Exclusives
Writer/Producers Kurtzman & Orci Chew the Fat on ‘Xombie’
Alex Kurtzman & Robert Orci, the writing/producing team behind such films as Transformers and Star Trek, attended the Saturn Awards last Thursday night, and B-D got the opportunity to catch up with them in the press room for some details on their upcoming adaptation (they are producing) of the Flash cartoon/comic book series Xombie. Check out their comments below.
“We have set our targets on a writer who we really like who’s got a great take on it, and that’s a matter of going in and pitching it over to our friends at the studio and having them pay the guy,” said the producing team. “If you read the comic, there is something unique about it terms of the fact that the zombie in a sense is a protagonist in it. And the idea of finding a humanity [in a zombie] is the opposite of any kind of zombie movie that we’ve ever seen and that’s what attracted us to it…I think it’ll be [set in] present day. So think of it as not un-fun, but I think there’s a grittiness to the comic that we wanna preserve…but I don’t wanna commit our writer to too much until he actually writes it.”
As for franchise potential, “We never look at anything [that way]…never count your sequels before they hatch. One movie at a time.”
“Xombie” is based on a Devil’s Due comic book by James Farr, itself based on his online animated series. Farr’s creation centers on a zombie cop named Dirge who attempts to saves humanity’s remnants, particularly a young girl named Zoe, from evil zombies.
A hospital stay grows more nerve-frazzling when memory loss distorts reality in our exclusive clip from This Tempting Madness, inspired by a true story.
The mind-bending psychological thriller will be released in select theaters and on demand on June 12 via Vertical.
Simone Ashley (“Bridgerton”) stars as Mia, who awakens from a coma, grievously injured, her memory fractured. As she puts the pieces of her past together, she starts to question her own actions and her perception of reality.
In This Tempting Madness, “Mia awakens from a coma grievously injured, her memory fractured. As she puts the pieces of her past together, she starts to question her own actions, and her perception of reality.”
Jennifer E. Montgomery makes her feature directorial debut from a script she co-wrote with director of photography Andrew Davis, inspired by Montgomery’s first-hand experience with tragedy involving her best friend.
“Months before the incident, there were signals that her world was unraveling,” says Montgomery. “I could feel the pressure building, though I didn’t know what form it would take. I never could have known what violence would come, and I certainly never imagined making a film about it.”
Austin Stowell (“NCIS: Origins”), Suraj Sharma (Happy Death Day 2U), Mojean Aria (Reminiscence), Amol Shah (“For All Mankind”), and Zenobia Shroff (“Ms. Marvel”) round out the cast.
Smoke Jumper Films and Mango Monster Productions produce in association with Catchlight Studios (Heretic, The Blackening).
This Tempting Madness is rated R for “language, violence/bloody images, and brief sexuality.”