A Fearful Cartoon Halloween Movie, originally uploaded by Firenzesca [Game Over].

The topic of the DNC today was what you might expect it to be.. the new VP candidate. Let’s meet him.

I gotta admit that I love the whole ZOMBIE genre. Whether it is the classic Night of the Living Dead or the more modern 28 Days the stories are classic. Who knows what the magical attraction is for the whole zombie culture but in terms of total books and movies they seem to be edging out Vampires and Werewolves in the horror popularity contest. But who doesn’t love a script riddled with characters whose only lines are “Brains… need brains”.  The Zombie culture has been around for a long, long time.  While most of the original stories about how Zombies are created centered around Voodoo myths that the dead could be reanimated with black magic most of the past few decades have given the cause of Zombie outbreaks as government experiments gone bad or the occasional meteorite from space.  It seems our culture finds it more likely that the Science will be the bad guy over some spiritual cause.  I am sure you are not surprised that a top secret government screw up is still one of the top causes.  Maybe it makes the movie that much more believable.  Whether Zombies are real or not, the undead or now here in Denver, on the screen that is.

This week marked the beginning of “7 weeks of undead horror” with the Dead of Summer Zombie Film Event at the Starz theatre. The lineup includes a total of seven films. Four are classic zombie movies that have been spawned from the original Romero creation. The remaining three are going to be premiers for our Denver theater that appear to be from local creators. Go Denver

The first film in the sequence has already started playing and will continue today and tomorrow. I wouldn’t worry about this one being the scariest as it looks to be a major spoof on the Zombie idea. Titled Poultrygeist this storyline tells of the consequences of located your fast food business on an Indian Burial Ground. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and I haven’t seen it so don’t look to me for a review.

This Friday the real scares will start with the 1979 Italian take on Zombies in Lucio Fulci’s Zombie. Here is the description from the Startz Website.

After a New York harbor patrolman is murdered at the hands of a flesh-hungry ghoul aboard what was believed to be an abandoned yacht, the daughter of the ship’s missing owner teams up with a newspaper reporter named for a private investigation. With the help of a pair of sightseers, they travel to the secluded Caribbean island of Matul, where Anne’s father was last seen conducting medical research. There, they meet his colleague who frantically attempts to find a scientific explanation for a phenomenon that has plagued the island; it seems as if the dead refuse to stay dead. The locals believe a voodoo curse is at work as scores of animated corpses rise from their graves to hungrily seek out live flesh. Fulci’s zombie classic was originally intended as a sequel to Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead and is released that way abroad.

I am not sure that I will make it to see them all unless I can rally a group to make it fun.  If you are a Zombie genre fan now might be the time to join the Denver Film Society (Anytime is a good time to join this by the way) as each film is roughly $9.00 but members get the whole Zombie film event for $20.  This will also set you up for the next Denver Film Festival November 13th through the 23rd.  It will also give you some great exposure to some wonderful, and let’s face it not so wonderful but hopefully original, films that are not in the mainstream market.  With the large influx of summer box office feature films even the common few Independent films that usually make it to the big theaters are having trouble getting a spot.

Maybe I’ll see you at the movies.  :)

A little rain wasn’t going to stop these runners from taking on the Rocky Mountain Half Marathon this morning. I just wanted to show these die hard runners taking off in the rain on Little Raven Street in Riverfront Park and a few of the finishers.

I’m not sure what the reason was, but this weekend a helicopter did some very low and very slow circles over Riverfront Park and Commons Park. They would cruise right by Glass House, sit for a bit, drop over Commons Park, sit for a bit, and then loop around Riverfront Tower.

Again, and again, and again.

Okay… Top 10 reasons the copter was hanging around Riverfront Park

10: Hillary or Obama picking out a picnic site during the convention
9: The mayors increased dog leash enforcement poll
8: The city doing an analysis of rezoning Commons’ park for a Wal Mart
7: Someone getting some “lovin” in Glass House and the pilot kept looping to check it out.
6: Homeland Security practice drills
5: 9 News heard that naked protesters had taken over the park
4: Naked protesters planning their DNC takeover of the park
3: Obama rented out the penthouse in Glass House and his taxi heli was looping for a pickup
2: City is late on Common’s Park mortgage and bank is planning foreclosure
1: ? Let’s hear your ideas

AFTER WRITING THE POST BELOW I NOTICED THE CREW SETTING UP AGAIN THIS AFTERNOON. TURNS OUT THEY HAD SOME BAD FILM FROM THE SHOOT A COUPLE DAYS AGO SO THERE WILL BE A REPEAT SHOOT TONIGHT. APPARENTLY, SOME FILM HEADING BACK LA GET THE SUPER X-RAY TREATMENT (OOPS SOMEONE FORGOT A LABEL) AND THEY NEED TO REPLACE THOSE SHOTS. THEW WILL BE RESHOOTING STILLS ONLY FROM WHAT THE WORD ON THE STREET IS AND THEY DO THE REST IN THE STUDIO USING BLUE SCREEN. SO FOR ALL YOU CELEBRITY SEEKERS THEY SAY THERE WON’T BE ANY ACTORS HERE TONIGHT. BUT THAT BIG OLD CRANE IS GOING UP FOR LIGHTING AND THE REGULAR CREW WILL BE HERE. THAT IS ONE EXPENSIVE OOPS.

I missed the first night of shooting here in Riverfront but did catch last night.

What can I say. It was cool to see. The team hanging between shots, chatting with the extras, watching Eddie do a boogie in the plaza… it was cool. I think part of the cool factor was seeing the same ground you walk on every day turned into a stage, with great special effects, tree lights and stage lights, and water trucks spraying rain transforms into a much different city scene.

It was tough to get pics from a distance in the dark but here are some of the ones that turned out.

Here are a few of the links of other blog entries about the Denver Riverfront Park shooting of Nowhereland. Startling Stories Blog talks to someone on the set and The Denver Post has some great details too.

Here is the scoop from cbs4denver.com

(CBS4) DENVER The crew shooting Eddie Murphy’s new movie “Nowhereland” began filming Monday and the producer said filming in Denver is scheduled for 10 working days.

The movie tells a story of a busy father trying to connect with his daughter through her imaginary world, Nowhereland. The decision to set the film in Denver was based on aspects of the script.

“The writer had several choices,” said producer Lorenzo diBonaventura. “We had western motifs in our story and we decided Denver was the perfect city for us.”

Certain aspects of the characters also made the producers want to set the film in Denver.

The 10 days of filming will be mainly exteriors so that the movie will really have the feel of Denver and so far, the producers and crew have loved the experience.

“It’s a great town and what is nice for us is that has been under-utilized on film, so every place is a pretty fresh place to put a camera and as filmmakers, that’s exciting,” diBonaventura said.

“One of the great things is how welcoming everybody has been,” he said. “As filmmakers, that makes you feel really good because we are moving pretty fast and hard. If the people embrace you, it makes it easier for us, frankly, and makes you want to come back.”

Murphy stars as the father in the film. Newcomer Yara Shahidi stars as his daughter and Thomas Haden Church plays the other major role.

“Nowhereland” is currently slated to be released Sept. 26, 2008.

Pretty cool! The plaza will be famous again.

The rumor now is that as soon as Friday (maybe Thursday) the crew and Eddie will be in the plaza shooting for the new film. Eddie reportedly tried to book some rentals here in Riverfront Park but never found a place big enough or priced right for such a short term rental. Does that mean he is hanging out in the Hyatt… who knows. Either way maybe you can get picked up as an extra and be famous. One member of the actors guild told me today they are supposed to grab the first five extras are supposed to be members and then the general public comes next, but I don’t even know if Denver has that many members to show up. Either way FUN!!

The Denver post has more details about the movie here.