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Status: Completed March 2007 : Shown at the Hagerstown 10 Cineplex, USA
Info:
After the success of "I Am Zombie Man", our literally bone-headed protagonist has dived into a world of excitement and extravagance. He's moved out of his woodland home and has a fancy new pad, he's got book, magazine, TV and movie deals coming out of the wazoo - he's even got a musical in the pipeline.
Once the sardonic loner, he is now politicised (when it suits him) but mainly just overtly arrogant and self-important as he has been swept up in celebrity hysteria and monetary gain.
Expect the same wit from the first film, but the second is a damn sight grander.
Preview Pics: (right click, open in new window)
Welcome to Chez-Zee
Screen Caps from Pre-Production Day One (taken from the raw footage)
Visual Theme
Day One Screen Caps (taken from the raw footage)
Coming Soon
T R A I L E R / Trailer @ YouTube
With the first IAZM gaining its own cult following amongst the zombie film fan community, and getting put on to the DVD of Deadlands: The Rising (as an extra feature), the fans quickly called for a sequel, so this is where I decided to blur the lines of reality and fantasy a bit. While the fans obviously know it�s just a guy in an �8 halloween mask shambling about, among the core audience the character has been taken seriously and the fans have ran with the joke themselves, even to the point of cultural reference.
So the direction for IAZM2 was clearly obvious � Zombie Man would himself become �the world�s most famous zombie�, occasionally nick-named �Night of the Living Socialite� by his (off screen) detractors. As a result of the success of the first film, Zombie Man has been swarmed with production deals from a movie, to a musical to a reality TV series, even a book. Of course, with the trappings of fame come the excesses, and we discover he�s picked up a series of �exclusive celebrity vices�, even becoming quite arrogant and self-important.
Part of the inspiration behind IAZM2 was fan-involvement, so I asked some of the fans to come up with questions for Zombie Man from which I picked the best ones/those which fit best into the over all story. At this point I decided to bring in a zombie friend for ZM, which he himself turns undead in a flashback sequence, played by DeadShed regular Ben Connell.
Once again we invaded the quiet and chilly landscape of nearby Llangarron to film just after Christmas, my first proper chance to put my brand new Panasonic DVX100B to the test, ultimately deciding to go for a very cold, blue-tinted vision of proceedings.
Ultimately the film took quite a while to edit, as I found myself fraught with creative frustration in the switch-over from filming mode to editing mode in my head, but thankfully the consistent pestering by Brian and Gary (the guys behind Deadlands: The Rising) to just hack away until the right vibe returned pushed me forward. Speaking of Brian and Gary, they were kind enough to write some music for IAZM2 and Brian even provided a track his old band did before they broke up (as heard during the flashback sequence).
Where to next? We�ve had the rise and we�ve had the mid-ground excess � naturally the fall will follow and this is the basic premise of the third (and final) film in the series, the specifics of the fall however are detailed in the audio commentary for the IAZM2 DVD.
So next up is I Am Zombie Man 3: The Inevitable Decomposition of Zombie Man, which I am looking to make capable of standing on its own (with the idea of film festival submission), but also provide enough entertainment for the series faithful without alienating new comers. Ultimately, the goal for IAZM3 is a step upwards visually and thematically, this time ditching the �literally no budget� tradition in favour of a deeper production value to really give the Zombie Man character a proper send off in a typically British, dark-humour style.
