Blogs are atwitter with movie news from Cuba about a new zombie film coming in the fall. "Juan of the Dead," a collaboration between Mexico, Spain and Cuba, is set to start shooting in September.
Variety is reporting that it's part of a growing semi-indie Cuban film scene.
Quiet Earth reports this translation of the film's story:
Juan is a typical forty-year-old slacker. One day Havana begins to fill up with zombies. Juan decides that the best way to cope with it is to prosper. "Juan of the dead killed their loved ones" is his slogan, and his mission is to help people get rid of those infected around them ... for a price. But the situation gets worse -- while everyone is escaping to sea as a means to get away, Juan is left with no choice but to become a hero, staying to defend his country and protect his own on an island that has turned into a real bloodbath.
It's being marketed at Cannes right now, reports Quiet Earth.
Although vampires far outnumber zombies at the movies these days, the undead refuse to lay down for good. George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead is due in theaters next month (alas, it is easily his worst zombie picture to date - worse than Diary of the Dead) and Hollywood continues to circle Max Brooks' novel World War Z, which I believe could result in the greatest zombie movie ever, if done properly.
But the idea of Cuban zombies is rife with possibilities. For example, will the undead still crave pastelitos and plantains to go with their human entrails? Will the zombies be limited to how many people they can eat per day by their libretas?
