Do you ever want to do a thousand things but you never get around to doing them? I find that that problem haunts me more than any other problem I have. I have 4-5 personal project ideas that I really want to develop but for some reason, I just never get around to doing it.
Could it be the heavy work load brought on by my seemingly endless education and time consuming job? Could be, now that I think about it, collectively I've got about one hundred written pages due, a thousand pages in readings, and five major events to run... all in the remaining two weeks of November!
My head in 3...2...1
On top of that, I'm keeping up with my favorite Television shows and trying to stay fresh with what's new out of Hollywood.
Surely, with all of this on my plate, something has to be pushed back.
Unfortunately, that something was my TV shows and Movies. I have a back-up of episodes to watch from V, Fringe, Flashforward, Dexter, and Californication. Also, season 9 of Scrubs starts up on December 1st and a slew of good movies has hit theaters. The one I let slip the most, and I regret this deeply, was Zombieland.
Despite being released on October 2nd, I didn't get to see Zombieland until two nights ago.
What. A. Movie. Not only was it action packed and gory, it was hilarious! Woody Harrelson stole the show with his badass, zombie-killing character Tallahassee. I suddenly have a new found respect for Woody Harrelson and a burning desire to see every movie he's ever made (including all of his episodes on Cheers).
The film follows Columbus, a college student, as he tries to make his way home from his dorm room in Texas in the deserted United States of America--err, scratch that--United States of Zombieland. The lonely Columbus seems to be dying for company which is probably why he so gladly brings the audience along for his adventure, explaining on the way, his seemingly endless list of rules on how to survive the zombie apocalypse. Once he finds friends in Tallahassee and a team of untrustworthy sisters, Wichita and Little Rock, Columbus discovers that his home town is a ghost town, and this unlikely foursome travel the country together.
The team of survivors in Zombieland (from left to right): Columbus, Wichita, Little Rock, and Tallahassee.
This movie had me laughing so hard I was in tears. And each character had their story which was nice and helped the audience connect with each character individually and understand how they came to be where they are.
Seeing this film inspired me. Remember those 4-5 personal projects I mentioned earlier? One of them has to do with zombies. It's just been an idea that's been boiling over in my head for weeks and weeks. After seeing this film, I'm eager to explore this idea more. But first, I need to do research.
Since I was never bit by the zombie craze (get it? bit?), I don't know much about them except that every film or novel has a different interpretation.
Can you suggest any zombie material that you know of to help me with my research?
Glad you finally saw it.
ReplyDeleteCheers is da bom.
Sante
Zombieland was amazing, wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteAs for research, are you looking to do zombie comedy or serious zombie stuff? Like real horror. Personally, I like the full on horror stuff the best. I don't like the spoofy stuff. That said, Shaun of the Dead and even more so, Zombieland, strike just about the perfect horror/comedy chord with me.
You're definitely going to want to check out a couple classics of the genre and in my opinion those would be George Romero's Night of the Living the Dead and Dawn of the Dead. I'm not a huge fan of Dawn, but defines much of the modern zombie schtick. Night of the Living Dead is amazing. Be sure to get the black and white original.
Recently there has been a spat of fast moving zombies as opposed to the slow and lumbering ones. I'll be honest, I LOVE the fast zombies even though most hardcore zombie fans hate them. The remake of Dawn of the Dead (shot is Mississauga) is AWESOME. As are 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. I love the idea of zombie-ism arising from some sort of a plague.
In comic book form, the ultimate zombie yarn is The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman. Slow zombies, black and white comic, INCREDIBLE writing. Don't skip this one because it's a comic book. You'll be doing yourself a disservice.
Max Brook's Zombie Survival Guide and even better in my opinion his follow-up, World War Z - An Oral History of the Zombie War; easily one of my favourite books.
Hope those suggestions lead you down some fun paths. They are pretty mainstream as far as zombie stuff goes, but they are of the highest quality.