Department of Black Swan Management

Archive for January, 2010

Out Tuesday on DVD and Blu-Ray, Zombieland!

The two disc Blu-ray collection includes:

Commentary with Actors Woody Harrelson & Jesse Eisenberg, Director Ruben Fleischer, Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick
Go Behind-the-Scenes with “In Search of Zombieland”
“Zombieland is Your Land” – The zombification of the United States
Deleted Scenes
Visual Effects Progression Scenes
movieIQ
Exclusive to the Blu-ray: “Beyond the Graveyard” Behind the Scenes Picture-in-Picture Track
Theatrical Promo Trailers
PS3 Wallpaper

The two disc DVD collection includes:

Commentary with Actors Woody Harrelson & Jesse Eisenberg, Director Ruben Fleischer, Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick
Go Behind-the-Scenes with “In Search of Zombieland”
“Zombieland is Your Land” – The zombification of the United States
Deleted Scenes
Visual Effects Progression Scenes
Theatrical Promo Trailers
Woke Up Dead Episode “Up and At ‘Em”

For being a mainstream Hollywood zombie film, I enjoyed most of it. I did find the ending to be horribly rushed and to obvious (with one small saving grace), but found a lot of the film to be refreshing change of pace to an often tired genre (I’m talking about Hollywood horror standards here).

This film came out during our down time here at the ZRC, so we never had a good discussion about it. So what did you, the ZRC reader, think of this film?

*** WARNING: SPOILERS MAY END UP IN THE COMMENTS, SO DON’T READ THEM IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS FILM AND ARE PLANNNING ON WATCHING IT WITHOUT IT POSSIBLY BEING RUINED FOR YOU! YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN FAIR WARNING!

Another free comic preview, this time from friend of the ZRC/ comic book writer Gary Reed! Check out the preview of Deadworld: Slaughterhouse HC, from Desperado Publishing, once again over at comicmonsters.com.

Check out this preview of 28 Days Later #6, from Boom! Studios, over at comicmonsters.com.

Sure a chainsaw seems like a good zombie-slaying tool, but wouldn’t be nice to put a little space between you and the undead? If combining weapons together tickles your zombie fighting fancy, you wouldn’t be alone. And according to the above screenshot from the Capcom Unity blog, you’ll be able to do it in the upcoming Dead Rising 2 video game.

Via Joystiq

You can now read a review of the pilot script for AMC’s The Walking Dead over at Corona Coming Attractions. But here’s your warning- if you want absolutely no spoilers, no matter how minute, read on cautiously.

According to Appmodo, Call of Duty: World at War Zombies Lite is now available for iPhones and iPod Touch. Hey, now you can kill zombies on the go!

[adult swim] Games has premiered their new online game Radioactive Teddy Bear Zombies! Play for free and whoop some zombie teddy bear ass. And while you’re there, don’t forget to play such classic games as Zombie Hooker Nightmare and Zombie Hooker Nightmare XXXMas.

The intersection of fine art and zombie pop culture gets a little bit bigger thanks to an upcoming art show at the Nucleus Gallery in Alhambra, CA. The show will include paintings, sculpture, and even live performances in celebration of all things in love and zombie culture. Grand opening is February 6th, 2010 and will include a zombie walk!

Thanks to our good friend Grim Santo for the link!

Marvel Comics is really milking the shit out of this series, which has mixed it’s most popular and b-level characters with a raging world full of zombies and multi-company crossovers, once again. In April you will be able to read more about Machine Man and his continuing adventures with zombies in the five-part series Marvel Zombies 5 (aka MZ5). While the basis for this series sounds more interesting than Marvel Zombies 3 & 4, I hold my praise until reading it. Writer Fred Van Lente had this to say about the next story-arc and it’s multiverse zombie road trip vibe:

“…each issue of MARVEL ZOMBIES 5 features a variation on the zombie theme from throughout popular culture. From the slow-moving George Romero style to the crazed infected from “28 Days Later” to even the Deadites in “Evil Dead,” the writer equates the limited series to a “smorgasbord [or] salad bar for the zombie connoisseur.” But as variety is the spice of life, Van Lente decided to sweeten things up even more by also setting each issue against an assortment of backdrops.

“We’ve got zombies in the Old West, we’ve got zombies in Killraven’s War of the Worlds, we’ve got zombies in Camelot,” he exclaims. “I like the storytelling challenge of taking a straight-forward genre and twisting it into pretzels. It’s also fun to come up with new ways to eviscerate zombies.”

Read more about this “new” series here.

Thanks to Haddon for turning us on to upcoming zombie/western film Devil’s Crossing. On schedule for a late April release, Devil’s crossing promises to be edgy and violent. Here’s a quick plot synopsis:

Devil’s Crossing is set in a post-apocalyptic western time period. After the world has been destroyed and ravaged by nuclear war, the remaining human life is fighting for survival. The world is shattered and life as we know has gone to complete hell. Shadrach a man, who has sold his soul to the devil, must kill to keep his life. As he drifts from town to town his only job is to collect the bodies the devil sees fit to be dragged directly to hell. On one certain dark night Shadrach decides to give up his vicious job and return to a normal life of simplicity. The devil, in the form of a man, comes after Shadrach to confront him about his decision. After an intense and grueling argument the devil leaves Shadrach and the townspeople to fight for themselves as he summons a massive group of zombies. The zombies ravage the town killing townspeople in route to an epic showdown with Shadrach.

Make sure to follow after the jump for more pics!