I love action movies, and now that World War Z has proven the undead belong in Hollywood A-list films, I’m excited to see where the next crop of fast zombies will appear. However, the beasts shouldn’t show up just anywhere. Producers and directors should think about expanding the zombie universe by perhaps including these creatures in remakes of multi-million dollar hits. Yes, it’s a stretch, but imagine what fun it could be.
For my Monday Mayhem series, I’ve explored this idea before with my posts Classic Literature Zombie Style and Classic Literature Zombie Style II, adding the undead to such classic tales as Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, and Romeo & Juliet.
Yet I’ve never done it with movies.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Below are three movies I think would be interesting to watch as remakes with a zombie twist. No one can say no one has ever thought of this. Let’s have some fun!
Jurassic Zombieland—In a remote island off the coast of Costa Rica, the government is conducting experiments in dinosaur cloning. Preliminary successes yielded the birth of Triceratops, Apatosaurus and the formidable Tyrannosaurus Rex. But something goes horribly wrong. Human DNA accidentally creeps into a Velociraptor gene pool and the next batch of clones pops out as stillborns, half-dinosaur and half-human. Before scientists could purge the dead batch, the legion of Zombiesaurus spring to life, eat the humans then battle for island supremacy against the other dinosaurs. Who wouldn’t want to visit this as a theme park?
Star Wars: Attack of the Zombies—A virus is taking hold of the planet Naboo rendering all Gungans as zombies. When Gungan Ambassador Jar Jar Binks appears before the Galactic Senate, unaware he’s a carrier of the dreaded disease, he infects half of the senators. Palpatine, whose clear ambition is to wrestle control from the senate in order to become all-encompassing ruler, requests aid from the Jedi to eradicate the Gungans. While the Jedi are away, he proclaims himself emperor and uses the virus as grounds to destroy the senate with his newly formed clone army. All would have gone according to plan except for one thing—Palpatine himself turns into a zombie.
Zombies of the Lost Ark—On an archeological expedition to unearth the ark of the covenant, Indiana Jones travels to Egypt where he encounters an army of the undead ravaging Cairo. Unbeknownst to Indy, the golden idol he had stolen weeks before from a temple in South America carried with it a curse. Whoever possesses the idol ten days after its removal from the temple would have a zombie plague unleashed on him and all those in his charge. Indy’s arch nemesis, René Belloq, has fallen under that plague, and now is wreaking havoc throughout the Middle East. Will Jones find the Ark in time before the great apocalypse spreads further?
RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, on sale October 22.
Do you have any other movies you’d like to see zombified? How do you like the idea of E.T. as a zombie?
Looking to God 
The Seven Samurai in Zombieland would be great – a group of samurai defend helpless villagers from zombie hoard? whats not to love!
The Zombieshank Redemption – man gets accused of murdering his wife and turning her into a zombie, he gets sent to jail which ends up becoming a great way of surviving hte zombie apocalypse and discovering what it means to be really live
Silence of the Zombies – Spunky young FBI agent gets sent to investigate a serial killer… it turns out the killer is turning his victims into zombies and she has the enlist the help of a cannibal to understand how to kill and those who love to eat the dead….
Post Cards From the Dead? Actually my son suggested that! Is that cheating??
Jurassic Zombieland! That sounds terrifying! I’d love to see Gone with the Zombie and even (may L. Frank Baum forgive me) The Wizard of Zombies/The Zombies of OZ. Another fun one (for my son): 300 Zombies and Z for Zombies (V for Vandetta).
PS: I’m really glad that Indy isn’t a zombie in your version. We’re talking about the love of my 5-year old life (with Han Solo being a really close second… yeah, I know).
I like your two ideas of Gone with the Zombies and The Wizard of Zombies. Although I’ll probably rename the latter to The Wizard of Zombieland. Can you tell I love the movie?
Oh, no, I wouldn’t touch Indy. He’s my fave hero for the 80’s and it would be sacrilegious to consider changing him into a belly buster! BTW, love Solo!
I like “Wizard of Zombieland” better. I adore that movie – it, Indy, Star Wars and Gone with the Wind were my childhood staples – to have all of them zombified would be twisted, but loads of fun, too!
It really would, even after Indiana Jones 4… in which Steven Spielberg or George Lucas (I can’t remember which one was talking during the featurette) called all of us who loved Indy when the movies first came out “older folk.”
Funny, we grew up on the same kind of movies. Gone with the Wind is still one of my most favorites along with The Wizard of Oz. Not a year passes that I don’t see these two!
That would be Spielberg. I have all the Indy discs and he’s called us older folk on more than one occasion. But I don’t mind ’cause it makes me feel seasoned and grateful for having earned such a title from him!
We did – I think that means we are both products of excellence! 🙂
That is actually a great way to look at it. My best friend and I watched it and we just giggled – it was a first for us both. It’s a tag that’s stuck around, too!
I like “The Good, the Bad, and the Zombie” idea. “The Quick and the Undead” sounds fun too. But what’s the zombie Sherlock called again??
Zerlock Hombie
I think I could go for that. Holmes and Watson could definitely kick some zombie butt. It sounds like something their style.
I think I might just work a book on that – I’ve always wanted to do a tale of a sleuth, combine my two favourite things, SH and zombies. What a combo!
Aha! I will buy that one!
Can I just say that “Attack of the Zombies” sounds like a better movie than the real EpII? 🙂 Star Wars also has the “rakghoul plague” which turns people into gross monsters things; not exactly the undead, but similar idea.
Since it’s brainless, “Legally Blonde.” But call it “Legally Dead.
I like Zombies of the Lost Ark, personally.
I think you just covered exactly what I want to see with Jurassic Zombieland 😉 Love the idea! Maybe a new novel idea 😉
Tombstone. You wouldn’t need to change the name at all. Wyatt Earp seeks to retire in Arizona. His wife is the first victim of a strange new plague released on the town by the Cowboy gang. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday join forces to defeat the growing Cowboy gang who has somehow figured out how to use the plague victims, or zombies, as an army of sorts. Of course, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are successful in quashing the undead gang, but not before Doc is infected.
The Zombie Club: Five teenagers find themselves thrown together in Saturday school because of ill behavior. In the course of the day, they become friends and are completely unaware that the world around them has suddenly fallen victim to a vicious parasite that transforms the living to mindless zombies. Upon exiting the school, they discover that they may be the only hot-blooded humans in the world and they band together to help one another survive. There would, of course, be 4 or 5 movies.
I could go on, but this is already lengthy. And I’d have to think awhile longer to come up with something interesting enough to share. Ha!
I’m reading about Tombstone, which is an amazing story, and here I’m thinking Doc’s gonna end up as a zombie, you watch, Doc’s fate is in knuckle dragging. Ha, and sure enough, Doc gets infected. Gotta love irony!
The Zombie Club is something I hadn’t thought of–ever. Given The Breakfast Club is a movie I watch religiously every spring, to have everything go to pot all around them is something to behold. Now, the questions I have are, what happens to Mr. Vernon, the nostalgic principal and Carl, the all-knowing janitor? Do they end up as zombies? Are they part of the league of heroes? Or are they locked in the basement perusing the files of defective students for the span of the zombie meatfest?
And, yes, share more. We’re interesting in hearing what goes on in that imagination of yours!
Awesome idea for a post! You mentioned Sherlock Holmes, which I’m a huge fan of. What role do you think should zombies have in those stories? Would the zombies be the perps or would Sherlock and Watson be zombies?
Now that I think about it, this might make a good point & click adventure game too. I might write a post about a zombie Holmes game. Thanks for the inspiration.
I would definitely have the zombies as the perps, but in a different vein. They’d show up near the end of the stories with nothing but malcontent in their spirit. I’d have Holmes and Watson almost as superheroes with a strong aversion to the undead. They’d have their logical brains at work piecing together the mess the zombies had made until the very end when a catastrophic battle ensues–or words to that effect.
Enjoy the inspiration! 🙂
Thw quick and the undead……
Great stuff. I guess I’m an old soul when it comes to film, because I immediately thought of:
One Flew Over the Zombies Nest
The Good, The Bad and The Zombie
Gone with the Zombie
and
Zombie-blana or Casa-Zombie…
They’re all so good! I can see Gone with the Zombie and The Good, The Bad and The Zombie. Oh, Casa-Zombie sounds great, too. Sam won’t need to play it again ’cause his fingers got stuck and broke in the keys!
Jurassic Zombieland kills me. I could so see that happening. Brilliant.
The Star Wars Expanded Universe has already visited the zombie idea in a couple of books the only one I have ever read is Dead Trooper where an alien parasite that turns people in to zombies infects an Imperial star destroyer worth checking out for both Star Wars and zombie fans.
Awesome info, Dave! I have to brush up on my Star Wars Expanded Universe knowledge. And here I thought I knew everything there was to know about Lucas’ world.
Great idea! I’d love to watch a Star Wars zombie version but with Ewoks in and Princess Leia.
Hi Jack,
Love the concept 🙂 – one problem, Harrison Ford is already a zombie !!
Rgds
David