Harrelson! Eisenberg! Zombieland! Wha–?

Posted by Mister Hand (misterhand@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 6, 2008

Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg are set to co-star in a zombie comedy (a “zom-com” if you will) called Zombieland, according to a story by The Hollywood Reporter.

Okay. I’m curious. My first question is, “Who’s writing this?”

The answer: Co-written by Rhett Reese (scribe of such gems as Dinosaur, Cruel Intentions 3, and Clifford’s Really Big Movie) and Paul Wernick of “The Joe Schmo Show,” which I’ve never heard of. (Maybe it’s something that’s super hip that all the kids are watching these days? I dunno. If they’re not talking about it on bash.org, it probably hasn’t crossed my radar. That’s what happens with us old squares, you know.)

The movie is to be directed by…

Bah. Who cares? Written by the guy who wrote the Clifford movie?! This guy still finds work?!

I’ll be astounded if this thing even rises to the level of mediocre. There was a time when I was a zombie movie freak. But that all changed after I saw Shaun of the Dead. Intended as a parody of zombie films, Shaun surpassed its own mission statement and became, in my opinion, the finest zombie film yet made–even eclipsing George Romero’s original Dawn of the Dead in some respects. It could have been a gory romp through the land of irony, and for much of the way it was, but there was also real human emotion packed into it, along with some genuinely scary moments.

It seems we’re getting all sorts of zombie film announcements lately–Romero’s making a new one, and the director for 28 Months Later has just been announced. I wonder if we really need any more zombie movies. We laughed at some of the goriest zombies one could imagine in Shaun of the Dead. How do you make them scary again?

Maybe it can’t be done. Maybe all we can do is laugh at zombies from here on out. And thus, Zombieland. But do these guys think they’re going to do it better than Shaun? I’ll just wish them the best of luck with that. Maybe if it pans out, these guys should think about getting that long dreamed of Citizen Kane remake off the ground.

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