The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse

Photo by nicolas genin

George A. Romero. The father of the modern zombie. Arguably the most influential filmmaker in the horror genre. Legend. Icon.

And, as it turns out, a pretty nice guy.

When I first launched this site, one of the biggest things I hoped it would eventually lead to was a chance to talk to George A. Romero (my very first post was a happy birthday message to him!). This past weekend, it did and I got 20 minutes with the man himself. It wasn’t long, certainly, but it was still pretty fucking great. We talked about The Walking Dead, video games, what he’s working on and lots more. I’m sure I don’t have to sell you on reading this — if you’re reading this site, you love zombies. If you love zombies, you’re going to want to read this. So onward…

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Return of the Living Dead 3

Yesterday marked the halfway point of the fifth annual Zombie Movie Marathon Month, so it seemed like a good time to check in. For those of you who haven’t been reading since last time, ZMMM is my annual month-long zombie-a-day film fest: one zombie movie a day, every day, for an entire month. For those who have been reading a while, you may be wondering why the hell this is happening now, rather than in June as it has in years past. My reasons are twofold:

1) My wife has long petitioned for me to move the marathon to a fall/winter month, arguing (rightly) that we have too much going on in summer — camping, travel, friends visiting — to give up time every day in June to watch a zombie movie. This might have been reason enough but then something came along to seal the deal…

2) We had a baby May 29, two days before I would have ostensibly started the marathon. Let me tell you, having a newborn in the house makes it pretty hard to get something like this done. It’s been hard enough now, and she’s almost five month old! Bottom line is, June was out, so October is in! And let’s face it, October is a more fitting month anyway.

Okay, on to this year!

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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… News post by Johnathon Brock and Cory Casciato. Got news tips? E-mail them to cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com. Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead.

Here’s a nice in depth write up of the indie zombie bromantic comedy DeadHeads which hits DVD February 22. (Canberra Times)

Bill Hinzman, the first zombie to appear in the Romero classic Night of the Living Dead, passed away this past week at the age of 76. I mean this in the most respectful way that I hope he rises from the grave to come and get us all. (We Are Movie Geeks)

Every now and then a trailer comes along that makes us here at the IZA remember why we love zombie movies. Osombie is a movie about the re-animated corpse of Osama Bin Laden and the mission wherein a group of military operatives go to kill him, again. Check it out after the break and get ready for what will be an amazing ride. (First Showing)

It looks like the fine folks over at Machinima have teamed up with Lionsgate and FEARnet to bring season two of Bite Me, the zombie webseries, back to life. (c21 media)

It looks like Tom Savini is really pushing to play the coveted role of The Governor when the role inevitably emerges on The Walking Dead, but he might have some stiff competition ahead of him. Personally I’m hoping he gets the role. (MTV)

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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… News post by Johnathon Brock and Cory Casciato. Got news tips? E-mail them to cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com. Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead.

This piece of custom firepower from the fine folks at DoubleStar weapons is the last thing you’ll ever need in the zombie apocalypse. Check it out in action after the break. (Dvice)

We’ve got a cute trailer for the upcoming book the Girls Guide to Dating Zombies after the break. (Dread Central)

SPOILER ALERT: If you’re caught up on The Walking Dead and want to see what’s in store for next weekends premiere, then check out the first three minutes of episode 8 after the break. (Superhero Hype)

There’s a new trailer out for the latest upcoming DLC add-on for Dead Island and it looks pretty interesting. This looks to be a solo mission for all you multiplayer fans of the game. Check it out after the break. (Game Bandits)

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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… News post by Johnathon Brock and Cory Casciato. Got news tips? E-mail them to cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com. Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead.

The Resident Evil franchise had a pretty big week. Capcom released the first trailer for Resident Evil 6 and from the cut scenes and game play footage it looks like the story will be more of a return to the classic environment, with some new action elements that will be a welcome addition. Check it out after the break. (UberGizmo)

The trailer for Resident Evil: Retribution also dropped last week. Check it out after the break, along with a nice interview with Milla Jovovich. It looks like they’re pulling out all the stops on this one. EVERYONE from the previous films returns, and I’m still not sure how that’s possible, but I’m excited. (Hit Fix)

Indie zombie flick Zompocalypso failed to raise the then thousand it needed for production on Kickstarter so now they’ve moved to a new fundraising site in hopes of making twenty four thousand. (Edit: here’s the actual fundraising site, per comment below: http://www.indiegogo.com/CORNBRED) That’s not really how it works, but I wish them the best of luck. I’d link to their trailer, but it’s listed as private on youtube. (Patch)

Here’s a nice write up of the Murfreesboro Anime and Comic Con that I was at this past weekend. None of you came to buy my books, so I’m disappointed in all of you… Shameless plugs aside, the real star of the con was Madison Lintz who plays Sophia on The Walking Dead. I got the chance to speak with her and she’s genuinely a cool, down to earth actress. (Murfreesboro Post)

Zombies vs Robots has been a pretty good seller for IDW comics and they’re capitalizing on that by releasing some direct download digital comics for .99 cents a piece through several e-reader formats. (Comic Book Resources)

After the break, check out a teaser and the pilot episode from the upcoming zombie webseries Livin’ With Steve, an animated comedy that looks better than most of the Fox networks Sunday night lineup. (Horror Movies Canada)

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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… News post by Johnathon Brock and Cory Casciato. Got news tips? E-mail them to cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com. Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead.

Here’s a nice photo gallery and a look at the zombie filled events that took place at EverCon earlier this month. (Wausau Daily Herald)

Do you ever wonder what a zombie outbreak would look like in real time, spread over weeks, making the front page of CNN, Twitter, Youtube, etc? Well one graphic artist is documenting this fake outbreak and it’s a really interesting thing to check out, so check it out. (io9)

It looks like AMC is placing bets on another stellar season of The Walking Dead because early reports show that the third season will get 16 episodes instead of the current season’s 13, or last season’s six. (Hollywood Reporter)

Speaking of The Walking Dead, show runner Glen Mazzara recently gave an interview debunking the recent rumors that AMC cancelled the proposed season two flashback opener over budgetary reasons, which led to Frank Darabont’s departure. (Hollywood Reporter)

Chris Hardwick gives an interview talking about how his hosting gig on The Talking Dead came to be and also his thoughts on how the character of The Walking Dead would fare on his early ’90s dating show Singled Out. (Buy Zombie)

At a recent convention, comic book superstar artist and writer Frank Cho hinted that his next big project would involve Zombie King, one of his earlier titles. This could be the screen adaptation we’ve been waiting for if the rumors are true. (Examiner)

A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… News post by Johnathon Brock and Cory Casciato. Got news tips? E-mail them to cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com. Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead.

Well for everyone wondering what happened with the whole Frank Darabont/AMC debacle over The Walking Dead, your questions are sort of answered from one side of things. Sam Witwer, of Being Human fame, gives a video interview (after the break) where he goes into detail about plot ideas for season two that were scrapped due to budgetary issues and says some pretty heated, angry things about AMC and their decision to remove Darabont from the show. Darabont later confirms this story in a letter to the editors. Witwer was the tank zombie in the pilot episode, although his role went uncredited at the time. (Ain’t It Cool News)

JAKKS Pacific, the company famous for those horrible plug and play tv games based on your favorite franchises, is back at it and plan to release a series of shooter style games based on The Walking Dead later this year. I think at this point I can safely say the franchise is getting a little over saturated with unnecessary products. (Kotaku)

With production winding down, we’ve got some more concrete and specific plot details for the fifth entry into the Resident Evil film series. Also, they’ve decided to call it Re5ident Evil: Retribution, which sounds horrible. Horrible. (Bloody Disgusting)

After the break, you have to check out this odd “camera pointed at tv” clip from Class3, the upcoming zombie MMO which will be an Xbox 360 exclusive. If nothing else, this video at least gives some confidence and assurance that the game is actually being made, and so far it looks as good as the previous hype. (Buy Zombie)

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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… News post by Johnathon Brock and Cory Casciato. Got news tips? E-mail them to cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com. Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead.

After the break, check out a sneak peek at the upcoming mid season premiere of The Walking Dead in February. This is going to be a good year, and The Walking Dead is most definitely a reason for that. (Dread Central)

It looks like Asylum, who have brought us amazing straight to video knock offs like Transmorphers and Alien vs. Hunter, are going to give us what we really want and release Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies on DVD right before Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter hits theaters this year. I think I’ll save $20 and stick with the zombies. Alright, I’ll see both. (Dread Central)

Well Brad Pitt isn’t the only one bringing big zombie dollars to international locations. The Zombie King, which will star Corey Feldman and Edward Furlong in a thrilling adventure of undead…adventure, will premiere in London in August. (This is Somerset)

It looks like the upcoming indie hit A Little Bit Zombie is set to invade the Swiss territories for the 18th annual Victoria Film Festival this year. (Times Colonist)

The team behind Project Zomboid has arisen from their setback earlier last year when weeks worth of development were lost during a robbery and after the break you can see two new videos of their improved lighting and carpentry engine. This is going to be a great game when it’s done. (PC Gamer)

Speaking of games, there’s a new zombie game based on a childhood classic for those of us about 30 or older. The Men Who Wear Many Hats are working to bring us the Organ Trail, where you try to escape the zombie apocalypse (and hopefully typhoid and broken axles) while en route to a safe destination. Check out their Kickstarter page to donate. (Wired)

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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… News post by Johnathon Brock and Cory Casciato. Got news tips? E-mail them to cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com. Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead.

Happy New Year zombie maniacs! Johnathon and Cory here ready to bring you another great year of undead news, reviews, and all the best information that those brain eating bastards have to offer. I’m not big on New Year’s posts so I’ll just say hello, welcome the old readers and the new readers alike, and with that in mind let’s get to the news!

Author Greg Lamberson announced recently that his third zombie novella Carnage Road, about two motorcycle gang members who take their final ride during the last days of the zombie apocalypse, will be released this April. (Horror Year Book)

After it was announced last year there wasn’t a lot of information about The Walking Dead board game that dropped this past holiday season. Well here’s an in depth review of what looks to be a pretty damn good evening if you’ve got three friends. (Comic Book Movie)

After the break, check out this video of slingshot guru Joerg Sprave showing off his latest beauty which is equipped with a few lethal add-ons for when you need to kill a zombie with a slingshot and run out of rocks or ball bearings. (TechnaBob)

Well it looks like, according to Brad Pitt, World War Z will be distributed as a trilogy of films should the initial movie do well. Personally I’m not a huge fan of the changes from the book that are being made but since it’s a new year I’ll remain cautiously optimistic. (L.A. Times)

We can thank the fine people over at Focus Films for picking up Juan of the Dead for US theater and digital distribution sometime in April this year. (Shadowlocked)

In some breaking news, it looks like Lily Collins (yes, the daughter of Phil Collins) will play the lead role of Mia in the Evil Dead reboot. Mia is being described as the “Ash-like character” as well as the character who, as described in earlier news, is at the cabin for drug detox, which explains why no one believes her when she starts noticing the undead attacks on the cabin. (Bloody Disgusting)

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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… News post by Johnathon Brock and Cory Casciato. Got news tips? E-mail them to cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com. Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead.

We’re not one to spam contests here at the IZA, but AMC is giving away the Hyundai Tuscon that Shane drove during season two of The Walking Dead. As usual, you’re going to have to give out personal information, but you can enter once a day and it’s a pretty slick car honestly. (Torque News)

If you happen to have an extra $80 lying around after the holidays you can pick up a glow in the dark crowbar for easily smashing zombies or breaking into safe houses after the undead apocalypse. (Digital Trends)

Sometimes making a zombie movie can be a bigger financial disaster than expected, especially if you try to cheat on your taxes. That was the case for one director who now owes millions of dollars. (DesMoines Register)

It was announced recently that The Walking Dead graphic novels are dominating the annual New York Times bestseller lists. (CNN)

It looks like the owners of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise are getting ready to sue the living daylights out of Antarctic Press for their Diary of a Zombie Kid novel. Hopefully the parody argument will still hold up because this is a ridiculous lawsuit. (Paid Content)