Apocalyptic film with zombies to be shot in SEK

By Ray Nolting rnolting@parsonssun.com

A Southeast Kansas native plans on filming an apocalyptic film in the Riverton area this year.

Eric B. Anderson and his wife, Amelia Dellos, are producing the low-budget film, called “Zompocalypso.” The couple own Corn Bred Films, based in Chicago, which is dedicated to projects originating in the Midwest.

Anderson was born in Parsons and raised elsewhere. He spent a lot of time in Southeast Kansas, especially the Riverton and Baxter Springs areas, where he has family.

“I love the area down there,” Anderson said. “I just have a lot of fond memories of the area.”

Corn Bred Films is raising money now for the production through a crowd sourcing website, http://indiegogo.com/cornbred.

What is raised will determine the equipment and other gear that can be purchased for the project, which Anderson hopes to start filming in the summer. Some scenes have been shot in the small budget movie. Some of the shooting will take place in Chicago and some in Cherokee County.

Anderson hopes to release the movie at independent movie houses by the end of the year, which would coincide with the end of the ancient Mayan calendar, the last entry of which is on Dec. 21, 2012.

The comedy/horror picture will be a story about two brothers who prepare for this apocalypse with a small arsenal, a case of expired beans and a camera. The Mayan’s didn’t predict the end of the world on Dec. 21, just that a new age would start the next day on a new calendar. The urban legend is that buried humans will come back to life as zombies on this date and destroy the human race.

The main cast has been selected, improvisational actors Chris Meister and Mike Manship, who will play brothers Dale and Darren in the movie. Anderson said some extras may be needed on the film site.

“It’s just a fun story and I can’t wait to do it.”

Anderson and Dellos both have been involved in the film industry for some time before they began their independent film studio. Anderson, a graduate of the University of Iowa, has written more than a dozen feature screenplays and several short films that have been recognized. Dellos is working as an executive producer on a documentary about Bertha Honore Palmer and the great Chicago fire for a Chicago TV station. They both have a background in marketing and public relations.

The pair have written several screenplays together, including the romantic comedy “Other Plans” and the urban drama “Save Me,” both in development in a partnership with Rock On! Films. They also co-directed and produced the documentary “Red, White & Blue: A Tale of Two Americas.”

To view the brief “Zompocalypso” trailer, go online:

Corn Bred Films: This Just May Be The Music Flick You’re Looking For

Corn Bred Films: This Just May Be The Music Flick You’re Looking For

By admin on Feb 10, 2012 in featured, Featured Filmmakers

Terrence Flamm
As co-founders of the Chicago-based Corn Bred Films, husband and wife Eric B. Anderson and Amella Dellos spin tales of mismatched lovers, ambitious politicians, serial killers, old school newspaper editors, and zombie-fighting country bumpkins. Anderson and Dellos work together, individually, and with other directors and writers on a wide-range of full-length films, shorts, corporate videos, and documentaries. Ultimately, they hope to put the Midwest on the same footing as the East and West Coasts in terms of film production.

One big step in that direction is a working arrangement to create higher budget projects with Rock On! Films, the New York company formed by director Joe Eckardt. In a recent email interview, Eric B. Anderson explained how the partnership came about.

“Joe Eckardt and I shared representation in the early 2000s, so that’s how we met,” Anderson said. “When Joe decided to launch Rock On! Films and needed content to produce, he reached out to me and it’s been a very rewarding partnership so far, with Rock On! co-producing five scripts with Corn Bred.”

One of those projects is You May Be Right, a comedy about a talented but unsuccessful singer named Eddie who fronts a Billy Joel cover band called Glass Houses. Considering that most of the group’s gigs are performed before sparse crowds in dive bars, Eddie’s wife Brenda seems justified in suggesting that he seriously think about a more lucrative career. Especially now that she’s pregnant. But when the actual Billy Joel crashes his car on the Long Island couple’s front lawn, Eddie decides it’s a sign that Glass Houses is destined for greatness. You May Be Right is still being developed, and so far Joel has no involvement with the film.

“Joe [Eckardt] has had conversations with him about another project, so we’re hopeful,” Anderson said. “That’s something we’re still working on, but since we’re using cover versions, we’re optimistic we’ll get it all worked out.” Most of the songs are alt-rock takes on songs Joel recorded for Glass Houses. Anderson was particularly impressed with the band Hussalonia’s interpretation of the Joel’s 1980 chart-topping album.

The idea for You May Be Right came from another writer, who had based the story on an real life Billy Joel car accident. Eckardt optioned the script with the intention of directing and producing the film, but eventually became disenchanted.

“Joe felt there was the seed of an idea in the original script (which is why he optioned it) but the execution didn’t work at all,” Anderson recalled. “So he asked me to take a crack at a page one rewrite. I took the key element, the car accident, and turned it into something very different. The script went from a sort of ‘dramedy’ to the loopy musical comedy that it is now.”

At first glance, You May Be Right seems similar to the Mark Wahlberg movie, Rock Star, in which a singer from a cover band winds up performing with the actual group. Anderson deliberately steered away from that angle, concentrating instead on Eddie and Brenda’s emotional struggle, and the question of how far one should go to follow his dream. The action is set in New York City and involves Eddie and his friend Ronnie’s comically absurd pilgrimage to the clubs Joel played in, the homes where he lived, and the places where his album covers were shot. Anderson concedes the locale is unusual for his proudly Midwest-centric company.

“So it’s heavily rooted in the New York area,” he said. “Now, I recognize that goes against Corn Bred Films’ core mission, but in this case, the script predates the launch of Corn Bred Films and the story necessitates that it be filmed in New York. If there’s an opportunity to film anything in Chicago, I will definitely be advocating for that.”

Anderson and Eckardt have hopes their collaboration will be widely distributed. Although You May Be Right is still in the development stage, some of the roles have already been cast. Corbin Bernsen will portray a character named Captain Jack, Jason Mewes plays Ronnie, and America Olivo will bring the combative Brenda to life.
“I’m happy with the casting thus far,” Anderson said. “And I’m looking forward to rounding out the rest of the cast.”

In the meantime, Anderson and Amella Dellos also remain fully committed to creating work that is exclusively theirs, under the Corn Bred Films banner. Dellos served as Executive Producer for the PBS special Love Under Fire: The Story of Bertha & Potter Palmer (she’s also working on a feature film titled Courting Bertha), and Anderson is particularly keen on Zompocalypso, a comedy/horror flick he’s directing about a pair of dim-witted brothers determined to ride out the effects of the Mayan-predicted 2012 apocalypse.

WIRED blogs about the Zompocalypse!

Filmmakers Launch Campaign for Zombie Apocalypse Comedy

By Hugh Hart  |  January 31, 2012 |  2:59 pm |  Categories: movies

 

They showed up to audition for a commercial about life in 2015, but once Chris Meister and Mike Manship started riffing about turkey calls, bathtub electrocution and the “re-zombification of Dick Cheney,” producer Eric Anderson realized he had a couple of real characters on his hands.

The pair’s goofy rapport, documented in the video clip above, inspired Anderson to write Zompocalypso. The film, which Anderson is looking to finance through an IndieGoGo campaign, will focus on two bumpkin brothers who hole up in a farmhouse equipped with weaponry and a box of stale beans to brace themselves for a zombie attack.

“As I sat there and watched these guys — who had never met each other before that moment, mind you — improv for a half hour about surviving a zombie apocalypse it dawned on me that this could make a very funny film,” Anderson notes on the film’s IndieGoGo page.

Anderson, who will direct the movie, and his wife Amelia Dellos hope to raise $10,000 for their Corn Bred Films production through the site. But no matter how much they raise, the filmmakers plan to bring Meister (on the left in the video above) and Manship (right) to Joplin, Missouri by early summer to begin filming on the backwoods zombie film, which Anderson describes as “an improvised found-footage comedy with a sprinkle of horror… The Blair Witch Project as directed by Christopher Guest.”

Check out a teaser for the film below, then head to the IndieGoGo page to help Anderson and his horde make their zombie apocalypse comedy.