The Walking Dead: Whom Would You Want To Play “Negan”?

Rumors have run rampant across the internets this week that AMC’s The Walking Dead may be secretly casting “Negan” from the popular comic book series, to make a debut in the final part of season six of the smash television hit drama.  For those of you not familiar with “Negan”, he is the leader of a group of survivors known as the “saviors”, whom is “Brutal, foul-mouthed and possesses a twisted sense of humor”.  He also *spoiler alert* kills Glenn in the comic books, with a baseball bat named “Lucille”, that is covered in barbed wire, and drenched in zombie blood.  I love Glenn as much as the next dude, but that’s pretty badass.

While this rumor may be untrue, it has got us thinking about the casting, and whom we would love to see play the brutal force.  In today’s article, we will discuss whom we would love to see helm the role, and you can chime in with your thoughts in our comments with your ideal actor.

Henry Rollins

While maybe a stretch for most, it has been revealed that Henry Rollins, former frontman for the hardcore punk band “Black Flag”, and universally accepted badass, was the original inspiration for the character.  Rollins is now in his fifties, rocking gray hair, and entertaining us all on his History Channel series 10 Things You Don’t Know About (wait, Abraham Lincoln was possibly gay?), Rollins still looks jacked and ready to rage, and I wouldn’t fucking cross him.  He would be a natural fit.  Plus fuck, there’s this:

Jon Hamm

Jon Hamm obviously has the AMC connection, after finishing his run on the hit show MadMen, the physicality to play the character, and the acting chops to make it believable, more tellingly his recent comments fan the flames of this choice.  When asked last March about his interest in possibly playing this character, Hamm coyly responded to creator Robert Kirkman:

“Robert, call me. Come on, I don’t know. We’ll see. It would be fun, that’s for sure.”

While perhaps a reach, this would be my personal favorite, and would love to see it happen.  Hamm also has a habit of jumping at any project that greatly interests him, and how fun would it be to explore a character of that depth, on possibly the largest hit show currently running on cable television?  Get your martini shaker ready, Rick.

Kevin Durand

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t watch The Strain on FX, after reading the poor reviews on the AV Club, but I do recall his work on season four of Lost, and he is obviously an imposing mountain of fury, capable of leading men.  Plus he’s already added to his resume his turn as psychotic neo-nazi “Jeeves Tremor” in Smokin’ Aces, so there’s that.  I could live with this choice.

Mickey Rourke

Rourke is even older than Rollins by nearly a solid decade, and pushing 64, but when I personally think of “Negan”, my thoughts naturally wander to Rourke’s portrayal of “Marv” in Robert Rodriguez’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s Sin City, which was as epic of a comeback for an actor as John Travolta’s role in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.  So there’s the obvious connection of him comfortably becoming a character from a graphic novel, and he followed up this role with the Academy Award nominated best actor performance in The Wrestler.

Since then, he’s made appearances in the action movie series The Expendables, but mostly has been under the radar, so this could be his second huge comeback, and if he was itching for a challenge, I would be okay with this casting choice.

My Cousin Donny

He’s not that imposing, only stands about 5’7″, but he’s by far the most psychotic person I know.  It’s not unusual for him to flip a table in rage after losing a game of Madden, or taking his video games in for a trade, and thinking they were undervalued.  The only person I know who is banned from GameStop, over his unprovoked rage.  Probably a wildcard for the role, but I figured I’d mention him.

Tom Hardy

How could Tom Hardy not be mentioned, after his iconic role as “Bane”, the dude who actually broke Batman’s back.  He was menacing in Bronson, and since has bulked up even more, moving from The Dark Knight Rises,  to Mad Max: Fury Road.  While certainly also a stretch, but no more than my crazy cousin, I could see him playing this role.

So who would play “Negan” in your ideal world?  Tell us in the comments!

Zombie Movies We Love – Cemetery Man (AKA Dellamorte Dellamore) 1994

Editors note :  In this new feature, we will take a look at some of the hidden gems in the zombie movie universe, that we love dearly.  Enjoy!

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I first saw this movie when I was pretty young and impressionable.  I was rocking a high temperature and a horrible fever, and was up late one night laying on my couch channel surfing, when I came across Cemetery Man, and decided to watch it.  Over the next 105 minutes, I was in complete awe.  I was blown away by the story, the imagery, and also… there were boobs! (hey remember, I was young). 

I talked to my friends at school about this movie, but none of them had ever seen or even heard of it.  It was a few years later when I came across it again at my local video store, and I watched it at least five times before returning it.  I watched it with a few of my friends, and it was always a mixed reaction, and generally most of my friends didn’t like it, but then again, I always liked the weird shit that nobody else did.

The Story

Cemetery Man is a 1994 Italian film that tells the story of Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett), a caretaker at the Buffalora cemetery.  He comes to find that some of the dead rise on the seventh night following their death, and he decides it’s “easier just to shoot them”, rather then file a mountain of paperwork required for a formal investigation.  Francesco lives in a small shack on the grounds of the cemetery, with his mentally challenged assistant Gnaghi (Francios Hadji-Lazaro) who’s only response is “Gnagh!”, and Francesco fills his time reading old telephone books in which he crosses out the names of the deceased, working on putting together a human skull as if it were a puzzle, and shooting the “returners”.

Francesco falls in love with a beautiful widow, known only as “her”, whom ultimately meets her end while having sex with him and is bitten by her returning elderly dead husband.  After she returns, Francesco shoots her, but she again rises a third time, meaning that the first time he had shot her, she wasn’t really dead.  Gnaghi himself finds love, in the form of the head of the deceased Mayor’s daughter, whom he takes back to the basement in which he lives, and starts an innocent relationship.  When he first met her, he threw up on her from his own excitement, and it makes you wonder if that was the catalyst of Stan and Wendy on Southpark.

After a while Francesco is visited by death, who tells him to stop killing the dead, and to focus on killing the living.  He is also visited by “her” again, first as the mayor’s assistant, and later as a prostitute, and each occasion ends in failure.  Francesco begins to lose his grip on reality, and begins murdering the townspeople.

Francesco and Gnaghi eventually decide to flee Buffalora as he grows tired of killing, leading to one of the most interesting endings I have ever seen.  They drive through a tunnel, further than either of them have ever been, only to find at the end of the tunnel that the road goes nowhere, and Francesco slams on the brakes.  Gnaghi hits his head on the dashboard, apparently giving him a head injury, and he collapses.  Realizing the rest of the world doesn’t exist, Francesco loads his gun with two bullets, presumably one for him and one for Gnaghi.  Gnaghi comes to, takes Francesco’s gun, and throws it over the cliff, and simply says “Could you take me home, please?”, to which Francesco replies “Gnagh”.

Origins

The movie was based on a popular Italian comic book Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, and was directed by Michele Soavi, who was an assistant for Dario Argento in the 1980’s.  You can see the influence of Argento in the movie, as it is highly stylized and artistic.  It is speculated that an American film studio offered to fund and distribute the movie if Matt Dillon was cast as Francesco, but fortunately Soavi declined.

The movie was shot on a $4 million budget, and was widely considered a flop after release in Italy.  It did however receive several awards, such as the Silver Scream Award at the 1995 Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, Best Production Design at the 1994 David di Donatello Awards, and Best Actor [Everett] at the 1996 Fantasporto.  I have no idea what these awards are, but Quentin Tarantino was super happy to win one of them.

Two years after it was released, the movie was picked up by October Films for US distribution, and the title was changed from Dellamorte Dellamore to Cemetery Man and given the tagline “Zombies, guns, and sex, OH MY!!!”.  By an apparent misstep by October Films, the movie was marketed to the US as a comedy, and received mixed reviews.  It did enjoy a run on HBO, and from there picked up a quiet cult following, myself included.

The Future

In a January 2011 edition of Fangoria, Soavi hinted to a sequel, but since hasn’t happened, and seems to be in development hell.   Personally, I’m pulling for it, as Cemetery Man was Soavi’s last film, as he took a break to care for one of his children whom was terminally ill.

What once was very hard to find, other than late night bootleg VHS copies, Cemetery Man is available on DVD on Amazon, for about $15 used and $40 new, and now also available on Blu-ray.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s definitely worth a few views.  Watch the NSFW trailer below.

It is also illegally available in full on YouTube now:

The Top 20 Highest Budget Zombie Movies Of All Time

In 1968, with a budget of $114,000, Night Of The Living Dead went on to forever change the zombie movie landscape, and since then, the budgets have only gotten larger and larger.  Over nearly 40 years, Hollywood has invested more and more money into these big budget hits, and in today’s article, we will discuss the top 20 zombie movie box office budgets of all time.  Get your popcorn ready.

1. World War Z

Budget: $190,000,000
Worldwide gross: $531,514,650

Which comes to the surprise of no one, World War Z was the largest big budget zombie movie ever made.  Grossing over half a billion dollars at the box office, it was definitely a safe bet for producers, even if the story was lacking, and the ending made us all roll our eyes.  And Brad Pitt taught us all, when the zombie apocalypse strikes, make sure you are wearing your best scarf.

2. I Am Legend

Budget: $150,000,000
Worldwide gross: $585,532,684

I get into arguments with people all the time, regarding whether or not this was a zombie movie.  It was a fucking zombie movie.  It also starred Will Smith, and is the second highest grossing movie on his resume, after Independence Day, and even higher grossing than Men In Black.  But I still like Last Man On Earth with Vincent Price better.  And I hate that that one scene with Samantha always makes me cry.

3. Resident Evil: Retribution

Budget: $65,000,000
Worldwide gross: $238,940,997

The Resident Evil franchise pretty much dominates this list.  The first movie was a surprise hit, and hollywood loves to squeeze as much money as possible whenever they deem a series a cash cow.  I loved the first Resident Evil, watched the second, and pretty much deny the existence of all the other sequels.  But pulling in a cool quarter-billion, people went and saw this movie in droves.

4. Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D

Budget: $57,500,000
Worldwide gross: $295,874,190

Once again, the Resident Evil franchise shows it’s face on this list.  Get used to it.

5. Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Budget: $50,000,000
Worldwide gross: $125,168,734

I told you.

6. Resident Evil: Extinction

Budget: $45,000,000
Worldwide gross: $146,162,920

Alright already.

7. Resident Evil

Budget: $35,000,000
Worldwide gross: $103,200,000

I loved this video game growing up, so much so that I didn’t hold out much hope of this movie being any good.  I was happily surprised.  However the surprise success of this movie would spawn many unwatchable sequels, at least the original didn’t suck.

8. Dawn Of The Dead (2004)

Budget: $28,000,000
Worldwide gross: $103,452,875

This movie should be in the remake hall of fame, along with The Departed, and Cape Fear.  A gift from Zack Snyder, before he disappeared into a world of excess with movies like Sucker Punch, Dawn Of The Dead hit all of the right notes, and to this day is still one of my top 10 favorite zombie movies.

9. Zombieland

Budget: $23,600,000
Worldwide gross: $102,236,596

Woody Harrelson.  Zombies.  Twinkies.  And an awesome cameo by Bill Fucking Murray.  What else can I say.

10. Land Of The Dead

Budget: $18,975,000
Worldwide gross: $47,484,873

The fourth in George A. Romero’s “Dead” series, although a watchable flick, it just didn’t do it for me.  But one cool fun fact, Romero invited Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright to play zombies in this movie, and they thankfully obliged.  Worth a watch just for that.

11. 28 Weeks Later

Budget: $15,000,000
Worldwide gross: $64,231,305

Without original 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle, this sequel didn’t have quite the same appeal to me as the original, but still a decent flick, making good gains at the box office.

12. 28 Days Later

Budget: $8,000,000
Worldwide gross: $82,955,633

This movie came out around the same time as Shaun Of The Dead, and I think these two flicks breathed new light into the zombie genre.  Both were done on relatively small budgets, offering maximum bang for their producer’s buck.

13. Fido

Budget: $8,000,000
Worldwide gross: $$456,814

This different take on a zombie movie didn’t do too well in theaters with a limited release, but found a home in rental and Netflix purgatory.

14. The House of the Dead

Budget: $7,000,000
Worldwide gross: $13,767,816

If the video game franchise Resident Evil was a big hit, why couldn’t The House Of The Dead be one too?  Just because.

15. Shaun Of The Dead

Budget: $5,000,000
Worldwide gross: $30,253,899

A movie conceived from an episode of the sadly underappreciated and known television series Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead was my favorite zombie movie that I have seen in maybe the last 20 years.  It also made a decent buck at the box office, spawning the inferior Hot Fuzz, and At World’s End.  And you have red on you.

16. Maggie

Budget: $4,500,000
Worldwide gross: $187,112

Once again a movie that fell victim to a limited release, and might recoup some money on DVD and BluRay sales, Maggie essentially fell under the radar, with the Governator.

17. The Return Of The Living Dead

Budget: $4,000,000
Worldwide gross: $14,237,880

The first zombie movie I ever saw as a kid, and the movie that sparked my love for the genre, Return Of The Living Dead is a cult favorite, and has found new legs with the recent documentary More Brains!

18. Day Of The Dead (1985)

Budget: $3,500,000
Worldwide gross: $34,004,262

You all already know that we love Joseph Pilato, and the third in the “Dead” series had the biggest budget of the three films, pitting the military against scientists in a bunker.

19. Dawn of the Dead (1979)

Budget: $1,500,000
Worldwide gross: $55,000,000

Renowned by some as the greatest zombie film of all time, DOTLD barely squeaks it’s way onto this list with a budget of $1.5 million.  Which goes to show you, budgets don’t mean shit, when you have a great story, and killer fucking zombies.

20. Pontypool

Budget: $1,500,000
Worldwide gross: $31,916

I would have not known of this movie if not for Netflix; great premise and beginning, but ultimately a letdown by the end.  Still worth a watch though.

 

Any movie on this list surprise you?  Do you still want to argue with me that I Am Legend wasn’t a zombie movie?  Hit me up on twitter.  twitter.com/ericmalcolm.

Information obtained at www.the-numbers.com.

The Top 10 Highest Grossing Box Office Zombie Movies of All Time Might Just Surprise You.

Zombie movies over time have become extremely mainstream. Joseph Pilato of Day Of The Dead joked to this point when we spoke with him recently, saying “I’m actually surprised that there’s not a zombie sitcom. You know, All Of What’s Left Of The Family. ”

The first zombie movie I had ever seen growing up in the 80’s was Return Of The Living Dead, and I fell in love with the genre immediately.  How could you not love fucking tar man. After watching Night Of The Living Dead, and seeing the original horror that was the genre, my fandom only became deeper, but still at that time, it was essentially a niche genre, and the mainstream was not seeking it out.

Over the past decade, Hollywood (as well as television executives) have seen the extreme bank-ability of the genre. AMC’s The Walking Dead is a great example, I would argue that Breaking Bad was a better show, but never got close to pulling in the audience that The Walking Dead commands, leading to Hollywood taking bigger chances on big-budget zombie movies. While it may surprise none that World War Z  was the highest grossing box office zombie movie of all time (Brad Pitt, folks), some of the other 10 per Box Office Mojo might surprise you.

 

10. Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) $51,201,453

I loved Resident Evil, but was underwhelmed (but still enjoyed) the sequel.  I basically avoided the rest of the franchise.  However with the right amount of marketing, and Milla Jovovich, just about anything is possible (except for her clothing line).

 

9. ParaNorman (2012) $56,003,051

I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t seen this.

 

8. Pet Sematary (1989) $57,469,467

Are these zombies?  They’re dead, buried, and return, so I guess that qualifies.  At the tender age of 12, I made the jump from R. L. Stine to Stephen King and never looked back,  and this was one of the first books that I had read, and it scared the hell out of me.  The movie also didn’t fail to impress.  Although it’s hard to picture a movie with Edward Furlong and Anthony “Goose” Edwards making the top 10 list of highest grossing zombie movies, here we find it, but it was marketed and presented more so as a general horror flick on the wings of King, because maybe America wasn’t quite ready yet to fully embrace “zombie movie”.

 

7. Death Becomes Her (1992) $58,422,650

This was a surprise to me.  I saw the movie in my early teens, and remember it being not that remarkable.  It may be worth another viewing, but then again, maybe not.  Perhaps the only movie ever made with Meryl Streep that didn’t receive an Oscar nomination (strike that, they received one, and won, one for “best visual effects”).  This is what happens when Robert Zemeckis (who helmed the movie) runs out of Back To The Future movies to direct.

 

6. Dawn Of The Dead (2004) $59,020,957

Zack Snyder nearly did the impossible, creating a remake of one of the most beloved zombie movies of all time, and not fucking it up.  Although the movie kinda lost me during the whole Mekhi Phifer “I’m having this baby at any cost” scene, the rest of the it was absolutely solid, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Plus you can never have enough Ving Rhames.

 

5. Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) $60,128,566

See number 10.

 

4. Warm Bodies (2013) $66,380,662

No, just… no.  This may be the official moment that mainstream zombie movies jumped the shark.

 

3. Zombieland (2009) $75,590,286

This movie had everything.  Woody Harrelson.  Michael Cera’s twinner.  Zombie Bill Murray.  Twinkies.  I avoided this movie at first, much like I first avoided The Walking Dead, but the general public went and saw this, driving it up to the spot of #3 zombie movie of all time in box office gross.  I eventually came around and watched it, and wished I had been one of the folks who actually saw it in the theater.  And all of a sudden I am really craving a twinkie.  And more Bill Murray.

 

2. Hotel Transylvania (2012) $148,313,048

Are there zombies in this movie?  And should I be ashamed that I haven’t watched the second highest grossing box office “zombie movie” of all time? Nope, I did sit and watch all of Redneck Zombies, so I’ve already paid my penance.  I did also see number one, and that might be worse.

 

1. World War Z (2013) $202,359,711

The highest grossing zombie flick of all time doesn’t belong to Romero, Edgar Wright (how is Shaun of the Dead not on this list?), or even to Bill fucking Murray.  It belongs to Brad Pitt.  It’s a bastardized movie based off the wildly successful World War Z book by Max Brooks.  But Brad Pitt sure knows how to wear a scarf in the apocalypse.

 

View the official list below.