Came across info on the film LAST RITES that is currently in pre-production in downtown Los Angeles. Holy shite! It’s like Christmas came early. Read on and feel the joy:
The film opens with a bang as a mysterious space-virus contaminates the City of Angels…A small meteor hits the L.A. River, takes down a bridge, blows the whole place to hell — and unleashes a virus that turns those who breathe it into flesh-eating ghouls.
Caught up in the carnage are two warring gangs: one Hispanic, from the barrios of East LA, and the other African-American, from the streets of South Central. At the outset of the story, the rival factions are in an abandoned warehouse for a meeting with a mercenary arms dealer…and both groups are under surveillance by the LAPD. This tense situation explodes when the gangbangers and cops find themselves under siege by the masses of the undead. The film builds to an explosive climax in which the survivors must find a way to escape the deathtrap of horror and violence.
FX wizard Rob Hall of Almost Human (BUFFY, ANGEL) provides the films bloody makeup effects. “We have a guy that gets nailed by a truck and literally explodes,” Ocvirk says. “And in a nod to Romero’s DAY OF THE DEAD another guy is pulled apart like a Thanksgiving turkey. Throats get ripped out and limbs are torn off so there will definitely be moments to satiate gore fans. I’m glad Almost Human is onboard because I know they’ll make everything look f*cking cool.”
“There will be tons of effects and gore,” adds Shipley, “but we’re also going for some depth on these characters. We spent months on the script making sure that, as bad as some of these people are, they’re identifiable, real, and sympathetic.” The cast so far includes Howard Alonzo (ABCs 8 SIMPLE RULES), Ryan King, Danny Martinez, Ethan Ednee, Janine Foster and S. Diane Adams-Bogus.
“We’re doing everything practical that we can…the zombies will be the freakiest looking people we can find, done up to look like walking corpses; they’re not computer-generated. We’re just using the computer to make the masses of undead bigger, to give the whole thing a larger scale that we couldn’t otherwise achieve on our budget.”
“We’re throwing the gauntlet down with this one,” says Stinnett. “No one wants this movie to kick ass more than we do, and we’ve got the balls, talent and drive to make sure Last Rites grabs you by the throat and twists your head all the way around.”
Visit the official site here