Monday, July 29, 2013

Will 'The Walking Dead' See a Zombie Baby?

Season 4 of The Walking Dead, premiering in October, promises to introduce new kinds of walkers we haven't seen before on the grisly AMC thriller, including a zombie baby.

"There's a little hint of that in the premiere," says Danai Gurira (Michonne). Executive producer Gregory Nicotero says the series almost went there last season when Daryl and Maggie searched for baby formula at a day-care center.

Though the premiere episode hasn't yet been locked, exec producer Robert Kirkman confirms the appearance: "It'll be something different from the baby who was seen in [2004's] Dawn of the Dead remake, which was horrific and done so well. There's still room for us to do something different and cool."

~tvguide.com

WALKING DEAD PRISON OUTBREAK MINIMATE BOX SET

A Diamond Select Toys release! Designed and Sculpted by Art Asylum! The original comic book that inspired AMC's The Walking Dead has published over 100 issues, and now Diamond Select Toys and Art Asylum have released this four-pack of Minimates mini-figures inspired by the comic. With a battle-damaged Rick in his prison garb, fan-favorite zombie-killer Michonne and two exclusive zombies, this set is a must-have item for any fan of the comic book, TV show, or zombies in general. Each Minimates stands 2' tall with 14 points of articulation and a variety of interchangeable parts and accessories.

LIFE IMITATES ART...

Plants Vs. Zombies: Lawnmageddon Comic Now On iOS

Plants vs. Zombies™, the hit video game, comes to comics! Young adventurers Patrice Blazing and Nate Timely fend off a “fun-dead” neighborhood invasion in Plants vs. Zombies: Lawnmageddon!

PopCap’s immensely popular Plants vs. Zombies video game finally gets the plant-filled, zombie-zapping comics treatment it deserves! Winner of over 30 Game of the Year awards, Plants vs. Zombies is now determined to shuffle into the realm of comics to tickle funny bones and thrill . . . brains. Paul Tobin (Marvel Adventures, Falling Skies) and Ron Chan (The Guild, Husbands) join forces to deliver a hilarious, all-ages, action-packed zombie romp to your neighborhood!

This app contains the first issue and allows users to download future issues as they become available. Users can also create or sign in with their Dark Horse Digital account info to add Plants vs. Zombies comics to their collections within the Dark Horse Comics iOS App.

Pakistan’s First Zombie Film To Hit Theatres Soon!

After the films Siyaah, Zibahkhana and Zinda Laash, Pakistan’s first zombie comedy film “Waking Dead” by short film maker Usman Mukhtar is ready to hit the screens soon.

Film “Waking Dead” is shot in Dubai and stars UAE-based actors Nitin Mirani, Nadia Williams and Nidhi Jha. It is a short film that was produced in less than three days by Usman Mukhtar who enjoyed this new experience with international actors.

"No doubt that there is talent in this country [Pakistan], but there are no proper institutions of support,” says Usman Mukhtar.

The film features make-up artist Nouf Al Jhadhami’s makeup expertise to make the characters look “wonderfully scary”. The movie “Waking Dead” is the first zomcom production of a PR and talent management agency Muse Dubai.

The dialogues of the film have been written by Shahana Khan and the movie is in its post-production stage.

The film is set to release in the next two months in Dubai and Usman Mukhtar also plans to showcase Waking Dead at the upcoming Dubai Film Festival 2013.

~oyetimes.com

Dead Rising 3 Release Date In November As Exclusive Launch Title For Xbox One; Current-GenConsole Too Weak For CapCom’s Zombie Survival Game

Dead Rising 3 release date is all set in November, when Xbox One arrives.

Capcom Vancouver has confirmed that its open world survival video game will be a launch title for Xbox One, making Dead Rising 3 release date already slated in November.

Before it was announced to be an exclusive title for Xbox One, Capcom Vancouver revealed that Dead Rising 3 was initially planned the Xbox 360, as reported by VG24/7. Accordingly, the current-generation Microsoft gaming console does not have enough hardware capacity to support Dead Rising 3, game producer Mike Jones said in an interview with Siliconera.

The report stated, "The company began developing Dead Rising 3 on Windows PC and was trying to scale it to the Xbox 360 hardware, but the console couldn't make it work."

Furthermore, Jones shared during the interview, "Everything we were doing was breaking the bank on [Xbox] 360," said Jones. "The number of zombies, the streaming stuff we wanted to do, memory budgets for the number of environments and items and physics and all of that stuff."

Well, this is not actually a huge surprise as Dead Rising 3 games is "exponentially larger" than any other titles of the series. According to Jones, "Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2 could fit into the world of the third outing "multiple times over."

Because of this, Capcom Vancouver tapped Microsoft and partnered with them to acquire early specs of the upcoming Xbox One so they can figure out how they can fit the game into the new hardware.

"The biggest things for us have been the size of the world, the density of the world, the streaming spaghetti of getting everything working with no load zones and seamlessly streaming," Jones explained.

Microsoft and Capcom Vancouver formed a close development partnership making Microsoft Studios the publisher for Dead Rising 3. "They get our builds all the time and [are] helping us optimize it and helping us with performance stuff. They have done custom work with multi-threading for us. All of the Kinect things, we're making a game for hardware that isn't finished that we're all trying to launch together on day one. Basically, we've been in lock step [sic] with them," Jones said.

Dead Rising 3 release date will be in November, when Xbox One launches.

~kpopstarz.com

Season Two of BBC America's Hit Zombie Drama 'In The Flesh' Will Premiere Next Year

"In The Flesh," the unusual British zombie miniseries set in a world in which a zombie apocalypse has come and gone and the surviving undead are being treated with medication and returned to society, was already confirmed for a second season when it first premiered in the U.S. on BBC America in June. Today, the network confirmed that it will co-produce a second season of the show with the BBC.

The second season will run for a longer six episodes, and will premiere in the spring of 2014. The second season will return to turmoil-filled town of Roarton, where the living and the undead have reached a fragile peace. Kieren (Luke Newberry) hopes to get settled into a peaceful second life after the events of season one, until the arrival of new characters throws those plans into disarray and battle lines are drawn.

"In The Flesh" is written and created by Dominic Mitchell.

~indiewire.com

SDCC 13 Exclusive The Walking Dead “Hershel’s Farm” Minimates Box Set

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Exclusive The Walking Dead “Hershel’s Farm” Minimates Box Set - Deputy Rick Grimes, Hershel Green & Two Farm Zombies

As has been the case for the past few years, The Walking Dead is sure to dominate San Diego Comic-Con 2013! So you know this SDCC 2013 Exclusive “Hershel’s Farm” The Walking Dead Minimates box set from Diamond Comics and Previews is going to be highly sought after. This comic book inspired 4 piece set includes Deputy Rick Grimes, Hershel Green and two “Farm” Zombies featuring the characters’ looks from when Rick and company were living on Hershel’s farm. For those of you who have read Robert Kirkman’s comics (or even if you’ve only ever watched the hit AMC television show), you know this was an important period in the lives of the survivors. It was also the lead up to the comic book series’ most monumental storyline ever!

The San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Exclusive The Walking Dead “Hershel’s Farm” Minimates 4 Pack has a limited edition run size of 3,000 pieces and can be purchased at the Previews SDCC booth #2401. For those of us unable to attend Comic-Con, you can pre-order one today at Entertainment Earth for just $19.99 here.

~theblot.com

'THE WALKING DEAD'S DARYL DIXON A DEAD MAN?

“The fans will get Daryl Dixon killed. I get a lot of hate mail every time I kill anybody in the comic, which always aggravates me because it’s like, ‘It’s been a hundred issues! Don’t you know how this is by now? What are you doing?’ But specifically about the Daryl thing–that fan reaction is going to get him killed. I feel like it’s a dare. Like, ‘Oh, really? You’re gonna riot? We’ll see…we’ll see. No one is safe…”

~Robert Kirkman @ SDCC

Sony PS3’s Zombie Hit The Last of Us hits the six week record!

ZOMBIE CHILLER GAME The Last of Us has sat atop the console games sales tables for six weeks, matching the previous record.

Produced by Naughty Dog exclusively for Sony PS3 consoles, the game has stayed at the top of the charts for as long as games like Fifa 12, but has done so on just one games machine's sales.

"There's still no stopping 'The Last of Us' as Naughty Dog takes the [number one] for a [sixth] consecutive week," said the UKIE, the UK games body that compiles the sales charts. "In topping the chart again it also matches the unbroken runs of 'Black Ops II' and 'FIFA 12'."

However the game does seem to be slowing, and UKIE shows a drop in sales of 22 percent. Last week in the face of competition from a Nintendo Mario game its sales fell by 43 percent, but it does seem to have been a match for the moustached plumber.

Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros sits at number three, the slot it held last week, while Minecraft for the Xbox 360 has had a 20 percent surge in sales and has shot from fifth place to second. In doing so it has hopped passed Fifa 13 and Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) Worldwide Studios, has already crowed about how well the game has done, and excitedly broke the news that it had sold 3.5 million copies in just around a month.

~theinquirer.net~

SO I SURVIVED THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE & ALL I GOT WAS THIS PODCAST TP

In a lonely compound surrounded by the zombie apocalypse, one girl remains unchanged. A slight garden mishap means a supply run to the outside where she makes a life-changing discovery-the zombies only eat males. Now Mara Mitchell is on a mission: make friends with the undead, or kill them all.

WHAT IS A ZOMBIE?

A zombie (Haitian Creole: zonbi; North Mbundu: nzumbe) is an animated corpse raised by magical means, such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli. Since the late 19th century, zombies have acquired notable popularity, especially in North American and European folklore.

In modern times, the term "zombie" has been applied to an undead being in horror fiction, often drawing from the depiction of zombies in George A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. They have appeared as plot devices in various books, films, television shows, video games and comics.

According to the West African tenets of Vodou, a dead person can be revived by a bokor, or sorcerer. Zombies remain under the control of the bokor since they have no will of their own. "Zombi" is also another name of the Vodou snake lwa Damballah Wedo, of Niger–Congo origin; it is akin to the Kikongo word nzambi, which means "god". There also exists within the West African Vodun tradition the zombi astral, which is a part of the human soulthat is captured by a bokor and used to enhance the bokor's power. The zombi astral is typically kept inside a bottle which the bokor can sell to clients for luck, healing or business success. It is believed that after a time God will take the soul back and so the zombi is a temporary spiritual entity. It is also said in vodou legend, that feeding a zombie salt will make it return to the grave.

The idea of zombies is present in some South African cultures. In some communities it is believed that a dead person can be turned into a zombie by a small child. It is said that the spell can be broken by a powerful enough sangoma.

It is also believed in some areas of South Africa that witches can turn a person into a zombie by killing and possessing the victim's body in order to force it into slave labor. After rail lines were built to transport migrant workers, stories emerged about "witch trains". These trains appeared ordinary, but were staffed by zombie workers controlled by a witch. The trains would abduct a person boarding at night, and the person would then either be turned into a zombie worker, or beaten and thrown from the train a distance away from the original location.

In 1937, while researching folklore in Haiti, Zora Neale Hurston encountered the case of a woman who appeared in a village, and a family claimed she was Felicia Felix-Mentor, a relative who had died and been buried in 1907 at the age of 29. However, the woman had been examined by a doctor, who found on X-ray that she did not have the leg fracture that Felix-Mentor was known to have had. Hurston pursued rumors that the affected persons were given a powerful psychoactive drug, but she was unable to locate individuals willing to offer much information. She wrote: "What is more, if science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than gestures of ceremony."

Several decades later, Wade Davis, a Harvard ethnobotanist, presented a pharmacological case for zombies in two books, The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988). Davis traveled to Haiti in 1982 and, as a result of his investigations, claimed that a living person can be turned into a zombie by two special powders being introduced into the blood stream (usually via a wound). The first, coup de poudre (French: "powder strike"), includes tetrodotoxin (TTX), a powerful and frequently fatal neurotoxin found in the flesh of the pufferfish (order Tetraodontidae). The second powder consists of dissociative drugs such as datura. Together, these powders were said to induce a deathlike state in which the will of the victim would be entirely subjected to that of the bokor. Davis also popularized the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice.

The process described by Davis was an initial state of deathlike suspended animation, followed by re-awakening — typically after being buried — into a psychotic state. The psychosis induced by the drug and psychological trauma was hypothesised by Davis to reinforce culturally learned beliefs and to cause the individual to reconstruct their identity as that of a zombie, since they "knew" they were dead, and had no other role to play in the Haitian society. Societal reinforcement of the belief was hypothesized by Davis to confirm for the zombie individual the zombie state, and such individuals were known to hang around in graveyards, exhibiting attitudes of low affect.

Davis's claim has been criticized, particularly the suggestion that Haitian witch doctors can keep "zombies" in a state of pharmacologically induced trance for many years. Symptoms of TTX poisoning range from numbness and nausea to paralysis — particularly of the muscles of the diaphragm — unconsciousness, and death, but do not include a stiffened gait or a deathlike trance. According to psychologist Terence Hines, the scientific community dismisses tetrodotoxin as the cause of this state, and Davis' assessment of the nature of the reports of Haitian zombies is viewed as overly credulous.

Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing highlighted the link between social and cultural expectations and compulsion, in the context of schizophrenia and other mental illness, suggesting that schizogenesis may account for some of the psychological aspects of zombification.

Slaves brought to Haiti in the 17th and 18th centuries, believed that when they died, Baron Samedi would gather them from their grave to bring them to heaven, unless they had offended him in some way, such as committing suicide, in which case they'd be forever a slave after death, as a zombie.

The figure of the zombie has appeared several times in fantasy themed fiction and entertainment, as early as the 1929 novel The Magic Island by William Seabrook. Time claimed that the book "introduced 'zombi' into U.S. speech". In 1932, Victor Halperin directed White Zombie, a horror film starring Bela Lugosi. This film, capitalizing on the same voodoo zombie themes as Seabrook's book of three years prior, is often regarded as the first legitimate zombie film, and introduced the word "zombie" to the wider world. Other zombie-themed films include Val Lewton's I Walked With a Zombie (1943) and Wes Craven's The Serpent and the Rainbow, (1988) a heavily fictionalized account of Wade Davis' book.

The DC comics character Solomon Grundy, a villain who first appeared in a 1944 Green Lantern story, is one of the earliest depictions of a zombie in the comics medium. In 2011, Image Comics released a four issue miniseries entitled Drums, by writer El Torres and artist Abe Hernando. The story consists of Afro-Caribbean zombies that have been created using voodoo.

The zombie also appears as a metaphor in protest songs, symbolizing mindless adherence to authority, particularly in law enforcement and the armed forces. Well-known examples include Fela Kuti's 1976 album Zombie, and The Cranberries' 1994 single "Zombie".

A new version of the zombie, distinct from that described in Haitian religion, has also emerged in popular culture in recent decades. This "zombie" is taken largely from George A. Romero's seminal film The Night of the Living Dead, which was in turn partly inspired by Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend. The word zombie is not used in Night of the Living Dead, but was applied later by fans. The monsters in the film and its sequels, such as Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, as well as its many inspired works, such as Return of the Living Dead and Zombi 2, are usually hungry for human flesh although Return of the Living Dead introduced the popular concept of zombies eating brains.

Sometimes they are victims of a fictional pandemic illness causing the dead to reanimate or the living to behave this way, but often no cause is given in the story. Although this modern monster bears some superficial resemblance to the Haitian zombie tradition, its links to such folklore are unclear, and many consider George A. Romero to be the progenitor of this creature. Zombie fiction is now a sizeable sub-genre of horror, usually describing a breakdown of civilization occurring when most of the population become flesh-eating zombies — a zombie apocalypse.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

ABIGAIL BRESLIN TO BECOME A ZOMBIE IN 'MAGGIE'

A couple of months back Chloe Moretz ('Carrie') was due to appear in new horror feature 'Maggie', however, due to the young star's hectic schedule she was forced to pull out. Thankfully her replacement has been found in the form of 'Zombieland' and 'The Call' star Abigail Breslin (below). The 17 year old actress has scored the title role in the new zombie project from first time feature director Henry Hobson. Breslin joins Arnold Schwarzenegger ('End of Days') and Paddy Considine ('The World's End') who are already on board. Hobson will helm from a script penned by John Scott 3rd.

"As a 'walking dead' virus spreads across the country, a farm family helps their eldest daughter come to terms with her infection as she slowly becomes a flesh-eating zombie."

~horror-asylum.com

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Hyundai Gets Zombie Seal Of Approval

We live in scary times, but there's at least one bit of good news: zombies have not jumped the shark. Unless, that is, they make “Sharknado” with zombies. No, the living dead are going strong, thanks to the popularity of comics, and the entertainment deals that have spread from the page to the screen like Solanum, and the fact that being a zombie means never having to say you're sorry.

The ghoul phenomenon has also benefited from cross-pollination with the Comic-Con phenomenon, and guess who has benefitted from that? Hyundai, for one. The automaker’s second year of a relationship with “The Walking Dead” show and comic from which it derives has allowed it to tap into a Millennial fan base -- people with a freakish devotion to personalizing things, like their bodies, as anyone knows who has gone to one of the events.

Hyundai Motor America’s zombiegeist is with Robert Kirkman, who created "The Walking Dead" show and graphic novels from which it leaped. Last year, the partnership involved a Kirkland-designed anti-zombie Elantra Coupe. This year, anyone who goes to the “The Walking Dead Chop Shop” walkingdeadchopshop.com gets to design a zombie-proof, ghoul-killing Hyundai with the chance of getting it built for a Comic-Con tour.

Greg Braun, COO of Hyundai Motor America AOR Innocean U.S.A., which created the program with the automaker, tells Marketing Daily that working with Kirkman and Comic-Con is a no-brainer, so to speak. "You have a strong fan base of influencers at Comic-Con, and Kirkman is the godfather of the zombie genre, and he touches everything associated with the show."

Braun adds that the huge success of the show -- the most successful ever on basic cable in terms of viewership -- doesn’t hurt. "It's no longer a niche; it's huge." He adds that Hyundai's involvement around letting people create a zombie-proof car -- suggesting features it could have with Kirkman choosing the best -- is a way to be authentic without hijacking content with tactics like heavy product placement. "It's a great way to engage."

The "The Walking Dead Chop Shop" has a configuration app with tools and features, and some 300 car parts and custom graphic decals created in collaboration with Kirkman and comic book artists at Skybound. People who create a zombie-proof version of the Elantra, Veloster Turbo or Santa Fe can share with social networks and get a survival score. One can also test the vehicle in digital “Walking Dead” inspired scenarios, and then enter the vehicle into the contest in which Kirkman chooses which will actually be built. That car gets unveiled at New York Comic-Con.

The effort is backed by print ads in books like Entertainment Weekly, Xbox and PC Gamer, and there will be thematic TV advertising around the 10th-anniversary season of "The Walking Dead" this fall. The effort includes a presence at Comic-Con International in San Diego, radio buys, video content in pop-culture sites, and social media targeting "The Walking Dead" fan base. There are also custom ads by Skybound comic artists in The Walking Dead comic books.

~mediapost.com

THE WALKING DEAD MONOPOLY & RISK Gameplay Details Revealed!

USAopoly and Skybound Entertainment have released more details about the gameplay for MONOPOLY: The Walking Dead Survival Edition and RISK: The Walking Dead Survival Edition games being offered exclusively through Diamond Comic Distributors.

Here are the details, straight from the horses' mouths:

RISK: The Walking Dead Survival Edition

In RISK: The Walking Dead Survival Edition ($49.99) it’s a fun, new twist on classic Risk game play. USAopoly will debut a brand new map set in the southeast region of the United States where players battle and scavenge for their very lives. Players vie to be the dominant group of survivors in a post apocalyptic world infested by the undead. Contending for survival at every turn, gamers must not only fend off attacks from the living who compete for precious, limited resources upon which their survival depends, but they also must maintain their self-preservation from the unrelenting hordes of the undead that would feast upon them.

Zombies, referred to in The Walking Dead as "walkers," will populate areas of the map and will continue to randomly spawn at the start of each players turn. Spawning escalates at the start of each round providing increased danger for the players. When walkers spawn into an occupied territory the combat resolves immediately.
A deck of "Event" cards. At the start of each players turn, in addition to spawning walkers, an event card must be drawn and read aloud. These cards reference story events from The Walking Dead canon and provide players with challenges with potential rewards and penalties and create more overall suspenseful interaction.
A new deck of "Supply Cards" will add strategy, fun and flavor to this classic tabletop game.
The game duration mirrors that of RISK: 2210 in that the game ends and scoring occurs after a period of time and not with one player controls every territory. This speeds up game play and minimizes the duration an eliminated player is “out of the game”. However, the ability to play classic RISK and the corresponding rules will be provided.

Gamers can expect a fast-paced game of attrition and survival in RISK: The Walking Dead Survival Edition, where this time — the last man standing wins!

MONOPOLY: The Walking Dead Survival Edition

Despite its post-apocalyptic setting, MONOPOLY: The Walking Dead Survival Edition ($39.99) delivers classic Monopoly wheeling and dealing game play. Players vie for, and then must fortify, the prime real estate and resources that will sustain their lives. There's only one victor that will outlast the others - whether living or undead — when all is said and done. This completely customized game features six collectible tokens, optional speed play and a fight to the finish!

The standard Monopoly pieces are given a unique spin to fit the world of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead.

Currency has been replaced with Supplies. Houses are walls, Hotels are Guard Towers. Chance cards become Scavenge cards, and the Community Chest cards are Supply Chest cards. Income Tax has been replaced with Herd, the Luxury Tax has been replaced with Protection. Other changes include:

Tokens: