Martial Arts Film Kicks Zombie Ass in Pure Action

This looks like it will be pure fun in full motion: Johnny Z.

Wesley Chu to Write "Walking Dead" Novel Set in China

Taiwanese American science fiction author Wesley Chu has agreed to write Walking Dead: Typhoon, expanding the franchise started by Robert Kirkman into a Chinese setting. The book should be ready for publication by 2020, according to publisher Skybound Books as quoted in The Hollywood Reporter. Skybound editor-in-chief Sean Mackiewicz told The Hollywood Reporter that Chu's work will be much sought after as it will answer a question that fans--and characters--of the AMC television show have been wondering about for quite some time: “What’s happening to the rest of the world?" Mackiewicz noted that having as talented a writer as Chu throw his imagination into The Walking Dead universe with talented authors like Wesley Chu will allow Kirkman's dark vision to become "an even greater global phenomenon than ever before!” This is really something to look forward to.

Philosopher Uses Zombies to Resurrect American History

A college course called “Zombies, Serial Killers, and Madmen" has become a hot elective for students, and philosopher Dr. Eric Smaw is pretty sure he knows why: students are fascinated by the grotesque and dangerous behavior of other human beings. This is a curiosity that is tied closely to their personal fears of vulnerability.

Smaw teaches the course in three sections, starting on the topic of zombies and ending with the discussion of the criminally insane. Students enjoy talking about their favorite zombie narratives, so Smaw uses the archetype of the reanimated dead as a jumping off point for discussions of events that haunt or trouble Western history, such as the rise to power of tyrants like Hitler or Stalin.

“Students often want to use polite language to talk about the most grotesque things that happen in our society, but in order to get them to understand what can happen when a madman rises to power, it is important that they don’t use euphemisms to color what is grotesque behavior by politicians,” Smaw said.

One of Smaw's aims is to help students toward a deconstruction of their sense of American exceptionalism, an ideology he sees as damaging in that they expect to have to turn overseas for examples of genocide or megalomania while overlooking a history of Native American genocide and African slavery.

“America is not special," Smaw notes, "and the citizens of the state and the state itself are subject to all of the evils of humanity.” And so one of his primary goals is to help students recognize what could happen if Americans are not diligent in their application of the principles of democracy and the rule of law.

Read the full article here.

Malaysian Zombies: KL24

I confess a fascination with how non-Western cultures approach the zombie narrative. I happened upon this one via YouTube, an indie film from Malaysia called "KL24: Zombies." The plague of zombies pushes the story to some interesting insights (for someone outside of Southeast Asia) into familial struggles and communal issues among the wealthy and working classes in Kuala Lumpur. 

One example stands out: In a subtle bit of comedy rife with commentary, a man's many wives rise as zombies. The main wife (the first and oldest) is eager to kill her husband's newest wife, but the man and her son are unwilling to do so because she died pregnant. When all the wives are "turned," the matriarch rises and growls "I want my divorce" before leading the women against their husband.

The link above opens the full film, with English and Chinese subtitles available.

Humans are More Terrifying than Zombies

“Every auteur writes his point of view into a zombie film. When you start to write a zombie film, you realize you’re doing a social film, a political film. … This is my most political film, my most social film, because my zombies are a reflection of what I think about humanity.”






From The Verge interview with Canadian filmmaker Robin Aubert, who wrote and directed the French-language movie Les Affames (“The Ravenous”). The film is available on Netflix.

Go Goa Gone to Get a Sequel

The popular Indian zomcom film, Go Goa Gone, is soon to have a sequel. The new film, written and directed by the same team responsible for the 2013 cult favorite about three friends who go on a vacation (attending a party) in Goa only to end up hunted by zombies, will include many of the same actors, including Saif Ali Khan as Boris, as well as Kunal Khemu and Vir Das.


Saif Ali Khan was quoted as saying, “I will return as Boris in the sequel. But this time, I’ll be on a different mission. Raj and DK (the directors) have found an interesting premise for the second installment, which is in sync with the first part. They are currently writing the script.”

Go Goa Gone is marketed as India's first Hindi-language (Bollywood) zomcom, which was similarly claimed for the 2013 film Rock the Shaadi by director Navdeep Singh but which was not released in theaters in India. These zomcoms were joined in 2016 by the Tamil-language action film Miruthan, yet another story of somewhat zany or bumbling protagonists striving to stay alive in a world overrun by the hungry undead. (A more serious Tamil-language short film, Uruvan, is available on YouTube.) I couldn't figure out whether or not the sequel to Miruthan was ever produced.

While Go Goa Gone may be billed as India's first zomcom, it is not the nation's first zombie film. That honor may go to Rise of the Zombie, which was directed by Devaki Singh & Luke Kenny and also released in 2013.


What was it about 2013 that saw the production of three separate zombie films in India?

Bad Timing Season Two Finale

The YouTube web series "Bad Timing" has just seen the finale of it's second season. 

This romantic comedy is set in a post-apocalyptic world, with the hapless Andy striving to find the girl of his dreams.