Civilization as we know it has met its end. The apocalypse has come and gone, its handful of survivors now vastly outnumbered by the undead. The living, breathing and thinking are now unwelcome outsiders in Zombieland and what’s left of life is a daily struggle for survival. Did I mention this is a comedy?
First time feature director Ruben Fleischer describes Zombieland as 28 Days Later meets Shaun of the Dead. It's a comedy, but that doesn't mean the there won't be plenty of gore and scares to match the laughs. “It’s a comedic look at the post apocalyptic zombie world and it’s a band of survivors that kind of met along the way,” says Fleischer.
The colorful cast list includes Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin. Fleischer breaks down the cast of characters: “Tallahassee (Harrelson), [is] like a real, weird cowboy kind of post-apocalyptic zombie bad-ass. Columbus (Eisenberg) is kind of the classic, video-game nerd, just kind of a guy who has a little bit of phobias. He’s OCD. His fears in the old world are what allow him to live in this new world. So it’s really two opposites that come together and go on this journey and then they meet Wichita (Stone) and Little Rock (Breslin) and then they sort of all band together on this journey towards Los Angeles to go to an amusement park called Pacific Playland.”
Dark Horizons spent April Fool's Day, 2009 on the Georgia set of Zombieland in a small town 50 miles West of Atlanta called Rutledge. The day's setting is a roadside Indian trading post somewhere between Arizona and New Mexico. The Georgia location fits the bill, provided that you don't turn around and glance at the lush greenery and forests lining the other side of the street.
The first shot of the day involves the group's arrival at the trading post, where they will meet up with the store's unruly zombie guardian. First, we stop by the makeup trailer where makeup artists Steve Prouty and Jamie Kellman are turning a local stuntman into a flesh-craving zombie. The man appears nearly ready, adorned in spirit gum and plenty of nasty, bloody facial decorations. His scene, he tells us, will be a brief one.
“They’ve pulled over at this Kemosabes Trading Post and they go in just to see what’s in there and stretch their legs,” explains Fleischer. “A zombie attacks quickly when they come in. They kill him and then they go in.”
Once the cameras roll on the scene, Tallahassee steps up to the store’s doorway. He holds out his shotgun and taps a cowbell hanging over the door. He quickly steps to the side to hide. Sure enough, we soon hear a grumbling sound followed by a flannel laden redneck zombie racing to attack. Hobbling from side to side, he crosses the doorway and Tallahassee lowers his shotgun quickly, blowing off his head. The zombie flails backwards and falls to the ground. Tallahassee grins at his own skills and motions to Columbus, Little Rock and Wichita that it's now safe to enter.
“There’s a bit of dialogue between Jesse and Woody about Wichita,” says Fleischer. “Woody realizes that Jesse has a crush on Emma Stone. Woody gives him a punch in the shoulder and Jesse will accidentally knock something over. Then they kind of realize that this whole place doesn’t matter, it’s all gone, so they just take everything and start knocking it over. Today is just going to be so fun because they’re just going to take the delicate pottery and everything that’s in there and they’re just going to smash the shit out of it.”
Harrelson and Eisenberg admit they are looking forward to the demolition, although they are still settling on what they will decide to smash up first.
“There’s gonna be some tussles later on over who gets to do what,” Harrelson tells press with a wry smile.
“I want the feathers,” says Eisenberg.
“How do you hurt feathers?” asks Harrelson.
Eisenberg smiles and responds, “You just drop ‘em real slow.”
Harrelson tells press he’s been enjoying playing the action hero, a role he has seldom been offered in his varied career. “I’m personally not a big action type of guy. I gotta admit, it just jumps up the testosterone level the moment I [hold the shotgun]. I really love my character. Tallahassee’s a lot of fun. He’s just this shit-kickin’ kind of guy who’s really got this broken side to him.”
Meanwhile, Columbus is the polar opposite, preferring strategic escape plans to head-on attacks. “I have a list of 47 rules on how to survive Zombieland,” says Eisenberg. “And towards the end of the movie, I start either crossing them off or modifying them because they just make my life a nightmare, because I’m so stringent, whereas Woody’s character is such a fun character and he has zero rules to survive Zombieland, so it starts to rub off a little bit.”
During a break between scenes, Fleischer shows off a real of footage from the film. In the amusement park climax, Tallahassee hangs onto a swing ride while spinning round and round spraying rounds of machine gun fire into zombies. Meanwhile, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock ride the free fall up and down, killing zombies each time they touch ground. And, of course, what sizzle real would be complete without an undeniably sexy shot of the raven-haired Stone unloading an automatic weapon on a group of drooling undead?
The best scene is of a soccer mom trying to escape from a ravenous group of zombie little girls in princess costumes. They cling onto her minivan as she feebly tries to start the engine while the little brats hiss and bare sharp teeth. When she finally gets the car started, she peels across a field, shedding the little princesses one by one. Unfortunately, once in the street, she collides with another car and goes smashing through the front window, her body hurling through the air before landing on the pavement and skidding to a stop, a bright red streak of blood in her wake. It seems she forgot one of Columbus’ cardinal rules: Always wear your seat belt.
The footage is terrific, laying to rest any doubts from skeptical press. Fleischer is happy to see our reactions, clearly enjoying a very positive experience on his first feature. “It’s been really great,” Fleischer says of the shoot. “We’re a week away from concluding shooting, so we’re almost done and we’ve done a ton of stuff in that time and for the scale of movie this is, for this budget, it’s just going to look so much bigger. I mean just even this little Indian trading posts they put together in two days just looks amazing.”
The night concludes with the hotly-anticipated destruction. After a dialogue in which Woody teases Columbus about his crush on Wichita, the duo tentatively break a few small objects from the store counter. Soon they get into the spirit and start breaking bigger and bigger objects. After Tallahassee lifts a large totem statue into the air and heaves it through a bunch of ceramic dishes on glass displays behind the register, Wichita joins in to help disassemble the store. Although it took set decorators two days to build the set, the cast has torn it to pieces in a single night of shooting. It’s hard not to envy the moment. After all, who wouldn’t want to smash a store of delicate items with no worry of retribution?
The next morning, the group will trudge on in their journey westward, bludgeoning zombies and hoping for another survivor or two if they’re lucky. With a little due diligence and some teamwork, they might just survive Zombieland after all.
Zombieland hits theaters October 9, 2009.
