Movies
They’re Finally Making a Zombie Musical, ‘Anna and the Apocalypse’
Remember when George A. Romero was developing the undead musical, Diamond Dead? Well, we’re finally getting a musical that’s surrounded by zombies.
ScreenDaily is reporting that shooting is underway in and around Glasgow, Scotland on Anna and the Apocalypse.
In the movie, “A girl and her friends must fight – and sing – their way through a zombie invasion to reach the supposed safety of their school, not knowing if their parents and friends will still be alive when they get there.”
Emerging UK actress Ella Hunt (Our Robot Overlords) stars in the title role alongside Mark Benton (ITV drama The Halcyon) who plays her father and Paul Kaye (Game Of Thrones), who plays the wicked antagonist Savage.
Ryan McHenry, who wrote and directed the 2010 short film “Zombie Musical” (below) upon which it is based, wrote the original script and was due to direct the feature but the filmmaker died of cancer in 2015 aged 27. He was best known for creating viral hit Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal.
Directing duties have now been taken on by John McPhail, director of 2016 rom-com Where Do We Go From Here. Writers are Alan MacDonald and McHenry.
Rounding out the ensemble cast are newcomers Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Ben Wiggins and Marli Siu.
Producers are Naysun Alae-Carew and Nicholas Crum of Blazing Griffin and Tracy Jarvis of Parkhouse Pictures. Executive producers are Tracy Brimm of Forward Films (Grabbers), Allan Niblo, Todd Brown, Mark Thomas and James Norrie.
Fans of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, Repo! The Genetic Opera and Stage Fright get a taste of what’s to come in the original short film…
Universal has been having a hell of a time getting their Universal Monsters brand back on a better path in the wake of the Dark Universe collapsing, with four movies thus far released in the years since The Mummy attempted to get that interconnected universe off the ground.
First was Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, to date the only post-Mummy hit for the Universal Monsters, followed by The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, and now Abigail. The latter three films have attempted to bring Dracula back to the screen in fresh ways, but both Demeter and Renfield severely underperformed at the box office. And while Abigail is a far better vampire movie than those two, it’s unfortunately also struggling to turn a profit.
Where does the Universal Monsters brand go from here? The good news is that Universal and Blumhouse have once again enlisted the help of Leigh Whannell for their upcoming Wolf Man reboot, which is howling its way into theaters in January 2025. This is good news, of course, because Whannell’s Invisible Man was the best – and certainly most profitable – of the post-Dark Universe movies that Universal has been able to conjure up. The film ended its worldwide run with $144 million back in 2020, a massive win considering the $7 million budget.
Given the film was such a success, you may wondering why The Invisible Man 2 hasn’t come along in these past four years. But the wait for that sequel may be coming to an end.
Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast this week, The Invisible Man star Elisabeth Moss notes that she feels “very good” about the sequel’s development at this point in time.
“Blumhouse and my production company [Love & Squalor Pictures]… we are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” Moss updates this week. “And I feel very good about it.”
She adds, “We are very much intent on continuing that story.”
At the end of the 2020 movie, Elisabeth Moss’s heroine Cecilia Kass uses her stalker’s high-tech invisibility suit to kill him, now in possession of the technology that ruined her life.
Stay tuned for more on The Invisible Man 2 as we learn it.
[Related] Power Corrupts: Universal Monsters Classic ‘The Invisible Man’ at 90
Dev Patel’s ‘Monkey Man’ Is Now Available to Watch at Home!
Five Underseen Vampire Horror Movies to Stream This Week
‘Stream’ – Horror Movie from the Team Behind ‘Terrifier’ Sets August Theatrical Release
‘The Blair Witch Project’ – Original Stars Release a Statement Asking Lionsgate for Residuals & Recognition
‘Mountain Man’ – Joe Manganiello Will Battle Zombies in Upcoming Horror Movie
