A couple weeks ago we told you about some NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: ORIGINS rumblings we heard from the gorgeous Danielle Harris (below) while on the set of STAKE LAND. That was the last update we got on ORIGINS, and last we heard the cast included: Harris, Joe Pilato, Mike Diskint, Alona Tal, Mos Def and Bill Moseley.
Well not only have the fine folks over at The Hollywood Reporter confirmed those names being attached to the project, but they also let loose a couple other names joining the fun: Jesse Corti and Cornell Womack. Now sure this is only a voice cast we’re talking about but it’s also NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and this shite is sounding pretty cool. THR also give a rundown as to who’s voicing who.
Harris will be voicing the ‘Barbara’ role, which THR describes as ‘a woman who held her family together forced to come to grips with its absence.’ Corti will be voicing a news reporter while Moseley will be voicing ‘Johnnie,’ ‘a Wall Street-type with an expense account attitude.’ ‘Harry Cooper,’ ‘a blue-collar worker who lives for his injured daughter,’ will be voiced by Pilato with Tal voicing his wife Helen, ‘who blames her husband for all the ills of the world.’ And lastly Womack will be voicing ‘a no-nonsense New York cop.’ One thing The Reporter doesn’t confirm is Def’s involvement, who according to Harris will be voicing ‘Ben.’
Director Zebediah de Soto states the casting choices as sort of a nod to George A. Romero fans. de Soto also has an interesting past with Romero’s classic film: “When you’re not allowed to watch TV and then you see this movie where this broadcaster speaks about this (zombie) disaster, it translated as so real to me.” He plans on making ORIGINS a zombie attack of a slightly larger scale:
“I wanted to make this look like a living Monet; it’s expressionism. It’s going to be the first zombie movie played on a epic scale. This is the ‘Empire of the Sun’ of zombie films. … I lived through the L.A. riots and saw the city on fire; I remember seeing people running, people getting pulled out of cars. And with 9/11, these images have been ingrained on people of my generation. I just thought that is the way it would really be, a lot of chaos.”
Hell sign me up! The animated NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: ORIGINS is in the early stages of the voiceover work so it’ll still be a little while before we see this bad boy. It’s an updated version of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, following the group above in current day New York City while battling the undead. Be sure to keep it here for ORIGINS updates as we hear them!
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