Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Zombie badwagon

I wrote my zombie script after World War Z came out, but before Zombieland. I wrote it to be a writing sample, because it requires a huge budget, and at the time nobody was making zombie movies with huge budgets except Resident Evil, and Resident Evil doesn't count because it's a video game.

I'm not saying I invented zombies, just that I wrote big budget zombies when nobody was writing big budget zombies. Except the guys from Zombieland, I guess. They probably thought up that script before I wrote mine. But whatever, I still wrote my first draft before I even knew about that script.

So anyway I wrote Not Dead Yet and it got me the attention it was supposed to. Some cool industry people read it, or at least got the opportunity to read it. Two of the people who could have done something with it may never have cracked it open, or if they did I never heard about it. But anyway, it made the rounds and got me a little attention. So I thought that was pretty good for a big budget zombie movie.

Then came Zombieland. And then Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and now Boyscouts vs Zombies and Zombies Vs Gladiators are making the rounds, and despite wanting to read those things, I also have been annoyed that I made my script have too high a budget even for big budget movies.

I was riding this wave before there was a damn wave. Which makes me think that although I am happy to have a great writing sample, I wish I had made a great writing sample that also could double as something I could sell.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:54 PM

    I am suggesting the obvious, the tedious... rewrite it? Tone it down for budget?

    Either way, at least it's got attention.

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  2. There's no way to change the budget without completely reworking the entire thing, and I'm on to other projects now anyway. It just serves as a lesson in budgeting your specs, I think.

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  3. Did you get it out there through a rep, or by yourself? I've found reps are avoiding creature driven horror at the moment, and it's a real shame for guys like me =(

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  4. Anonymous6:55 AM

    According to Baseline, the cost of producing "Zombieland" was 24 million...
    Not a very high budget for a Hollywood film, but titanic when compared to one of George A. Romero's zombiefests. :-)


    -- Mr. Penn State

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  5. Anonymous, exactly. It was kind of revolutionary for the genre. My budget would be bigger.

    Jabberwocky, it's the script that landed me the rep, and she uses it as my writing sample at the moment. I'm hoping the script she's reading now will go out.

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  6. Anonymous2:26 PM

    Hey Emily I read World War Z, is pure brilliant.

    And thank you for have a blog,forum that is so postive and not bitter or negative.

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