Could ‘Zombie Baby’ Be Breakthrough in Hollywood’s Treatment of the Differently Animated?
The ZRC was alerted by the great and powerful Googles to this fascinating bit of inside baseball talk on the very roundabout way a new screenplay about a Zombie baby is making the rounds in Hollywood, and just might get made into a film:
“There are plenty of movies about killing zombies, but I’ve never seen one about taking care of a zombie.” Just like that, Andy Jones is on his way to Hollywood with his Zombie Baby.
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“I wanted to write a zombie movie because zombies are awesome and who doesn’t love zombies?” says Jones. “But it was right when Zombieland came out so I didn’t want to do another zombie-comedy like that.”
Instead, Jones decided to explore a world in which zombies have been around for some time and become just another routine part of life rather than set the movie in the mayhem shortly after zombies “happen.” The story itself centers on Sarah and Mike, a couple having the same problems any young couple has when they’ve failed to produced a child after a lengthy period. Mainly, their parents are giving them hell for not bestowing upon them bundles of grandkids to coo at and spoil. Throw in (literally – he flies through the air at some points) a zombie baby and you have the perfect recipe for a film. “Zombie Baby is really a relationship comedy with zombies in it,” he says.
But don’t let that fool you. Zombie Baby is still shaping up to be a great zombie flick.
“Every good zombie movie is on some level a social commentary.” Zombies always stand for something and in this movie they represent fear of the unknown. The government created the zombie virus as a biological weapon in response to an unspecified threat, and, of course, it got out of hand – in turn creating another little- understood thing for people to fear: zombies. But, the more Mike and Sarah interact with their zombie baby the more they realize the unknown isn’t so scary once you get to know it.
There are some very promising elements here, and a few troubling notes. We at the ZRC have learned the hard way to be wary of ‘social commentary’ in Zombie films; witness George Romero’s work using Zombies to critique mall shoppers, the military, and digital media, for example. Still, the bit about the fear of Zombies being based on ignorance and the notion that, through familiarity and understanding, this fear could be lessened? That’s right up our alley. In fact, it’s been both our operating philosophy and methodology from Day 1.
The best way to stop fearing Zombies is to know one.
So the Zombie Rights Campaign is taking a slightly unusual step here, and calling on some Hollywood studio to have the guts to produce this film. Zombie Baby, properly executed, could be a welcome tonic and antidote to the vile and ultraviolent, anti-social, Anti-Zombie movies that your industry has inundated America with for decades.
We welcome the opportunity to someday see Zombie Baby in theatres, advancing tolerance and understanding, along with empathy, for the Differently Animated. Such a noble goal and lofty dream is even worth paying your outrageous ticket prices and ludicrous markup on concessions.
Give Zombie Baby a chance, good sirs and madams.
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