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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - October 2nd

"ZOMBIELAND" released in 2009

Two months have passed since a mutated strain of mad cow disease mutated into "mad person disease" that became "mad zombie disease" which overran the entire United States population with vicious, flesh-eating zombies, in Ruben Fleischer's Zombieland!

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In the midst of the zombie apocalypse, an unaffected college student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) makes his way cross country from his dorm in Austin, Texas. Cowardly and ackward, Columbus has survived "zombieland" by following a strict set of rules he has set for himself; always checking the back-seat, beware of bathrooms, always limber up and maintain good cardio, and never - ever - be a hero. Columbus later encounters Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), another survivor who is particularly violent in killing zombies, and though he doesn't appear to be sociable, Tallahassee reluctantly allows Columbus to travel with him. During their travels, Tallahassee mentions he misses his puppy that was killed by zombies, as well as his affinity for Twinkies; it is this continuous search which eventually leads them to a supermarket to find some. After Tallahassee gleefully kills a pair of zombies, they meet up with another pair of survivors named Wichita (Emma Stone) and her younger sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). Unbeknownst to them, Wichita and Little Rock are con artists, and trick Tallahassee and Columbus into handing over their weapons by pretending that Little Rock was infected by the disease, then steal their Escalade. The two men find a yellow Hummer H2 loaded with weapons and go after the sisters, but are tricked again with Little Rock holding Columbus hostage. Tallahassee steals his gun back and has a stand-off with Wichita, until Columbus lashes out in anger that they have bigger problems to worry about, resulting in an uneasy truce between them. As the group begin driving west, the sisters reveal that they are going to the Pacific Playland amusement park in Los Angeles, an area supposedly free of zombies, and, after learning his home town has been destroyed and his parents likely killed, Columbus decides to accompany the others to California. When the group reaches Hollywood, Tallahassee directs them to Bill Murray's mansion, where Tallahasse and Wichita find, to their surprise, that Murray is actually uninfected but disguised as a zombie so he can walk safely around town (and play golf). Murray ends up being accidentally shot by Columbus after Tallahasse convinces Murray to scare him disguised as a zombie. Later that night, the group plays Monopoly (with real hundred dollar bills) when  Tallahassee reveals he has not been grieving for his puppy, but rather for his young son. Wichita and Columbus begin to find themselves atrracted to each other and even Tallahasse and Little Rock starting to bond. Despite Wichita's attraction to Columbus, she fears attachment and leaves with Little Rock for Pacific Playland the next morning. That night at Pacific Playland, the sisters activate all the rides and lights and begin to enjoy the park, but also unwittingly draw the attention of all the zombies in the surrounding area. Meanwhile, Columbus decides to go after Wichita, and finally convinces Tallahassee to join him, but by the time they arrive, zombies have Wichita and Little Rock trapped at the top of drop tower ride called Blast Off. As Tallahasse draws the zombie horde, Columbus begins to realizes it may be time to forget some of his rules and adopt one from Tallahasse if he is to save Wichita - nut up, or shut up!

[first lines]
Columbus: Oh, America. I wish I could tell you that this was still America, but I've come to realize that you can't have a country without people. And there are no people here. No, my friends. This is now the United States of Zombieland.

Top:  A very different pair of companions; the cowardly Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and the violent zombie-killer, Tallahasse (Woody Harrelson) and Above:   sister con artists Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin)

The story for Zombieland was originally developed in 2005 as a spec script for television pilot, with writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick working on the project for nearly four-and-a-half years. With no success, Reese and Wernick heavily revised the script into a feature film, where it featured on the 2007 Blacklist, a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year. Earlier versions of the script called the protagonists Flagstaff and Albuquerque, rather than Columbus and Tallahassee, and the female characters were called Wichita and Stillwater - all were later changed, except for Wichita. The "Zombie Kill of the Week" was left in the screenplay from the script's origin as a TV pilot, as the writers planned for each weekly episode to have a Zombie Kill of the Week performed by characters on the show. Director Ruben Fleischer also helped Reese and Wernick develop the script from a series into a self-contained feature by providing a specific destination to the road story, the amusement park. When the screenplay was eventually picked up by Columbia Pictures, the studio requested they change the name, which at that time was Another Day in Zombieland, to simply Zombieland, as they feared the original title made the film sound like a sequel.

According to the filmmakers, Kirk Ward was originally considered for the role of Tallahassee, before Woody Harrelson was cast in the role (Ward would then go on to play Tallahassee in the TV series pilot). Harrelson accepted the role on four conditions, two of which were about casting and crew, with the third condition required the film to have an environmentally conscious set. The fourth condition required that the director not eat dairy products for a week, a task which Fleischer described was "like for an alcoholic not to drink". He succeeded and maintained a vegetarian diet for 11 months. Jamie Bell was originally cast as Columbus but dropped out, with Taylor Lautner being briefly considered to fill the role, before casting Jesse Eisenberg. Ironically, Eisenberg's character is supposed to be deathly afraid of clowns, when in real-life Eisenberg's mother once worked as a party clown. Emma Stone was originally cast to play the role of "406", while the studio auditioned Evan Rachel Wood,  Megan Fox, and Amber Tamblyn for the role of Wichita. Eventually Wood and Fox declined the role and Stone was cast in their place, with Amber Heard taking her place as the character of "406". Abigail Breslin was later cast as Wichita's sister, Little Rock. The celebrity who would cameo as himself was originally written as a zombified, dancing Patrick Swayze, including references to highlights of Swayze's career, even including a recreation of the potter's wheel scene from Ghost. Later versions of the script considered Sylvester Stallone, Joe Pesci, Mark Hamill, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Jean-Claude Van Damme or Matthew McConaughey as the celebrity, but Bill Murray eventually played the part, most of which was improvised according to Harrelson.

Little Rock: Who's Bill Murray?
Tallahassee: I've never hit a kid before. I mean, that's like asking who Gandhi is.
Little Rock: [confused] Who's Gandhi?

Top:   The Zombie "Kill of the Week";

Above:   The group have a moment of silence for Bill Murray - who Columbus accidentally shot.

Principal photography began February 2009 in Hollywood, California, with scenes being shot at Scream Fest Theme Park and other locations. Contrary to popular belief, the supermarket scene was not filmed at an actual supermarket, but on a set built from scratch to look like a real supermarket, with some of the merchandise being fake. For example, the stuff behind the glass refrigerator doors is just printed on paper. According to the producers, it was cheaper than buying out a supermarket and paying them for broken merchandise. The theme park scenes for the film's climax, Pacific Playland, were mostly shot in Valdosta, Georgia's local theme park Wild Adventures Water and Theme Park. Some of the rides prominently featured in the film include Pharaoh's Fury; the Double Shot (redubbed "Blast Off"); the Rattler; the Aviator; and the Bug Out. A haunted house facade was constructed at the theme park, but the interior was filmed on location at Netherworld Haunted House outside the city limits of Atlanta. After nearly 42 days of shooting, young star Abigail Breslin celebrated her 13th birthday in set by adopting a shelter puppy.

Special effects makeup designer Tony Gardner, who helped Rick Baker create the signature look of Michael Jackson's music video Thriller and has contributed to other Hollywood films such as 127 Hours, Hairspray, and There's Something About Mary, was brought on to design the look of the film's zombies. For one shooting scene, Gardner said, "There were 160 zombies, in prosthetics, on set in an amusement park". He said it is "how you present yourself as a zombie that determines how people will react to you" and that "once the contact lenses go in", he thinks "all bets are off". Gardner said he was excited about working on the film with first-time filmmaker Ruben Fleischer, who gave him free rein in his zombie design. "[We] are just trying to be real extreme with it", stated Gardner, "and trying to balance the scares out with the comedy". He described having to makeover physically attractive actors who usually benefit from their looks as "a little off-putting" after seeing some of them in their character makeup for the first time.

TRIVIA:   Woody Harrelson was arrested for marijuana possession during filming, which delayed shooting for a day.

Top:   Debut director Ruben Fleischer;

Above:   Fleischer on set with Woody Harrelson

Zombieland debuted at #1 at the box office in North America, with ticket sales of $24,733,155 over its opening weekend averaging about $8,147 from 3,036 theaters, matching its production budget. It was credited as having the second highest-grossing start on record for a zombie film behind the Dawn of the Dead remake and as "the first [American] horror comedy in recent memory to find significant theatrical success". Zombieland also received almost universal praise from critics, with Roger Ebert being surprised by Zombieland's ability to be significantly humorous while zombies remained the focus of the film and felt that "all of this could have been dreary, but not here. The filmmakers show invention and well-tuned comic timing". He credited Bill Murray's cameo appearance as receiving the "single biggest laugh" of the year, and gave the film 3 out of 4 stars. Marc Savlov of Austin Chronicle credited it as "the single most outrageously entertaining unexpected celebrity cameo of any film—genre or otherwise—" that he had seen in a "long, long time" and that while the film did little to advance the genre, its smart script and high action made it very enjoyable".

Due to the film's success, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have planned a possible sequel, with many more ideas they want to explore. "We would love it, and everybody involved creatively wants to do another one", said Wernick, adding, "Woody Harrelson came up to us after the final cut of the last scene and gave us a hug and said, 'I've never wanted to do a sequel in the previous movies I've done until this one'".  In 2010, Fleischer stated that he was working on the screenplay and the creators have begun searching for another "superstar cameo", although by July 2011, Jesse Eisenberg said that he's "not sure what's happening" with the sequel but that the writers are working on a script for Zombieland 2. Eisenberg expressed concern that a sequel would no longer be "relevant". In October of that year, writers Reese and Wernick announced they were in the process of developing Zombieland into a TV series - as was their original intention for the script. Finally, in 2013,  Amazon Studios announced they had ordered a pilot episode, with Tyler Ross as Columbus, Kirk Ward playing Tallahassee, Maiara Walsh cast as Wichita and Izabela Vidovic as Little Rock. The pilot was released in April 2013 on Lovefilm and at Amazon Video, but a month later, Reese announced that Zombieland: The Series would not be picked up to be a series by Amazon. All seemed to be the end for Zombieland, until, in August 2016, Reese and Wernick confirmed they are working on Zombieland 2 and were meeting with Woody Harrelson to discuss the film, while stating "all the cast is pretty excited".

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   89%

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