Night of the Living Dead in the opening passages, andslipping in a knowing Dawn of the Dead gag when the zombies hit a supermarket.
And yet it’s very much its own beast, featuring wildly original ideas that take the genre in new and refreshing directions, from zombie frogs causing classroom carnage to zombie kids moshing at a zombie gig. Indeed, some of the scenes are truly inspired; a zombie love scenes a particular standout, and the vision of the undead leaping out of their graves on of the best of the fest thus far.
The young cast attack their roles with great enthusiasm, appearing to be the typical high school archetypes before actually turning into kids you care about. And director Greg Bishop shoots with such vim and vigour that you can’t help but be carried away by the marvellous momentum of it all. The result is perfect Friday night fodder; a zombie film that’s a blast from start to finish, and one that should inject new life into a genre that looked to be dead on its feet.
Source: http://www.fangoria.com/
Producer Richard Rubinstein gave Fango the scoop on a wild development concerning an upcoming revival of George A. Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD. Rubinstein, the man responsible for producing many of Romero’s films as well as the 2004 DAWN remake, is planning to rerelease the 1979 zombie epic in true 3-D! In-Three, Inc. of Agoura Hill, CA will be responsible for the “dimensionalization” process.
“When Mike Messina [another producer on the DAWN redux] and I began to investigate using In-Three’s technique, I was very skeptical,” Rubinstein tells Fango. “I couldn’t see how it could be used without re-editing George’s film, which I was not going to do. I was also concerned that converting a 29-year-old movie would not be competitive qualitatively with the new 3-D live-action features being shot today. I was wrong in both cases. George’s DAWN OF THE DEAD can be reformatted into 3-D without any editing, and the image looks spectacular! As it stands now, it will take about a year to complete the conversion of the whole film.” Indeed, In-Three’s work has been hailed by George Lucas, James Cameron and Peter Jackson, among others.
Lucky FANGORIA chief Tony Timpone got a sneak peek at several scenes of the 3-D DAWN in NYC, and came away suitably impressed. “I was blown away by how easily DAWN OF THE DEAD lends itself to 3-D,” he says. “This is not a gimmick. Romero’s film looks better than ever, and the extra dimension adds, well, another vibrant dimension to Romero’s masterpiece. I can’t wait to see the final product when it emerges in 2009. The idea of seeing a spiffed-up DAWN—the original!—on the big screen again is a cause for celebration.”
Rubinstein also has plans to create a direct sequel to the original DAWN (!) and will be producing a new screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s DUNE, to be directed by Peter (THE KINGDOM) Berg. Keep checking this site for further developments on both DAWN projects.
Source: http://www.cinemablend.com/
Brandon Routh’s intended big break didn’t exactly work out as planned—despite grossing $200 million domestically, Superman Returns was written off as a failure, and not too many people were exactly dazzling by Routh’s Christopher Reeve-mimicing performance.
But Routh, being a trouper and all, isn’t giving up, and is actually daring to return to the realm of comic book adaptations. Well, at least a much, much less revered and famous comic book. Variety writes that he’ll star in Dead of Night, an adaptation of the Italian graphic novel series Dylan Dog. Kevin Munroe, who delighted some with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles retread TMNT last spring, will direct.
As a story, Dead of Night sounds closer to 30 Days of Night than Superman. Routh will play a private investigator who gets wrapped up in the world of the undead. Really, it sounds like a good fit for him. His blankness could work well as a P.I., who, as we all know from Philip Marlowe and the like, tend to be a little dead-eyed. And, of course, everyone loves their zombies, seemingly more than they love their clean-cut American icons.
Routh deserves better than what’s come to him since Superman was inexplicably damned, so here’s hoping this can offer a second chance for the Man of Steel. If nothing else, the movie will offer a chance to see Superman fighting zombies. Admit it—that’s something you’ve always wanted to see.
Source: http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/
Before Diary of the Dead - hell, before Land of the Dead - George Romero (interview) was developing a horror-comedy-rock flick called Diamond Dead. Written by Brian Cooper and Romero, the story focused on the eponymous band who were, well, zombies and were managed by Death, a hot piece of ass named Aria De Winter.
The project was generating some steam a few years back. A heavy online push was in the works. Then everything fell apart. But according to Cinematical, “Diamond” is getting polished off for development once again. Here’s an excerpt from a recent news item by Ryan Starnes:
“I got a phone call two days ago, before I came here, from the producer saying ‘We’re back!’” [Romero] says, noting that he was more surprised than anyone because he worked for years on the project and “it looked dead.” Since the financing has apparently just kicked in as this is going to press, no further details are available.
We’ll see where it goes from here. Romero is eager to get back in the saddle for his Diary of the Dead sequel. At this point, it all depends on which film races to the finish line first with all of its financing in place.
Source: http://www.moviesonline.ca/
Not long ago MacReady gave you the full synopsis for Diary of the Dead 2 and told you it would start shooting in March. Now comes word from an un-named insider who tells us that George Romero despite some early comments about not directing the film WILL be directing it. We cant confirm this information just yet but the source has been solid on past ’scoops’. So we trust her!
The cast still has to be announced. But be warned, the synopsis might contain spoilers for all (and i guess thats most of you) who haven’t had a chance to see “Diary of the Dead” at a festival yet. You don’t care? No problem, read the synopsis below the image.
The “Diary” continues. Our heroes, trapped in the mansion where we left them, battle waves of ravenous zombies, barely escaping alive. In search of a safe place to settle, they commandeer an abandoned ferry and sail to a deserted island, only to find that it is already populated by a civilization of the dead.
Told in the same first-person style that distinguished “George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead”, the next episode of the saga is a violent siege set in the middle of nowhere, a desperate struggle for survival, and peace, between two tribes: the living and the living dead.
