Back in August HeyUGuys was invited to Sony Pictures in Los Angeles for an edit bay visit with Ruben Fleischer, director of the cult film, Zombieland, for a sneak peak at the upcoming sequel, Zombieland: Double Tap.
We were treated with a look at several scenes and even though some of the scenes were still being worked on with VFX what we did see definitely left us walking away counting down the days until the film hits cinemas on the 18th of October.
Below are some of the questions and highlights from our time with Ruben Fleischer to to get you ready for the sequel.
HAVE THE ZOMBIES EVOLVED IN ANY WAY OVER THE TEN YEARS SINCE THE FIRST MOVIE?
“Yeah they have. …” Said Ruben who then went on to describe the new vocabulary that had evolved, “We have developed different words for zombies. There’s ones that are really dumb that we call ‘the Homers’, there’s ones that are really smart that we call ‘the Hawkings’ and then there’s ones that are really sneaky that are called, ‘the Ninjas’…… but then in the midst of the battle where they’re going after the RV they come across a new zombie that they haven’t encountered before……So you have these different kinds of zombies that have evolved over the time and this T800 is the one that’s going to be the real threat.”
WHY DID THE SEQUEL FOR ZOMBIELAND TAKE SO LONG?
Director Ruben Fleischer had thought about doing a sequel for Zombieland pretty soon after the success of the first film but for a variety of reasons it didn’t happen and actors were drawn in different directions and different projects. But many people, like Fleischer himself, felt that they really needed to get that team back together again and set them off on another adventure. The cast was all really excited about doing a sequel but they wanted to make sure that if we were going to do one that it was gonna be at least as good as the original. So it took four years of writing to come up with a script that Fleischer and his team all felt confident about.
HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO GET THE CREW BACK TOGETHER AGAIN AND RESTORE THE CHEMISTRY THEY FIRST HAD IN ZOMBIELAND FOR THE SEQUEL?
Ruben answered saying, “It was actually a dream come true.” He goes on to say that despite the writers going on to do Deadpool 1 and 2 and Emma going on for an Oscar win while Jessie and Woody also had Oscar nominations and the rest of the cast had big things happening in their careers they all made sacrifices to make this movie because it was so much, “like a family reunion”. He continues.”Getting together to make the movie was just out of love. A wanting to have this great experience again and a wanting to make something that we hope audiences will really love”. Finally, in talking about the actors and how, since Zombieland, he had worked with Woody, Jessie and Emma on different movies and also mentioning how the Now You See us Movies had seen Woody and Jessie work together Fleisher concludes, “We are all connected and I think it was for us just a true joy”.
RUBEN’S COMMENTS ON ZOEY DEUTCH JOINING THE FILM AND HER AUDITION FOR MADISON
In regards to Zoey Deutch auditioning for the role of Madison Ruben said, “ She just kinda blew my mind. I wasn’t familiar with her prior to her audition but she just came in with that character pretty fully realised. I think in part, growing up in the Valley, she just channeled that valley girl, Kardashian, Paris Hilton kinda thing and she’s this total different energy to the original cast and is just so funny and was just so fun to have a character that was stuck in 2009 Juicy Couture culture. She’s so Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan like that kinda era of person and it’s funny think about somebody like that who for the past 10 years has been just living in a zombie world and is still like that!”
WAS THERE MUCH IMPROVISATION ON SET?
One scene we where shown featured some very funny improvisation by Zoey with a pair of binoculars. Ruben explains how great it is to have actors who can improvise comedy and also get away with one take. He says, ” And so it was really a joy every day just to to shoot because we’re always finding new routines and new ideas to elevate. What was on the page which was already a great starting point…. but when you have such talented comedians…. they just bring so much to the table.”
Zombieland: Double Tap is not to be missed! The old formula of a balance of humour and horror still works as does the plot with much of it spent following a fatherly Tallahassee along with the rest of the crew, searching for, the now a teenager, Little Rock who has run off with a pot smoking hippie. And that’s enough to give away!
It must be said that in the scenes we were shown from Zombieland Double Tap the superb acting could still not hide the obvious friendship and enthusiasm of the ensemble! The original cast of Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jessie Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin still rules!
