Dead Men Walking

Latest News

2005-08-03T13:54:00.000-04:00

...has been trickling in over the last few days. Dead Men Walking officially wrapped last Friday, June 29. The director is Peter Mervis, who, according to the ever reliable IMDB, was the cinematographer on the films Notes and The Curse and the Smoking Jacket, the latter of which he also directed. I was told he was selected because, unlike the other potential directors who came in discussing the script's subtle subtext about prison overcrowding (which, in all honesty, isn't really there...), Peter came in jazzed about "Oh, can't wait to get to the gore!" Which, really, is what it's all about.

Production Executive and awesome person Amanda Rossi called me over the weekend to give me the names of folks involved. Bay Bruner is playing the honorable Dr. Cara Beckett, Scott Carson is senior colleague Dr. Goring, Chriss Anglin (yep, two "s"s) is the brutal Captain Sweeney, and playing Johnny, the troubled gang-banger who is really just a scared kid at heart, is played by... Griff Fuerstein.

To which, I replied, "You made that up."

Also, according to the news on The Asylum's home page, the cast also includes the great Robert James. I'm not familiar with his work, either, but I didn't want to leave him out.

David Latt sent me some pictures yesterday, which got me dancing a little jig. I'm posting them here, seen for the first time anywhere!

From some of the little details David told me about, the changes made to the script were not only negligible, but a few of them are actually exciting to me. For instance, he alluded to the fact that not only are the prisoners and prison staff attacked, but so are helpless visitors! Kids being munched by zombies! Joy!! (Hope it'll get past the MPAA...) And just like I wrote in the script, the zombies bleed out quickly as they turn, with grue just pouring out of every orafice.

Gore fans: happy birthday!

This is being aimed towards a Halloween release and it's shaping up to be a big deal. I, for one, can't wait. From this point on, this blog may be nothing but "man, this is so cool!" (Hey, gimme a break! This is the first script I've had produced that I didn't have to produce myself! Pardon me if I succumb to a little dance every now and then.)

Zombie feast

Travis on his opening rampage

One of the changes... in the script, this woman was a man.

Leg... duh!

Travis' arrest

Yuck

Doing my part to help the casting selection

2005-07-14T11:11:00.000-04:00

David emailed me last week and said that he wanted Amy to do a videotape audition for the lead role of Dr. Beckett in the movie. Dr. Beckett is the only female character in Dead Men Walking and it would be a pretty high-profile role for her. On the other hand, final casting decisions were to be made this past Monday, so it may be that David just wanted her audition on hand for future reference, to go with the headshot we sent a few weeks ago.

So we sat down and shot one of the final dialogue scenes, with me reading "Johnny"'s lines off camera. I came to realize that while some of the dialogue in the movie is very good, there are some very clunky lines as well. I'm hoping that the director, Leigh, gives the actors a little room to improvise. I certainly wouldn't want to be stuck reading some of that and trying to make it sound believable...

On the other hand, there are some real gems in there too...

Countdown to production

2005-07-13T15:17:00.000-04:00

Principal photography begins on Dead Men Walking this weekend. I'll know soon the final cast line-up. Might as well confide in millions of people the synopsis...

A living dead virus breaks out inside a maximum security prison, turning the convicts into flesh-eating corpses...

And that's it.

I pitched it, literally, as "Zombies in prison."

And David Latt, the producer, asked to see it.

Which means I had to write it. I think the first draft took four days. And it read that way too.

So in the subsequent drafts, I cut out what I thought was character development but was ultimately long Kevin Smith diatribes that did nothing but deaden the pace. This forced me to find better ways of making the first-draft stock characters into something more akin to "people". So you gave a shit when they died. Or were viciously torn apart, died, and then came back.

Then a third draft was ordered. They needed a bigger ending. With a bigger body count.

"But the prison has 4000 people in it and they're all dead at the end," I said.

"Okay, then just the bigger ending," David Latt said.

So I went back and wrote the third draft. Admittedly, I was a little burned. I mean, hell, I've been writing for ten years! You don't edit me. My first drafts are golden, dammit!

Then I came to my senses and finished the third draft.

And I made it better.

The last draft is tight, bloody, and pretty damned exciting. At least on paper. I was really proud of the draft that I turned in.

And if they do it exactly as written, it'll be one of the goriest, most disgusting zombie movies ever!

I'm really excited about that.

Dead Men Walking - movie coming soon!

2005-06-30T08:24:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I got an email from David Latt, one of the producers and partners over at the production company, The Asylum (the ones who produced Jolly Roger and the new H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. The message read, "Call me tonight; I want to make your weekend very happy."

As it turned out, the good news was that they were going to produce my script, Dead Men Walking. "We go into production in July," David said.

"Holy shit," I replied.

That's a hell of a turnaround for a script that went from pitch to third draft in less than six months. And, if I recall, the pitch read, simply, "zombies in prison" and was part of a huge list of loglines I sent to him originally. Unlike all the other pitches, however, Dead Men Walking was the only one that didn't have a completed script to go with it. Of course, this is the one they wanted to see.

I think the first draft was written in about four days. If I remember also correctly, it blew. But it was apparently enticing enough for David to request a subsequent draft.

Stay tuned here for more information as it comes to me!