King Zombie will ride in Deadworld

The voice of Solid Snake, David Hayter has joined with Pandemonium's Bill Mechanic to turn the comicbook Deadworld into a zombie feature franchise according to Variety. I mentioned this back in February when Mechanic mentioned it during the Coraline premiere.

Hayter (X-Men, Watchmen) will write the screenplay based on Gary Reed's comic (although it was originally created by Stuart Kerr and Ralph Griffith).

I've never read Deadworld, but I do like the sound of its take on the zombie mythos.

It starts four months after a zombie apocalypse has decimated the Earth. Humans few and far between. The main difference is the fact that the attacking dead are as sentient and intelligent as the living. One of the main characters is King Zombie, a Harley-riding corpse who holds a grudge against the survivors who made him an outcast (this also reminds me of the comic, Chopper Zombie).

The plan is to begin production next year.

Mechanic, who ran Fox when Hayter wrote the first "X-Men" film, saw the scribe as ideal to lay out what he hoped could be a multipic story arc. The offer fit in perfectly with Dark Hero, which Hayter and Benedict Carver formed as a way to put Hayter's creative stamp on numerous films, TV and Internet properties in the sci-fi and horror genres. Aside from writing the script, Hayter will conceive and design the look of the film.

"It's very much about the design of the Deadworld and creating cool, frightening but not necessarily gory creatures," Hayter said. "I am a huge fan of zombie mythology."

If this is done right it could give the zombie genre a much needed infusion of new brains.

Have you read the comic? Will it work as a feature film? Who could play King Zombie?

Discuss in the forum or leave a comment below.

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David Hayter wants you to go and see Watchmen again

AN OPEN LETTER FROM A WATCHMEN SCREENWRITER

So it has been five months since I saw my first rough cut of WATCHMEN, and eight days since the premiere of the film I've been working on since late in the year 2000.

The reviews are out -- Some outstanding, others rankly dismissive, which can be frustrating for the people involved, (though I can only speak for myself,) because I firmly believe that WATCHMEN, the novel, must be read through more than once to even have the faintest grip on it. And I believe the film is the same.

I've seen it twice now, and despite having run the movie in my head thousands of times, my two viewings still don’t' allow me to view the film with the proper distance or objectivity. Is it Apocalypse Now? Is it Blade Runner? Is it Kubrick, or Starship Troopers? I don’t know yet.

All I know is that I had a pretty amazing experience the two times I've seen it. And both viewings produced remarkably different experiences. The point is, I have listened for years, to complaints from true comic book fans, that "not enough movies take the source material seriously." "Too many movies puss out," or "They change great stories, just to be commercial." Well, I f***ing dare you to say any one of those things about this movie.

This is a movie made by fans, for fans. Hundreds of people put in years of their lives to make this movie happen, and every one of them was insanely committed to retaining the integrity of this amazing, epic tale. This is a rare success story, bordering on the impossible, and every studio in town is watching to see if it will work. Hell, most of them own a piece of the movie.

So look, this is a note to the fanboys and fangirls. The true believers. Dedicated for life.

If the film made you think. Or argue with your friends. If it inspired a debate about the nature of man, or vigilante justice, or the horror of Nixon abolishing term limits. If you laughed at Bowie hanging with Adrian at Studio 54, or the Silhouette kissing that nurse.

Please go see the movie again next weekend.

You have to understand, everyone is watching to see how the film will do in its second week. If you care about movies that have a brain, or balls, (and this film's got both, literally), or true adaptations -- And if you're thinking of seeing it again anyway, please go back this weekend, Friday or Saturday night. Demonstrate the power of the fans, because it'll help let the people who pay for these movies know what we'd like to see. Because if it drops off the radar after the first weekend, they will never allow a film like this to be made again.

In the interests of full disclosure, let me also point out that I do not profit one cent from an increase in box office, although an increase in box office can add to the value of the writers' eventual residual profits from dvd and tv sales.

But I'm not saying it for money. I'm saying it for people like me. I'm saying it for people who love smart, dark entertainment, on a grand, operatic scale. I'm talking to the Snake fans, the Rorschach fans, the people of the Dark Knight.

And hey, if you hated the film, if you think we committed atrocities, or literary mistakes of a massive, cephalopodic nature. If the movie made you a little sick to your stomach, or made you feel bad about your life. If you hated it for whatever reason, that's cool too. I'm not suggesting you risk gastro-intestinal distress just for the sake of risky filmmaking.

But if you haven't seen it yet? Well, I'll just say this...

It may upset you. And it probably will upset you.

And all along, we really meant it to.

Because face it. All this time...You there, with the Smiley-face pin. Admit it.

All this time, you’ve been waiting for a director who was going to hit you in the face with this story. To just crack you in the jaw, and then bend you over the pool table with this story. With its utterly raw view of the darkest sides of human nature, expressed through its masks of action and beauty and twisted good intentions. Like a fry-basket full of hot grease in the face. Like the Comedian on the Grassy Knoll. I know, I know...

You say you don't like it. You say you've got issues. I get it.

And yet... You'll be thinking about this film, down the road. It'll nag at you. How it was rough and beautiful. How it went where it wanted to go, and you just hung on. How it was thoughtful and hateful and bleak and hilarious. And for Jackie Earle Haley.

Trust me. You'll come back, eventually. Just like Sally.

Might as well make it count for something.

David Hayter

Source: Hardcore Nerdity

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Lost Planet Movie

Aintitcool have got news from the E3 show about the Lost Planet video game being made into a movie by Warner Bros. This is the came set in the future where humanity has tried to colonize an ice planet, but has found this difficult due to the native bug like inhabitants of the planet being a bit pinged off with this. Needless to say the bugs fight back and humans fight the bugs. The bugs come in all shapes and sizes and also carry a material that humans can use to keep warm and power machinery. Genocide as an eco-friendly power source?

The story of the game has the father of the hero killed by a huge bug called Green Eye. The hero then travels around shooting stuff and using big mech armour called VS suits to kill even more bad bugs. It looked lovely but the gameplay just irritated me. Transferred to a movie it just might work and should at least have some incredible visuals. David Hayter is down to write the screenplay. I'll keep you posted.