George Romero R.I.P
Legendary filmmaker George A. Romero, father of the modern movie zombie and creator of the ground-breaking Night of the Living Dead and subsequent franchise, has died at 77.
Romero died Sunday in his sleep after a “brief but aggressive battle with lung cancer,” according to a statement by his longtime producing partner, Peter Grunwald. Romero died while listening to the score of one his favourite films, 1952’s “The Quiet Man,” with his wife, Suzanne Desrocher Romero, and daughter, Tina Romero, at his side, the family said.
Romero jump-started the zombie genre as the co-writer (with John A. Russo) and director of the 1968 movie Night of the Living Dead, which went to inspire future generations of filmmakers such as Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter that generating big scares didn’t require big budgets. Living Dead spawned an entire school of zombie knockoffs, and Romero’s sequels included 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, 1985’s Day of the Dead, 2005’s Land of the Dead, 2007’s Diary of the Dead and 2009’s George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead.
In recent years, as the zombie genre had a resurgence, Romero wasn’t always a fan. He told a British newspaper in 2013 that he’d been asked to do some episodes of The Walking Dead, but had no interest.
“Basically it’s just a soap opera with a zombie occasionally,” he told the Big Issue. “I always used the zombie as a character for satire or a political criticism, and I find that missing in what’s happening now.”
Romero took an intellectual view to his depiction of zombies, an approach he found lacking in some of the work that came after him.
“I grew up on these slow-moving-but-you-can’t-stop-them [creatures], where you’ve got to find the Achilles’ heel, or in this case, the Achilles’ brain,” Romero told The LA Times in 2005, referring to the organ whose destruction waylays a zombie. “In [the remake] they’re just dervishes, you don’t recognize any of them, there’s nothing to characterize them…. [But] I like to give even incidental zombies a bit of identification. I just think it’s a nice reminder that they’re us. They walked out of one life and into this.”
A sad day for my fellow horror fans, Romero kick-started so much of what we have come to love over the last 50 years. Rest in Peace.
Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead
If you loved Aussie zom flick Wyrmwood: Road Of The Dead, check out this peek at the TV series Wyrmwood: Chronicles Of The Dead. It’s gore-tastic.
Check out their facebook page HERE
Tales of Halloween
The horror anthology Tales of Halloween boasts contributions from a small army of well-regarded genre directors, an even larger number of terror veterans in its cast, and opening theme music from legendary Bullitt and Dirty Harry composer Lalo Schifrin. The movie, brainchild of writer-director Axelle Carolyn, which Epic Pictures is releasing in theaters and on VOD, Oct. 16 The film has a new poster by Drew Struzan, the legendary artist whose work played such a seminal role in the marketing campaigns of the Star Wars, Back to the Future, and Indiana Jones movies, to name a few.
In a statement from The Descent filmmaker Neil Marshall, who directs one of the 10 interconnected Tales of Halloween segments, he explains how Struzan came to produce the image (turns out it doesn’t hurt to cast him in your movie).
To film geeks and movie poster collectors such as myself, Drew Struzan represents something that often seems to have been lost in recent years; the ART of movie poster design. The ability of someone to capture the essence of a movie in a single painted image and create a genuine work of art you’d be proud to hang on your wall. So it’s an unbelievable privilege for our little film to be blessed by one of Drew’s beautiful paintings. It was incredible enough to have Drew play his first ever cameo (along with his son Christian) in my segment of Tales of Halloween. The poster itself came about when Axelle (Carolyn, my wife and also creator, producer and fellow director of the movie) plucked up the courage to ask him over dinner one night. I suspect though, since Drew is such a thoughtful and generous person, that he might have been upset if we hadn’t asked him. Either way, we’re honoured to have Drew’s incredible artwork grace our movie, and I for one will be making space on my wall for this beautiful poster.
Eroding Designs – Classic Horror T-Shirts
Check out these awesome, locally made t-shirts featuring classic movies imagined by a 5 year old… Designs available An American Werewolf in London, Dawn of the Dead and Godzilla. Purchase them for only $20 including postage HERE
Wes Craven R.I.P
Director Wes Craven died on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles. Craven was 76 and passed away at home surrounded by his family after battling brain cancer.
From his first feature film The Last House On The Left as writer, director and editor in 1972, Craven made his mark as a genre-bending, bracingly innovative horror director with a biting sense of humour. Craven also consistently demonstrated that he was a filmmaker with heart. Among the films that followed The Last House On The Left were The Hills Have Eyes and a sequel, Deadly Blessing (featuring Sharon Stone in her first starring role) and Swamp Thing (based on the comic book).
Craven reinvented the youth horror genre again in 1984 with the now classic A Nightmare On Elm Street, in which he turned Robert Englund into a cult icon with the role of Freddy Krueger. The movie spawned several sequels, none of them directed by Craven, however, he deconstructed the genre a decade after the original, writing and directing the audacious Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, which was nominated for Best Feature at the 1995 Independent Spirit Awards.
In 1996 Craven experienced yet another rebirth in horror with the release of Scream, which he directed from a script by Kevin Williamson. Scream sparked multiple sequels and spoofs.
One of the last projects Craven worked on was MTV’s series adaptation of Scream, on which he served as executive producer. The series was recently renewed for a second season. “Wes Craven was a tremendous visionary whose sensibility for scares has connected with generations of MTV fans,” MTV said in a statement. “We are honored to have worked with him and proud to carry on his legacy with Scream. Our hearts go out to his family and friends.”
Craven took a breather from horror between Scream 2 and Scream 3, when he seized an opportunity to direct a non-genre film for Miramax, Music Of The Heart (1999), which earned star Meryl Streep an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. That same year he completed his first novel, The Fountain Society, published by Simon & Shuster.
Craven continued to stretch his creative boundaries with the 2005 thriller Red Eye, starring Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy and Brian Cox. The following year he switched gears again to write and direct a romantic comedy homage to Oscar Wilde featuring Emily Mortimer and Rufus Sewell as a segment in the popular French ensemble anthology Paris Je T’aime.
He then returned to horror as producer of remakes of two of his earlier films, The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and The Last House On The Left (2009). Craven’s most recent written and directed film, My Soul To Take (2010), once again brought together a cast of up-and-coming actors. It marked Craven’s first collaboration with wife and producer Iya Labunka, who also produced Scream 4, which reunited Craven with screenwriter Williamson, as well as with stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, joined by newcomers Emma Roberts and Hayden Pannetierre.
Remaining creatively engaged and active until his death, Craven had signed an overall TV deal with Universal Cable Productions. He had a number of projects in development including The People Under The Stairs and We Are All Completely Fine with Syfy, Disciples with UCP, and Sleepers with Federation Entertainment.
Craven also recently wrote and was scheduled to direct the “Thou Shalt Not Kill” segment for The Weinstein Company/WGN’s Ten Commandments miniseries. Additionally he was working on a graphic novel series based on his original idea “Coming Of Rage” for Liquid Comics in collaboration with Steve Niles.
Craven was an executive producer of the upcoming feature The Girl In The Photographs, which will premiere next month the 2015 Toronto Film Festival.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Craven was a nature lover and committed bird conservationist, serving as a long-time member of the Audubon California Board of Directors. A longtime summer resident of Martha’s Vineyard, he had moved there permanently three years ago before returning to Los Angeles for work and health reasons.
Fear The Walking Dead
Welcome to the first 3 1/2 minutes of AMC’s companion series to The Walking Dead that premieres Sunday in the States. Frank Dillane stars along with Cliff Curtis, Kim Dickens, and Alycia Debnam Carey in the AMC Studios series. Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero and David Alper executive producer alongside showrunner Dave Erickson, who co-created and co-wrote the pilot with Kirkman. Watch the beginnings of the zombie apocalypse unfold in Los Angeles below.
R.I.P. Rowdy Roddy Piper
WWE legend “Rowdy” Roddy Piper died after suffering a heart attack in his Hollywood home. He was 61.
Piper’s agent Jay Schacter confirmed the news, first reported by TMZ, to Variety. “Rod passed peacefully in his sleep last night,” Schacter said in an email. “I am shocked and beyond devastated.” Piper had suffered a bout of Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2006 but was reportedly deemed cancer-free last November.
Born Roderick George Toombs, Piper joined the WWE in 1984 after getting his start with the NWA in the late 1970s. He and Hulk Hogan met in landmark matchups including MTV’s “The War to Settle the Score” and the first WrestleMania, where Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff took on Hogan and Mr. T.
Not being much of a wrestling fan I loved Piper for his film work, specifically They Live and Hell Comes To Frogtown.
Hell Comes to Frogtown (1987) was created by Donald G. Jackson, set in an post apocalyptic wasteland where few fertile men and women exist due to atomic fallout and, as a result, the government places a high priority on those that can still breed. Sam Hell (Piper), a nomadic traveler who wanders the countryside is captured by an organization of warrior-nurses, who reveal that they located him by tracking the trail of pregnant women left in his wake. Awesome fun.
They Live follows a nameless drifter referred to as Nada (Piper), who discovers the ruling class are in fact aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed and accept the status quo via subliminal messages in the mass media (way ahead of its time!).
Director John Carpenter wanted Roddy Piper after they met at WrestleMania III earlier in 1987. For Carpenter it was an easy choice: “Unlike most Hollywood actors, Roddy has life written all over him.”
The movie featured Roddy’s now famous line: “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I’m all out of bubblegum.” R.I.P. Roddy.
F. W. Murnau Skull Stolen From Grave
The skull of director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, best known for vampire classic Nosferatu (1922), has disappeared from his grave in Stahnsdorf, outside of Berlin, German media reports said citing authorities.
The skull was discovered to be missing on Monday and slight damage to the grave led authorities to believe that it had been stolen. The theft is thought to have taken place between July 4 and July 12, according to the reports. Police opened a probe and called on possible witnesses to come forward.
F. W. Murnau died in a car accident in Santa Barbara in 1931 at the age of 42. He was buried back in German, and over the years, his tomb has become a kind of tourist spot for Satanists. His Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans won a two Oscars at the first-ever Academy Awards in 1929.
Ash from Army of Darkness – By David Hardy
An awesome caricature by David Hardy. After I posted Dave’s last artwork of Daryl from The Walking Dead, Dave asked who I’d like to see next! Who to choose… I went for everyone’s favourite undead slayer Ash from Army of Darkness. Awesome as usual.
The Nightmare – Trailer
A look at a frightening condition that plagues thousands; sleep paralysis. Directed by Rodney Ascher (Room 237), The Nightmare recreates the hypnagogic hallucinations that these people experience… terrifying shadowmen, spectral cats, sudden spiders and menacing spirits…
Daryl Dixon – By David Hardy
Here is the 3rd amazing caricature from The Walking Dead by artist David Hardy. Following on from his exceptional art of Rick Grimes, and Michonne, Dave has created possibly his best work so far – Daryl Dixon. Enjoy.
Own An Original Rick Baker Prop!
Legendary special make-up effects artist Rick Baker
is auctioning off his creations on May 29. The collection includes 417 lots from 50 productions spanning Baker’s career. Its estimated total value is $750,000, and pre-bidding started April 16.
Prop Store will sell the items in a no-reserve auction starting at 11 a.m. PDT at the Hilton Universal City in Los Angeles; bids can be made in person, via telephone (+1 818-727-7829) or online HERE.
An online edition of the full-color catalog features additional images and videos. Follow the link to download the full Rick Baker: Monster Maker catalogue HERE
Here are some of the items available:
-Full-Size Alien Edgar Bug Animatronic Character, Men in Black (estimated value: $30,000 – $40,000)
-Servo Operated Mohawk Mogwai Puppet, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (estimated value: $6,000 – $8,000)
-Michael Jackson Complete Head Lifecast, Michael Jackson: Moonwalker (estimated value: $1,000 – $1,500)
-Incredible Melting Man Zombie Face and Hand Appliances, Michael Jackson: Thriller (estimated value: $400 – $600)
-Mid-Transformation Werewolf Back Mold, An American Werewolf in London (estimated value: $800 – $1,000)
Michonne by David Hardy
Check out this awesome Michonne caricature by David Hardy, a fantastic companion piece to his exceptional Rick Grimes artwork from late 2013.
Night of the Living Dead – Comics!
This June, the will dead rise again as Double Take (2T) launches Ultimate Night of the Living Dead, with three new comics set in the universe of the 1968 film. Digital previews of all three premier issues are available now at the Double Take Universe site HERE
Much more than just a singular launch, this marks the first releases in a major initiative surrounding the classic horror franchise, which frightened moviegoers all around the world and made zombies a household name. Having commissioned a new generation of writers to breathe new life into the classic franchise, 2T has a dozen series in the works – some following characters from the film in surprising new directions; other stories are all new.
The Walking Dead – Spinoff Series
News collated from The Hollywood Reporter offers the first real details about The Walking Dead spinoff series:
Cliff Curtis (Gang related) stars as Sean Cabrera, a teacher who shares a son with his ex-wife. Sons of Anarchy‘s Kim Dickens is set to co-star as Nancy, a guidance counselor who works at the school with Sean and is seeing him romantically. Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) co-stars as Nancy’s son Nick, who has battled a drug problem. And Alycia Debnam Carey (Into the Woods) is set as Nancy’s ambitious daughter Ashley, who is the polar opposite of Nick and has dreams of leaving L.A. for Berkeley when the apocalypse strikes.
The Walking Dead companion — first announced in September 2013 — could give AMC a zombie drama in every quarter, given the six-episode freshman season’s summer bow. The flagship, which resumes production in the summer, airs the first half of its season in October and the second half in February. The offshoot series comes as The Walking Deadevolved to megahit status. The zombie drama, overseen by showrunner Scott M. Gimple, ranks as TV’s No. 1 drama series among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic.
“We take incredibly seriously the notion of building a satisfying companion series to the No. 1 show on television. From the beginning of The Walking Dead on AMC, we’ve been asked questions about what was going on in other parts of the zombie apocalypse, and what it looked like as the world really did ‘turn.’ Through this new series, we’re going to find out,” AMC president Charlie Collier said in making the announcement Monday. “Robert Kirkman, Dave Erickson and their writing team, along with an incomparable set of producers, cast and crew have created something remarkable and clearly distinct. We respectfully follow the request of Monty Python as we bring out (the latest of) our Dead.”
“We feel empowered by this two-season commitment, a serious show of faith from our network partner AMC,” Kirkman said. “I personally take it as a sign that they believe, like we do, that we’ve accomplished our goal of developing something original that can pay tribute to the original show and expand the world I created while at the same time having something new to say with this story. I’m very grateful that we now have the opportunity to tell this amazing story and show the fans that we really haven’t scratched the surface yet when it comes to The Walking Dead.”
AMC Global — the cabler’s international network, has acquired the international televisions rights to the series, which it will air within 24 hours of the U.S. premiere — something Fox International Channels does with the flagship series.
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