Dawn of the Dead 2004

2-22-05: Some quotes from Scifi.com:

"While Polley gives Dawn of the Dead acting cred for doubters of the genre's usually shallow stable of talent, Jake Weber (TV's The Mind of the Married Man) emerges as the film's true hero, lending intelligence to his portrayal of Michael. Where most films would strap a bunch of archetypal characters into the grinding wheels of plot convention and evoke drama by pitting them against one another, Gunn creates a real leader—an even-tempered, responsible protagonist—in Michael, and Weber knows when to ease off the gas and give the audience a bit of human drama amid the abundant gore."

See the entire article here.

"Jake Weber, how difficult was it for you to access real human emotion in an effects-driven piece like this?

Weber: I find fear a pretty accessible emotion, so it wasn't hard to generate it.

What about the material attracted you?

Weber: I think one of the best things about [the film] is, the character development in the movie is just touched on, you get just a little bit of it, and just enough so you get the idea, but it's not dwelled on, there's nothing sentimental about it, there's nothing maudlin, there's nothing like where you would go, "Oh my God, what are these people doing? They would never do that, what, they're falling in love and there are zombies everywhere, and they're going to like, flirt?" All of that stuff, you know, it's just enough that you care about the people, you believe, you know who they are, they're people that you know, but it doesn't detract from the real thing, which is killer zombies."

Read all the interviews here.

12-2-04: Hopefully everyone has gotten their copy of the dvd, preferably the Director's Cut. I love that version because it has more character info in it and it shows how they got in to the bloody mall! There are many deleted scenes featuring Jake that I wish had been included, such as how he and Mekhi's character got the people in from the truck. You have to also take the time to listen to the Director/Producer comments because some of the background info was interesting. There wasn't as much as other more established director's give but it was so nice to hear the director chirp Jake's name with delight. He was impressed with how Jake and Sara "sold" the story with their acting. It was interesting to hear that some of the filming was done during a real black out. Was not aware of electricity problems in Canada last year. California has its share, that's for sure.

10-16-04: Dawn auction on ebay. Check it out.

9-26-04: Forget that last entry. "Dawn" is set to come out on 10-26-04. The official site is showing different clips each Friday from the unrated director's cut.

6-20-04: Dawn dvd should be out 10-5-04.

This is what I get for not reading my magazines when I purchase them.

In Rue Morgue issue 38 (March/April 2004), 4 Rue Morgue staff got to be zombies for a day. On 8-18-03, they started out at 4 pm - Jen Vuckovic, Justin Tripp, Rod Gudino and Gary Pullin - arrived at a warehouse in the brewery district of Toronto's industrial waterfront and went to wardrobe. They then went to make up where they were done up in super zombie detail. Makeup took 3 hours. They went on the Zombie Bus to the filming location on Toronto's west end, next to a local abattoir, where they got to hear sheep being slaughtered. They are in the scenes where Boyd Banks [Tucker] gets attacked [during the attempt to rescue Nicky from Andy] and also in a scene where Jake and Matt Austin hop out of the semi and shoot at zombies. And what time was that?? 4 am!!! Ick. Guess the actors all felt 'awake' with all the walking dead after them. The Rue Morgue crew were not out of make up until 7 am. What a long day for extras. [They did experience a rain delay.]

From Fangoria, issue 231, Fango did a Q & A with James Gunn, the screenwriter for the movie. When asked how he would feel if the dead came back to life, he said he'd feel pretty hopeless. Then he said: "One of the people I found the most interesting in Dawn was Michael, played by Jake Weber, who does a terrific job. Here's a guy who's a true loser. He works at Best Buy, he's had a million jobs, his wife has divorced him. And all of a sudden this thing happens, and this is something that he's good at for the first time in his life. How do you feel about yourself when that's what you're good at? He goes on to be one of the people who's interested in the welfare of his fellow human beings." Pretty cool, eh? I suspect that we didn't hear where Michael worked in the movie because I bet Best Buy didn't want its name used in the movie.

5-17-04: Link to Cannes site that has pics and interviews and video. "Dawn" played out of competition at midnight on 5-15-04. Thanks to Jenny for the heads up.

4-18-04: Link to an interview of the cast members by Horror.com. Thank you to Jenny for this. Jake's interview is towards the end and he seemed uncomfortable. The chick was insulting in asking him what it was like to work with Sarah since she was soooo talented. Why wasn't I there? I could have hit her. :-)

Link to trailer and clips of movie. Lots of clips of Jake. :-) Thank you to Amanda and Jenny!

4-14-04: New link to Wet and Wild's Dawn of the Dead site. Wet and Wild were impressive enough that Universal kept them informed about official info on the movie and they even got an invite to the Los Angeles premiere.

4-7-04: Hope I don't get in trouble for new pic I put up over to the left. :-)

3-27-04: Jake was at the premiere in Los Angeles and a group with romantic films . com interviewed him. Link to site. Thank you to Jake's other Huge Fan from Switzerland - Chris - for the link! What was a little sad was that Jake indicated that he didn't know what was going on with "Summerhill". Wonder what the producers were doing all those weeks that it was listed in the Hollywood Reporter's "In Production" charts?

3-23-04: Check out the official site for the interviews and film clips. Jake's interview is way too short but he is so cute and shy in it. He says it was his most physically demanding film to date. Guess there was more running and what not then there was in "U-571" and I almost feel as if he is had more to do in this movie then in "Meet Joe Black".

3-21-04: What an emotional roller coaster. For those of you who don't like horror movies or who don't like to be scared, bummer. Jake is awesome and he gets as much screen time as Polley or Rhames. I suppose what is cool is that everyone treats their parts seriously. There is a guy who owns a boat who seems like a poor imitation of Bruce Campbell, he of Xena and Hercules as well as "Evil Dead" fame. So that was sort of nice, the human touch. It wasn't just all gore and I don't even think the gore was overdone. I'll make a separate page for the review/low down so that those who do not wish to know what happens in the movie until after they see it can opt not to look. :-)

Oh, vapid observations - Jake is cute, as always. He does change clothes several times although we don't see that, as does Sarah Polley. It looks as if he put on weight for the movie as he isn't as thin as he was for the play, "Kimberly Akimbo", which he did earlier in the year the movie was filmed. And you will not confuse him with Jake Berman from "Mind of the Married Man" or Matt Crower, MD from "American Gothic" or any of the other movies he has been in. I'm actually rather happy that his character got to do quite a bit.

His name wasn't mentioned when the movie was premiered in Hollywood the week before the film opened. Not sure if that was because of his work on the "Medium" pilot for NBC. Darn. Maybe he went to the New York premiere.

2-20-04: The official site is active. Lots of fun stuff to click around and see. It describes Jake's character as an unassuming electrical salesman. You can hear Jake, Ving, Sarah and others speak in the background.

2-16-04: Well, the Official site which isn't truly operational yet, says the movie opens on 3-19-04. That will put it opposite the new Angelina Jolie movie. Interesting.

Link to the Official site:

And a link to join the Zombie Army.

One person was able to go to the comic con in Pasadena on 2-8-04 and saw the first 10 minutes of the movie. He has a very detailed summary up at his website. I was sort of bummed that I didn't realize that there would be cast members there until after the fact but someone else mentioned that no autographs were allowed. So just as well.

2-8-04: Michael is a television salesman. That must be the lowest profession that Jake has ever played. Except maybe for Tolliver, who really didn't work, he schemed.

Supposedly the movie is supposed to open 3-26-04. I've seen promo post cards with the date. But, the Hollywood Reporter had something about 3-19-04.

From the February/March2004 edition of Cinefantastique:

"I have a lot of educated friends with wonderful senses of humor who think the original film is one of the greatest movies ever. I watched it in the context of this job and enjoyed its unpretentiousness and laudable political message for the time. But like Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later", our version isn't about bloodlust - it's about the human predicament, because all the best horror movies only work when they are about something other than fear."

"In our version, that captures the true Romero spirit," Weber continues, "there's a 'Lord of the Flies' scenario going on. Michael is part of a group of people from different educational, social, economic, vocational backgrounds who are all put together in this ecosystem petri dish where they have to formulate a new way of living and so the best and worst of selfishness, fear, love, sex and survival are raised. My character isn't Rambo, yet he learns that he cannot let fear paralyze him. In the course of the story, he finds he has this talent for taking care of people, and like Ving's character, we both end up in the same emotional place, although we come to it in different ways."

"Ecosystem petri dish"??? You won't hear your run of the mill television salesman spouting that type of verbage. How cool that Jake is even aware of petri dishes.

Ving Rhames' character is Kenneth, a Marine turned cop. Ah, Ving gives something away. He said he wanted to do the character because he was African American, and he lives.

Sarah Polley plays Ana, who's husband dies from the get go. She isn't sure why the studio wanted her for the movie.

Mekhi Phifer plays Andre, a man trying to protect his pregnant wife. He said he was interested in the character driven story.

Now, all that said, I've seen a photo still from the movie where the dead look like they are rushing to be first in line at the mall for the after Christmas sales. I find that disturbing. They're dead, not triatheletes. We shall see.

The director mentioned that many of the stores did not want their logos used for the movie. Roots and Panasonic allowed their names.

Have seen stills of Jake in a white t shirt and short sleeve shirt button front shirt as well as a black t shirt. Also saw a still that I will not describe here. But I wasn't sure whether or not to be upset or just curious.

10-20-03: Jake's character has a name! It's Michael. And again as usual, his character doesn't have a last name. There is much rumour and innuendo surrounding this re-make. There are those who are annoyed that it's being made at all. Universal at one time said it wasn't really a "remake" of the George Romero film. But it does deal with the dead rising and walking and hungering for live flesh. Why the dead should want to eat, well, no one has ever bothered to deal with those ramifications. It takes place in Wisconsin. Wonder if we get to see zombie cows?

:-) And will they not be happy because they are not California cows? [For those of you who do not live in the US, I am making fun of cheese commercials.]

Link to soon to be Official Site.

Link to Unofficial Site. This site has tons of information and even pictures from the set as well as links to other Dead sites.

The movie is scheduled to open on March 26, 2004. It was filmed in Toronto, Canada at a deserted mall that was scheduled for demolition.