Who Plays Who?

Woody Harrelson Jesse Eisenberg Emma Stone Abigail Breslin Derek Graf

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Tallahassee Columbus Wichita Little Rock Clown Zombie

What Do The Critics Say

"Brevity is the soul of wit, and in the zombie comedy it's the soul, the head and the headless body. The movie, at a scant and punchy eighty five minutes, will be over before you've stopped laughing." Gary Thompson PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS "Director Ruben Fleischer has his eyes trained on the comic jugular, and he attains an astronomical laugh count from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernickat’s fizzing, pop-savvy script." David Jenkins TIME OUT "The best zombie exploitation film since Shaun of the Dead." Kevin A Ranson MOVIECRYPT.COM "Zombieland is lean, tight and well-crafted multiplex entertainment." Simon Reynolds DIGITAL SPY "A brisk, buoyant, infectious comedy with braaaains. Tuck in." Leigh Singer CHANNEL 4 FILM "When it comes to genre filmmaking, Zombieland, a grisly comedy about yet another attack of the ravenous undead, does just about everything right. Likable characters you sort of care about? Check. Hilarity and horror flying at you in equal measure? Check. Clocking in at well under ninety minutes so the concept doesn't have time to wear itself out? Oh, yeah." Cary Darling DALLAS MORNING NEWS

"Like "Revenge of the Nerds" meets "Shaun of the Dead", horror comedy Zombieland does what it says on the tin. At least, the hilarious beginning and body-count finale do. A nation of zombies munch brains and have their heads blown off at the start and end of this slick ride. Zombieland is a well-armed amusement, and it boasts one of those major superstar cameos anyone with common decency will refrain from revealing." Ben McEachen SUNDAY MAIL "There's just nothing like a good flesh-eating zombie movie to make you feel rejuvenated." Linda Cook QUAD CITY TIMES "It’s fitting that Zombieland ends up in an amusement park, because it basically is one. You get your money’s worth." Tim Robey DAILY TELGRAPH "The best zom-com since Shaun of the Dead. A delightfully sharp and smart comedy actioner that is funny, thrilling and just a little bit gory." Mark Adams SUNDAY MIRROR UK "It snaps, bites and snarls its way across the screen with perverse pleasures and real brains under its bloody smile." James Rocchi REDBOX "Zombie comedies have been plentiful since the British-made Shaun of the Dead five years ago, but none has been as funny as Zombieland, set in the United States of Zombie, where laughs lessen the bloody violence that erupts from time to time. The main performers (and the surprise guest) approach their work with gusto, but it is Harrelson (also featuring in the current 2012) who steals the show." Des Partridge QUEENSLAND COURIER MAIL

The Inside Story "I always saw Zombieland as "Midnight Run" with zombies," says "Zombieland" director Ruben Fleischer. "Like that movie, it crosses so many genres at once. First and foremost, it’s a comedy, a road movie. It’s obviously got a horror element to it, and there’s romance as well. I was excited because of all the different aspects of the film, and my goal was to keep it grounded and strike just the right tone." "Zombieland" began with the original screenplay by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese. "What attracted everybody to the project was the script," says Fleischer. "It’s so strong. And Rhett and Paul could not have been more collaborative while: and I respect them for this; staying true to their original vision." Woody Harrelson, recently cast in the Oscar ® winning "No Country for Old Men", following up that choice with a movie called "Zombieland"? The actor says that he was impressed by the script. "Tonally, it rides the line between comedy and the impending danger of the zombies. It's tricky: you have to keep up a level of reality, or it becomes farce, but that presents its own challenges." Plus, the guy gets to kick zombie butt. What more could an actor ask for? "It reminds me a bit of what we used to do on "Cheers". If a joke doesn’t work, they figure something else out; right there, while we’re shooting, they’d come up with some new, funny line," Harrelson explained. "We wore multiple hats out there," says Reese ("The Joe Schmo Show"). "One is the producer’s hat. We were looking at the overall picture and making sure that the movie was coming together the way we envisioned it." "But there were various moments when lines had to change and we were writers again," says Wernick. "The sand shifts under your feet and you have to adjust. Seeing it all come together was a great experience. In a way, it was like film school for us." Harrelson takes on the role of Tallahassee, a man who dies hard and slays harder, a dude ready to slay any zombie that comes between him and the planet’s last remaining Twinkies. "When I read the script, the first actor who came to mind was Woody Harrelson," says Fleischer ("The Girls Guitar Club"). "I saw elements in Tallahassee that reminded me of Woody’s character in "Natural Born Killers", but with a humor laced through it." "When I read the script, what I loved about Tallahassee was that he was a guy who essentially lost everything, so he has nothing left to lose, and as a result, he’s fearless when it comes to his approach to the zombies," says 2008 Screen Actors Guild Award winner Harrelson ("No Country for Old Men"). "After a great meeting with Ruben, I was eager to be a part of it." "We had all seen "No Country for Old Men" around the time we began the casting process," producer Gavin Polone ("My Super Ex-Girlfriend") recalls, "and Woody just popped off of the screen. He was always our first choice." "Tallahassee is childlike, impulsive," says screenwriter and executive producer Rhett Reese. "It made such sense to us that the Twinkie would be his greatest desire: it’s a metaphor for the past, a piece of his former life, something he clings to. We all cling to things from our childhood, but he’s clinging to something from the pre-apocalyptic days. Plus, it stays fresh on the shelf for a quite a while." For the role of Columbus, Fleischer also had a specific actor in mind. "There are a lot of talented young actors who we considered, but Jesse Eisenberg was always at the top of my list. I had loved him in Roger Dodger and in meeting with him, he displayed an innate humor and sensitivity. He’s intrinsically funny, and his body language makes you believe he’s the biggest coward in the world. He was Columbus." "I loved the character when I read it," 2005 Gotham Award winner Eisenberg ("The Squid and the Whale") said. "I could certainly relate to Columbus's obsessive compulsiveness; he’s the type of guy who can’t let himself enjoy anything. It was written very honestly, and I looked forward to being able to find the balance between that truth and the inherent humor in it. I loved the script, its sense of humor. When I met the writers, Rhett told me that they based Columbus on him. And that was evident upon shaking his hand." "It’s kind of a bummer," admits screenwriter executive producer Rhett Reese, "but yes, I’m Columbus. I’ve spent my life afraid of just about everything at one point or another. It was amusing to see Jesse run with that." Joining Columbus and Tallahassee on their quest to survive are Wichita, played by dual 2008 Young Hollywood Award winner Emma Stone, and Little Rock, played by 2006 Tokyo International Film Festival Best Actress Award winner Abigail Breslin. "There are very few beautiful, young actresses who have the comedic sensibility and the diversity to be able to show all the sides of the character that Emma has created in this movie," says Fleischer. "She’s already proven her comedic prowess in films like "Superbad" and "The House Bunny", but the character of Wichita is not necessarily a comedic role. She’s a femme fatale, a classic hot, badass chick. What’s amazing about Emma is that she can portray all that and also has the comedy to back it all up." "This script was very different than anything I had ever read," says Stone, who played Allison Vandermeersh in "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past". There have been zombie comedies before, but this wasn’t a satire in any way. The zombies are very scary, and they pose a very serious threat to the characters. They’re not jokes by any means, but the four main characters are also very funny in their own right. The honesty and the humor made me feel that I could actually relate to how someone would feel and react in this zombie-ridden, post-apocalyptic world. That was enough reason to want to be part of this film. I loved that this movie is funny, but not a rip-roaring slapstick, and it’s scary, but not a terrifying nightmare-inducer. It manages to strike a balance between those and be its own thing. It’s a multifaceted zombie movie. Who knew you could make that?" For the role of 'Little Rock', Wichita’s partner, the director had a very specific idea. He recalls saying, after reading the script: "Abigail Breslin would be great for the part of Little Rock, but there’s no way she’d ever do it, so we’ll just have to find someone like her". Fleischer notes, "And that’s how it went for a really long time. Then, amazingly, she wanted to do the movie, and suddenly I had two Academy Award ® nominees in our zombie movie." Breslin who played Bo in M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs", gave everything to the role that the director had hoped for. She more than acquitted herself among her co-stars who couldn’t have been more appreciative of her talents. "Abby is thirteen," says Woody Harrelson. "And I will never have acting chops like she has. She did one scene where she had to cry, and she did it in every single take. And even when she wasn’t on camera, doing someone else’s close-ups, she still gave it her all. She is phenomenal, and really fun to hang out with." "I really wanted to do this movie, because it’s different than anything I’ve ever done," Breslin explained. "Little Rock is a very feisty character, and I’ve enjoyed doing all this action. I had to learn how to shoot guns, which I’ve never done, and when we shot in the amusement park, I got to go on a lot of the rides when we weren’t filming. I had a lot of fun. "What was amazing to watch was the chemistry between Emma and Abigail," says Wernick. "They slowly melded into one creature: Emmagail," Reese adds . "But what was really shocking was how the thirteen year old and the twenty year old; the people you might think would be immature or naïve: were the wily veterans." "Zombieland" marks the directorial debut of Ruben Fleischer. "I never had any anxiety whatsoever about Ruben," says Polone. "I’ve worked with many first-time directors, and I was confident that Ruben had the vision and the commitment the project needed." "Ruben has a wonderful eye and a great sense for comedy," says Reese. "He’s such a sweet, ego-free, inclusive person. When things go well, he’s never the one to take the credit. He’s quick to lavish praise on the people he works with." Fleischer admits he was excited about the challenge he faced, directing his first feature. "As a first time director, every scene was something I’d never done before. On my first day, we were killing zombies, and soon after, we were shooting in a giant mansion. Every day was a new experience. But the core is the same: you start with a script and you think about how you envision it, but it really comes to life when you get the actors, the production designer, the director of photography: they make it look spectacular." Very early on in pre-production, Fleischer began to shape the look of the film and those very important zombies. "Before I started working on this film, the only zombie movie I had ever seen was "28 Days Later". At the time, I wasn’t really a devotee of zombie films, but once I began approaching the job, I started researching like crazy, and familiarized myself with all the movies just to make sure I was doing justice to them. I have a great deal of respect for the audience of the genre, and I wanted to make sure they would be happy with the movies that we made." In the writing of the script, it had been decided that there wouldn’t be any explanation of what caused humanity to be overtaken by the zombie plague. "This is a post-apocalyptic world," Fleischer notes. "It’s not people in the midst of a zombie scourge. Our story is about the people we’re following in this world, where there are way more zombies than people, and we wanted to tell the story of some of these few survivors struggling to make their way through." With that vision in mind, production designer Maher Ahmad ("U.S. Marshals", "Holes" & "All About Steve") would begin to shape the physical world that the characters inhabited. "Ruben and the writers determined that the story takes place just a couple of months after the major transformation of human into zombie, so our landscape is one more of abandonment than outright destruction. It’s not about buildings falling down or vegetation growing over. It is one of the spookiness that comes with abandonment and the fear that comes from not knowing what is around any corner." As for the look of the zombies, one key decision was that the zombies would not be funny; instead, they would be the straight man of sorts that the characters could play against. Fleischer, with SFX makeup designer Tony Gardner ("The Hangover") and his team researched infectious diseases, and their physical manifestations in the extreme stages. "What we wanted to show was that these people were infected. They’re still alive, but they’re ravaged with fever so they’re always wet and dripping, they’re hemorrhaging from all their orifices and spewing up a black bile-like substance," says SFX makeup artist Stephen Prouty ("Hairspray"). Fleischer says working with his talented crew was a priceless experience for a first-time director. Synopsis

"The first rule of Zombieland: Cardio. When the zombie outbreak first hit, the first to go, for obvious reasons: were the fatties." Welcome to Zombieland, the tale of two men who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies. Columbus is a big wuss. Some might say that the kid's a bit cowardly. But when you're afraid of being eaten by zombies, fear can keep you alive: and that must be good. Even better if you have a set of rules to survive by. Tallahassee is an AK-totin', straight shootin', zombie slaying badass whose single determination is to get the last Twinkie on earth. They join forces with Wichita and Little Rock, two young girls who have resorted to some rather unorthodox methods to survive amidst the chaos. The four will have to determine which is worse: relying on each other or succumbing to the infectious zombies. Either way they could be in trouble. Big trouble!

The Verdict "Up until now, there hasn't been a zombie send-up film that could lay a hand on Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead". But now there is. First time director Ruben Fleischer, assistant to Miguel Arteta on "The Good Girl" has hit the jackpot after being tapped to helm Sony Pictures latest bigscreener, "Zombieland": a bloodied zombie romp sure to become a cult classic and bring a whole new meaning to the genre. In the main, zombie films have always been horror films driven by the 'undead'. Zombies lurched about, infecting and killing the unwary, who would then come back to life and swell the ranks. Not any more. Now zombies are not just horrible, deformed, puss-riddled creatures. Their also fleet-footed. So if you're fat, unfit, confined to a bed, in a wheelchair, an amputee or a granny with a walking frame: your luck has run out. You're an easy target. Mercifully you'll be the first to go. Now that's a comforting thought! The key to survival is, (1) having a set of survival rules and adhering to them and (2) upgrading your kill skills. Do that and killing zombies become fun. And, you'll live longer. Twinkie loving Zobie slayer Tallahassee (played by Emmy Award winner Woody Harrelson) is a highly skilled zombie killer. Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg) is a nervous loner. He invented a set of survival rules and sticks to them. Wichita and Little Rock (the films 'girl power') survive because they trust no-one and they watch each others back. When the four join forces, the action and fun reach dizzying heights. And for those who were wishing there had been a 3D version, the news is good. Sony Pictures have announced there will be a 3D sequel. A thriller/killer, polished ride, punctuated with plenty of outrageous humour, a touch of romance and a solid soundtrack. With a crisp eighty eight minute run time, "Zombieland" never wears out its welcome. Hang about for the credits and please don't spoil your friends experience by letting the cat out of the bag by bigmouthing the special cameo appearance. "Zombieland" requires a strong stomach and no fear of zombies. 4 STARS." The Production Team

Director Writters Producer Original Music D.O.P Film Editor Casting Production Designer Art Direction Set Decoration Costume Design

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Ruben Fleischer Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick Gavin Polone David Sardy Michael Bonvillain Alan Baumgarten John Papsidera Maher Ahmad Austin Gorg Gene Serdena Magali Guidasci

Run Time 88 minutes Rated MA15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2009 - Sony Pictures - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2009 All Rights Reserved The Movie Pages - Protected by Australian & International Copyright. Trademark Laws Apply.