Beauty of Decay TV Series Co-Director Matt Eskandari Product. Selected by Cannes for Second Time; Lionsgate / Grindstone to release his film, ‘Game of Assassins’- Featured in Variety Magazine

Beauty of Decay TV Series (Website here: www.BeautyOfDecay.org) Co-Director Matt Eskandari Production Featured in Cannes for Second Time;  Lionsgate Home Entertainment will release his film, ‘Game of Assassins’- Featured in Variety Magazine and More

 

 

 

 CANNES: Lionsgate/Grindstone Nabs Eskandari’s ‘Game of Assassins’ (EXCLUSIVE)
by Elsa Keslassy

International Correspondent@elsakeslassy

PARIS– Grindstone Entertainment has acquired all U.S. rights to Matt Eskandari’s action/horror pic “Game of Assassins” (formerly titled “The Gauntlet”).
The action/horror film stars Bai Ling (“Crank”), Warren Kole (“The Following”) and Dustin Nguyen (“21 Jump St”).
Lionsgate Home Entertainment will release the film, which premiered at Screamfest in October, on all media platforms.

Co-financed by Chinese film production partners and shot in Beijing, “Assassins” follows five strangers who awake in an underground, medieval dungeon.

It’s produced by Wellington Sun, Daniel Wei, Jonathan Shih, Matt Eskandari and Adam Lawson.
“We were impressed by the production value of the film and its intricate and well told story,” said Stan Wertlieb, Grindstone Entertainment’s head of acquisitions. “The filmmakers did a great job balancing action, suspense, and horror with unique real life-characters, something we are always on the lookout for in genre fare.”

Ryan Black and Stan Wertlieb of Grindstone Entertainment brokered the deal with Patrick Ewald and Shaked Berenson of Epic Pictures negotiating on behalf of the producers.

Matt was also feeatured in several independent publications as seen here and below:

Lionsgate/Grindstone Play ‘Game of Assassins’

Grindstone Entertainment has acquired all US rights to Game of Assassins (formerly titled The Gauntlet) directed by Matt Eskandari, Bloody Disgusting can report.
We now have a few exclusive images from the action/horror film featuring international stars Bai Ling (Crank), Warren Kole (The Following) and Dustin Nguyen of 21 Jump St.
You’ll also find an early trailer for the film to be released through Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
“The story follows five strangers who awake in an underground, medieval dungeon and must organize together for the sinister adventure that awaits.“
The pic was co-financed by Chinese film production partners and shot in Beijing. It is produced by Wellington Sun, Daniel Wei, Jonathan Shih, Matt Eskandari and Adam Lawson, with a script by Lawson.
The feature, unveiled at Screamfest last October, has gone on to garner numerous awards including Best Director and Best Picture accolades across the festival circuit.

January Jones Interviews Joe Pepitone, Writer of The Jersey Devil and co-writer of The Beauty of Decay TV Series

THE JERSEY DEVIL TO BE RELEASED OCTOBER 27TH! Award-winning comedy film to be available on DVD and download. "The Jersey Devil" is directed by two-time New York Emmy winner Joseph Pepitone ("Stuck in the Middle"). Written by, Joseph Pepitone and Billy Pepitone. Joe discusses his career as a writer, director and producer in a light, humorous interview sharing all the good, the bad and the ugly.. www.facebook.com/jerseydevilmovie To entire video is found here. Joseph Pepitone is also one of the many writers working to make The Beauty of Decay an amazing production.

Runners vs. Zombies in Roanoke, West Virginia

Western Virginia Regional Jail, in cooperation with Roanoke County Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, with media support from Fox 21/27 and The CW5, present “Roanoke Zombie 5k” at Roanoke County’s Green Hill Park on Oct. 4.

The race begins at 10 a.m. and is a fundraiser for Special Olympics Virginia and all net proceeds will go directly to them. Special Olympics Virginia provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in an Olympic setting for individuals with disabilities in 14 different sports arenas. More importantly, Special Olympics is about people. It is helping create a world of respect, inclusion and unity.

Zombie Run is a 5K obstacle fun run for the end of times. But you’re not just running against the clock you are running from flesh-eating, virus-spreading, bloody zombies. Participants will use speed, agility and their intact brains to overcome obstacles and avoid flesh-eating zombies. Before the race, you will be given a flag belt. These flags represent your health. The zombies want to take your flags and maybe eat your brains. If you lose all your health flags, you die. And the zombies win.

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Aubrey Plaza Discusses 'Life After Beth'

I'm somewhere near Topanga Canyon, in an Alice in Wonderland-themed bar, drinking Chimay with an extraordinary woman who tells me she dreamed of becoming a ballerina as a child, but her parents couldn't afford ballet lessons. I feel my heart fall out of my chest and shatter on the barroom floor. I wish there was something I could do to alter the past, but since there's not, I buy her another drink. You do what you can.
AC/DC's "Back in Black" blares, and the subject changes.

I rave about Aubrey Plaza, saying she's "one of Hollywood's most intriguing and gifted comedic actresses" and mentioning that I'll soon be writing about her and her new film Life After Beth, a deranged romantic comedy in which Aubrey drops dead and then returns to life as a zombie who listens to smooth jazz and resumes a relationship with her now totally freaked out boyfriend. Aubrey Plaza -- sardonic scene stealer on NBC's smash sitcom Parks and Recreation and in films including Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Safety Not Guaranteed and Judd Apatow's Funny People -- is enough of a reason to watch any film, but in case you need more, Life After Beth also offers stellar and enjoyable performances from Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Paul Reiser, Cheryl Hines, Matthew Gray Gubler and Anna Kendrick. There's even a wacky cameo by lovable show biz demigod Garry Marshall.

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Shark Week Presents Shark Attack Horror Films

Even if you live in a pineapple under the sea or threw your television out the window in a drunken fit of rage one night a few weeks ago, you're likely aware that we're currently balls deep into Shark Week...

...Discovery's Channel's annual celebration of those underwater beasties who once upon a time turned a man by the name of Quint into a bucket of human chum.

I don't think you need me to tell you that this week is the absolute perfect week to revisit Jaws and other shark attack films, but in the event that you do, allow me to provide that service for you.

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Horror Fans Get Asked to Crowdfund Killer Clown Film

Rob Zombie is no stranger to horror films. He's written and produced plenty including "House of 1000 Corpses," "The Devil's Rejects," and, of course, the "Halloween" series. But until now, Zombie has been a stranger to using crowdfunding to make his films.

That changed recently with his launch of RZ-31, a site on the FanBacked.com platform that seeks funding to help the metal rocker/director bring his next "fast-paced, mean dirty film for those who like it rough" to the big screen.

"I'm crowd funding because I realize that it's an incredible opportunity to engage the fans," Zombie said in a video on the site. "They've always been the most important thing for me because, with metal and horror, the fans aren't just fans -- it's their life, their lifestyle. They live and breathe it, as I do, and any way that you can bring the people that are as passionate about it as you are into the process is a win-win for everybody"

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Hollywood Goes for another Zombie Movie

 

Hearing the news that someone is making a movie about one of your favorite books can cause mixed feelings.
“I know it will be great!” or “I know they will mess it up.”

I had high expectations for “World War Z” (2013).

“World War Z”, by Max Brooks, read like a journalist’s account of a zombie apocalypse. The journalist interviewed many survivors from different countries about how they survived.

I thought the obvious choice would be to make a documentary-style movie, similar to “Cloverfield.”

Instead, the movie producers made another regular zombie movie and glanced over interesting details Brooks created in the book.

It’s interesting to think about zombies freezing in subzero temperatures, then reading about characters migrating north and battling hunger.

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Love is in the air in The Walking Dead

During a recent interview with The Walking Dead‘s Executive Producer, Writer and Showrunner Scott M. Gimple by a reporter from AMC, he revealed many details about Season 5 and compared it to Season 4, hinting — among many other topics — that love will be brewing between two of the characters. Of course, zombies will still abound and be the paramount danger the characters face on a daily basis. Gimple wrote the Season 4 Finale, “A” and the premiere episode of Season 5.

Have no fear, fans of The Walking Dead — there will still be zombies and action galore in Season Five. As Scott M. Gimple put it, love and romance will not “be an element in a huge part of the season,” but when love enters into the plot, according to Gimple, “it’s going to become more of a reality and a complication.

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New Counter-Strike Video Game Features Zombies

Counter-Strike is one of the most popular online shooters of all-time. The terrorist vs. counter-terrorist gameplay has had gamers hooked for decades. Valve’s multiplayer FPS has had longevity in spades, thanks in part to regular updates, a wealth of content, and the sheer quality of the Valve series. It’s also been a franchise that has inspired fans to create their own content. After all, Counter-Strike initially released as a fan-made mod. Valve, always known for taking an active interest in its community of fans, then took on the creators, Minh “Gooseman” Le and Jess Cliffe, as employees.

That said, it’s always been rare for Valve to licence out its titles to other developers and publishers but Counter-Strike Online is one of those few instances. Valve licensed the Counter-Strike title to developer Nexon, who created the free-to-play CS Online game in 2008. After the success of sequel Counter-Strike Online 2, Nexon revealed this week that it is working on Counter-Strike once more – only this time, there are zombies in the mix.

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Survival Games Get Past Zombies and Crafting

Survival games are normally bleak affairs. Tense, unforgiving simulations of desperation and death. So why is it that playing Eidolon, a survival game, feels so...peaceful?

I'm someone who is in love with the idea of a survival game, but rarely with their execution. The prospect of eking out a living from nothingness still sounds original (despite the glut of titles being made in this post-Minecraft world) to me, while fighting the elements instead of a procession of aliens/monsters/Russians sounds like a challenge more suited to brains than reflexes.

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Why Run from Zombies in Edinburgh Festival

I'm certain about very little, but one thing I know for sure is that, as a middle-aged woman, I am not the target audience for The Generation of Z, the zombie show that has people scream their heads off in the Container Yard at the back of Edinburgh's George Square. The scenario is simple: there's a deadly, infectious virus on the loose that turns people into zombies at one bite. The audience are the surviving members of the population who have been attracted to a former research facility by a flare. The army are also there, and suddenly they have an unexpected 100 people on hand as the zombies gather and attack. Oooh, scary.

If you enjoy screaming, you'll probably have fun at The Generation of Z, but it's more likely simply a result of the adrenalin than from the dramaturgy or any development of narrative or character. The idea is nifty, but its execution is poor and the storyline is pretty lame. Although there is a suggestion that we can influence the scenario, this is quite clearly not the case.

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Cedar Point Looks for Zombies for the Halloween Season

Cedar Point is already looking forward to the lucrative Halloween season.

The park put out a call Tuesday looking to hire workers for everything from food to ride operators to so-called Screamsters for its 18th annual HalloWeekends event.

The park hires 300 Screamsters annually who are transformed into witches, zombies and various other monsters to scare guests.

The park is providing bus transportation to and from Bowling Green State University, Oberlin College, Kent State and the University of Toledo for students who want to work at the park this fall.

The park also offers free weekend housing to those who qualify.

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Pride and Prejudice..and Zombies

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," the long-in-development movie based on Seth Grahame-Smith's hit mash-up novel, has found new life.

After weathering a series of stops and starts, the film is finally set to begin shooting in September, with Burr Steers directing from a screenplay he wrote with David O. Russell, according to a Deadline report. Cross Creek Pictures has acquired domestic rights.

Lily James ("Downton Abbey") will play Elizabeth Bennet, Sam Riley ("Maleficent") will play Mr. Darcy, and Bella Heathcote ("Dark Shadows") will play another of the Bennet sisters.

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Undead Lab will Disclose New Game Next Week

State of Decay studio Undead Labs has announced it will unveil a new game on Monday, and it's not a sequel to State of Decay. According to a spokesperson on Twitter the game is "not at all a zombie game", promising emphatically there will be "No zombies" and "no Microsoft". The latter is a reference to the game's console exclusivity, but I suppose you can take it to mean whatever you want.

This doesn't mark the end of the studio's continued support for State of Decay, with the spokesperson adding "did you know that a studio can make more than one game at once?" Some people seem a bit confused on this point, as Rust developer Facepunch Studios discovered this week.

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Midnight Screening of 'Living Dead' Fills Staten Island

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The borough's "living history village" is dropping dead this summer.

Just before midnight on Aug. 16, when the kids have finished screaming at "Jaws" and the All-American Drive-In is closed, the zombies come out to play at a brand new Historic Richmond Town event dubbed "After, After Dark."

An excerpt from the florid promo materials: "As midnight approaches, a peculiar mist creeps up from Mill Pond. With an insatiable appetite, the haze spreads through the timeworn streets of the historic town sniffing out naive victims who dare to play outside in the ... After, After Dark."

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Apple to Add More Zombie Apps

Since Apple first launched its App Store six years ago, developers have uploaded more than 1.6 million apps, with nearly 60,000 apps added each month, according to a new report by a mobile analytics company called adjust.

With such a high number of apps available, how can developers make sure their apps are being discovered and downloaded? They can't, the report says -- resulting in hundreds of thousands of so-called "zombie apps," which are defined as "apps that are available, but appear to have no life in them."

To avoid being classified as a "zombie," an app must rank somewhere on any one of the nearly 40,000 Top Charts available multiple times during an evaluation period of one month.

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Zombies Crowd Around Comic Con

Life imitated art when, on Saturday, a car plowed through a group dressed as zombies from the popular AMC series The Walking Dead at San Diego Comic-Con, San Diego 6 reported. At least one person was injured, and one woman suffered a broken arm, an officer for the San Diego Police Department told San Diego 6.

At around 5:30 P.M., “zombies” shuffled down Second Avenue near the convention in San Diego. A black sedan approached the line of slow-moving undead. The driver, 48, and his family were deaf, according to a statement by the SDPD obtained by The Wrap. The driver honked his horn, but the costumed zombies were in no hurry to get out of his way.

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Zombies, Ghosts and Witches Sightings

More than 70 reports of zombies, witches and ghosts have been made to West Midlands Police over the past three years.

Figures revealed by a Freedom of Information (FOI) request show the force was contacted about 15 ghosts, 55 witches, and a pair of zombies.

Birmingham East had the most reported paranormal activity, with the least in Birmingham South.

The figures show a year-on-year increase in reported incidents.

There were 17 in 2011, 24 in 2012 and 30 in 2013.

Although all other categories were reported every year, zombies only made an appearance in 2013.

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The Truth Behind Romero's Zombies

Director George A. Romero grew up on classic movie monsters — and he says he never dreamed he'd be responsible for creating the modern zombie that now lurks alongside those monsters. "I never expected it. I really didn't," he tells NPR's Arun Rath. "... All I did was I took them out of 'exotica' and I made them the neighbors ... I thought there's nothing scarier than the neighbors!"

Zombies are everywhere in Hollywood — there's a new batch of films every year, and AMC's The Walking Dead continues to kill it in the ratings. All these zombies can be traced back to Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The 1968 movie wasn't just a low-budget, black-and-white film about corpses that came back to life to feed on people — it was also a commentary on the racial and social tensions of 1968 America.

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Zombies Haunt Trafford Park

Terrified thrill-seekers were last night sprinting around the streets of Trafford in a bid to escape the clutches of a hoard of Zombies.

But fear not, it was not a genuine invasion by the living dead.

It was, in fact, the first in a series of urban games which sees punters attempt to manoeuvre their way through a make-believe zombie-ridden world.

Called 2.8 Hours Later, players had to outrun ‘zombies’ through certain marked areas of the course in Trafford Park, starting from a safe zone and ending up in a zombie disco when the living and the undead party in harmony.

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