Dawn Of The Dead Page #3

- And deserves it.

There's our Hallowed Grounds.

That was our coffee shop.

- You named it.

- Yeah, l thought it was funny.

Cos we couldn't get any of the chain...

No. ln the script it's all Starbucks and,

you know, The Gap. ''Yeah, we'll get 'em.''

Exactly. lmagine how often Starbucks

would have been in the movie.

Awesome, cos the whole movie

takes place at Hallowed Grounds.

Our sporting goods store.

Bookmark - great name for a book store.

lt was an exercise

in discovering fake names.

lt was quite a long exercise.

Gaylen Ross, the department store,

we'd tried to track down

who we felt were the five most significant

players in the original movie,

obviously Gaylen being

one of them and she...

This is a great moment -

''ls a zombie gonna jump out?''

- We got the loudest shotgun...

- Here it comes, bam! lmpossible.

We called Gaylen Ross

and she wasn't available

but we named

the department store after her.

And David, Flyboy, we couldn't find.

A lot of fans have noticed the Gaylen Ross.

- l've seen that on the internet.

- ''Gaylen Ross!''

Someone in a screening told me when the

department store came up people cheered

and he had no idea

what they were clapping for.

This is Jake kind of doing something crazy.

- ''l'll just go check...''

- ''That's bad.'' lf you're him...

''Why are you going in there?''

l love that, he goes in anyway.

There's a great moment coming up,

he makes a real genius weapons choice.

Whatever's in the script,

it's like, ''Let's trade this in for that.''

''Let me get rid of this gun

and pick up this...''

- Tennis racket.

- Yeah.

- There's a fly swatter and a mortar.

- ''l'll take the fly swatter every time.

- ''Cos l'm that kind of guy.''

- That's good.

- Hallowed Grounds back there.

- Yeah. They got a lot of exposure.

They did. Unfortunately they don't exist.

lt's funny, we shot

all the security scenes inside there.

- lnside there is the set.

- lt is the security office.

Yeah, which is kinda cool.

Mekhi's awesome. He's just awesome.

He was filming in Montreal as well,

and he was going back and forth.

Look at him. And he'd just come in

and rock star these scenes.

- We reshot this.

- lt's in the deleted scenes.

And didn't use it.

We reshot it and then...

We were scared this wasn't scary enough.

Now l'm going, ''Were we nuts?

This guy's face is falling off.''

You could see his cheekbone.

Development said, ''How do they not get in?''

So we had him say, ''Shatterproof, a**hole.''

Shatterproof. And maybe people

don't even know what it means.

He could've said, ''Zombie-proof, a**hole,''

and it would've been more on the nose.

Here he goes. ''l've got this crowbar,

now what am l gonna do?''

''l'm gonna trade this metal

for some balsawood.''

And the reason he does it is because...

- lt saves his life.

- A mallet can break

and then it can be used as a jabbing tool,

where a crowbar cannot.

That's what he was thinking.

You'd want to put more distance

between you and a zombie.

He's showing that by that little swing.

- He's feeling its heft.

- Exactly.

Now he's seen movement.

Would you go toward that? l'm not sure.

l think l'd probably lock the door.

- Go out and say, ''l saw something.''

- ''Andre, go check it out.''

This guy was great.

Also, the guy who's on the ground

helped us with the casting.

- This gentleman right there.

- Getting eaten.

Jake had a great time wrestling this guy.

Jake liked it to be physical.

And those two were going at it. lt was great.

He's trying to get to his broken mallet.

You can't see it.

This was POV Ben Cozine.

- Ben Cozine...

- Here's Ben.

Gentle Ben.

That shot we did later.

The first reveal of him biting,

he had a wig on,

we'd shaved him and

used him as another zombie.

So with that shot

he didn't have his natural hair,

he had this crazy wig, he looks like

Ringo Starr if you look closely.

- He was good.

- And a sharp... That'll help.

My daughter, who was three at the time,

we'd built a puppet of that guy...

- She didn't see that shot?

- No.

Kids could only come to the set when

we weren't doing something traumatic.

- Sarah with the shotgun.

- Good image.

She saw the puppet

David Anderson had built

and she's still terrified of it.

She asks me, ''Where's that puppet?''

l'm like, ''lt's under your bed.''

That's awesome.

She's like, ''ls that puppet coming?''

''Where's that puppet?''

- The elevator, which was fake.

- Goes nowhere.

You stand in it and that's it.

l remember you asked me,

in this sequence coming up, which l loved...

We were in the middle of working

on this sequence

and you'll see the doors open and

reveal our security guards in a second,

and the buzzers buzz,

and we had this discussion about

how we were gonna do these doors.

Three rock stars. And l love that you said,

''Why didn't we get that on the day,

the buzzers?''

And l was like, ''lt's guys closing the door.''

You're like, ''Oh, yeah.'' lt was great.

- That's awesome. That's real.

- That's real.

Mekhi loved that.

Zack and l would often say, ''That's real!''

lt was a joke that came

from another movie.

And Mekhi picked it up

and after something good or absurd,

he was like, ''That's real!''

lt's in my vernacular now.

l picked up so many...

l'm pointing now,

this point l got from Zack.

l like it when you point with ''OK'' or...

- You go... Like Sinatra.

- lt's not controversial. Confrontational.

- lt is controversial.

- lt's a very innocuous gesture.

You're not going, ''You! Hey!''

Michael Kelly,

who we love and who plays CJ,

- awesome.

- Rock star.

He would shoot with second unit all night

and then come in the next day

and be like, ''What do l do now?''

- Kevin Zegers, who we called The Kid.

- Handsome.

He's got the life that we all wish we had.

And Michael Barry, who was awesome.

- Michael Barry couldn't be better.

- Bart's a star.

- Bart gets capped, though.

- lt's unfortunate.

Here's our TV footage,

all of which was stock stuff.

lt's not in here

but we had a great loop group guy

announcing what he sees,

and he's like, ''They're dragging the man

from the church!'' l loved that.

- Why didn't we use that?

- l don't know. lt's all a mess but it's great.

Look at lnna. She's been bit.

She's pregnant

and she's been bit by a zombie.

ln my world, that's not good.

How about the fact

that we had a pharmacy?

ln the script Sarah goes to a pharmacy

and it would have cost a lot.

So it became a pharmacy,

then it became a convenience store

and then, ''Let's just make it one cabinet.''

There's Tom Savini. Rock star!

- Look at him.

- We added him on a location scout...

No, that's the parking lot of the mall.

- Yeah, but the idea to put him in...

- Oh, yeah.

- Cos we wanted the sheriff.

- From Night Of The Living Dead.

One of my favourite moments ever

is that guy.

''They're dead, they're all messed up.''

He's great too because if you look at him

he's got his earrings,

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