Rumor has it that a British zombie flick wowing industry big-wigs at Cannes is set to do big things. And the best part is, it cost less to make than the cost of the deluxe DVD edition of Dawn of the Dead...For a grand total of 70 bucks American, Englishman Marc Price has directed a movie that is now being eyed for worldwide distribution. It's called Colin, and hinges on the ingenious concept of telling the story from the zombie's perspective.
"When we say it's a low budget film, people presume a couple of hundred thousand [dollars]," said publicist Helen Grace to CNN. "People can't figure out how it's possible. What Marc's achieved has left people astonished."
The astonished people Ms. Grace is referring to are the representatives from major Japanese and Hollywood distributors who packed the market screenings at the French film festival. Going on the mega-positive buzz the down-and-dirty flick has been generating, several of those distributors are now in serious negotiations to pick it up.
In what has to be an encouraging sign for amateur filmmakers the world over, Price explains how he recruited a horde of zombie extras on Facebook and MySpace, and recycled special effects from used materials cribbed from other movies. He also fesses up to learning everything he knows from watching DVD commentaries and special features.
The idea to make the film came from a late-night screening of Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead with a bunch of friends, which led them to lament how they'd never be able to make their own zombie film because they had no budget. That's when Price got the epiphany that making a movie from the perspective of the undead would seriously minimize those budget concerns. But even he has to be surprised at the mere SEVENTY-DOLLAR price-tag (Price reports the money went to the purchase of a crowbar, a few tapes, and tea and coffee for his zombie extras).
Included in the positive buzz that carried the flick to Cannes is a review from the zombie social networking site zombiefriends.com that says it's "as original, compelling and thought provoking as [George] Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead,'" as well as SCARS magazine's brash prediction that Colin will "revolutionize zombie cinema".I've seen enough of these no-budget amateur zombie flicks to realize that most of them are godawful crap, but it would appear that Colin is that one needle in the haystack that may actually be worth catching. So keep your eye out for it, I'm sure it'll be headed our way pretty soon.