‘Climate change/ zombie’ flick Numurkah set for production
Ryan Coonan’s short Numurkah will be made into a feature film, which will become what its executive producer claims will be the world’s first ‘climate change/zombie’ film.
John L. Simpson, Titan View CEO and EP of the film, told Encore that the project is currently in the final stages of development and likely to go into production towards the end of 2010, with a budget of approximately $3 million.
“But it’s going to look like a $30m Hollywood film,” Simpson said.
Numurkah is based on the 12-minute short film of the same name, which recently won the Most Resourceful Production award at Flickerfest. It was written and directed by Ryan Coonan, and produced by James Hicks.
According to Simpson, Numurkah (named after the Victorian town in which it is set) is a departure from the type of material he usually does. His previous projects have included Men’s Group and distribution of The Jammed.
Although he described the film as the first ‘climate change/zombie’ movie, Simpson believes that the environmental theme does not get on the way of entertainment, and expects that young audiences will appreciate it.
“Climate change is at the backdrop to the story, which is really about the characters, relationships and survival. Subconsciously, the climate change issue is there for people to think about if they want to, or they can see the film purely for its action and drama,” he said.
Titan View has also acquired the independent film Blind Company, starring Colin Friels and directed by Alkinos Tsilimidos. The film will be released in April.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Comments
26 Jan 10
8:58 PM
So how is this different from Undead, then?
27 Jan 10
10:27 AM
I suppose it’s the ‘climate change’ angle, but I’m of the belief that you can never have too many zombie movies!
27 Jan 10
2:57 PM
I’ll bet good money the ‘climate change angle’ was never on the page, after all, it’s never even inferred in the short (even the lake is pretty much full at the start) and the film’s yellowish grade resembles the sweltering town set up scenes at the start of Undead anyway.
I’m betting the climate change angle was probably dreamed up later on, as part of the pitch to festivals – hell if I knew that festivals were giving away hard cash to a much smaller pool of environment themed shorts, then I’d dream up an angle too. For a real climate change short, check out Mark Alston’s brooding “Change Coming”. No zombies in that, unfortunately.
Personally I’m looking forward to Scott Ryan and Kriv Stenders’ zombie movies apparently in development. At least i know they won’t dress their films up as something they’re not.
27 Jan 10
3:09 PM
You’re right, but ultimately, people will do, say and rewrite whatever works for them to finance a project, and climate change is the kind of angle that will get them good publicity throughout the film’s entire life cycle.
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