Retrieved Article: Phillip Thomson | Canberra Times | SEPTEMBER 15 2013
CANBERRA zombie movie, which will probably reinforce Clive Palmer's view of the capital as a soulless dominion of corpse-like bureaucrats, might actually demonstrate the capital is a hothouse of thrifty creativity.
A handful of territory filmmakers are about to make a feature-length zombie flick with a relatively tiny budget of $600,000.
Michael Watson (co-producer), Declan Shrubb (writer/director) and Daniel Sanguineti (producer). Photo: Katherine Griffiths
''This is absolutely the biggest project I've been involved in so far,'' 22-year-old writer and director Declan Shrubb said.
''And we only had two months to write the first draft.''
Me and my Mates vs the Zombie Apocalypse is a comedy set in Canberra about three telecom tradesmen hiding in an exchange from the zombies.
Money to make the film came from a combination of crowdsourcing, personal finances and ScreenACT funding.
The undead cast of blockbusters such as I Am Legend and 28 Days have been fast-moving but the zombies in the Canberra flick will be slower and funnier.
''Ours are not risen-dead zombies, they are infected humans devolving into Neanderthals,'' Shrubb said.
Because of the tight budget there will be no filming in well-known institutions and Shrubb said, ''We're not going to be blowing Parliament House up''.
Comedians Alex Williamson and Greg Fleet have leading roles, and in an expletive-laden YouTube clip have promised to kill a lot of zombies with improvised weapons.
Filming starts January 6 and the crew is still searching for local product placements and private investors.