First… you are in the right place.
“Rise” was written and developed under the working title of “Origins” for the first several years of this project’s development.
Over the years, I became convinced that “Origins” was not going to be the release title of this project and had spent a long time with this thought in the back of my mind.
Last year it hit me, and while it should have been the obvious title from the get go, my creative brain never thought of it until a little over a year ago. I changed the title to “Rise of the Living Dead” and made a quite, little Facebook announcement about the change. By the next day there were over 12,000,000 Google results for this title and the project found itself in the public eye of the fans.
The funny thing about this was that there were so many people who were, apparently, quietly waiting to see if this project would resonate with fans and this was all the proof they needed. Within 2 months and after working very hard to help some folks make some headway on a project that was a derivative of my father’s work because I believed they had the best interest of the legacy in mind, the very same people sent me a cease and desist letter for the new title. It seems they had purchased the rights to “Return of the Living Dead,” a project that my father was not involved with, but his partner was and a project that has become synonymous with the work my father and his partners did so long ago and an awesome movie in its own respect.
Apparently, since they owned the rights to “Return” now they had a Trademark claim because the initials of “Rise of the Living Dead” were the same as the initials of “Reutrn of the Living Dead.” This should not have been a big deal, but it’s certainly an indicator of the lengths people have gone to to try to delay this film or to try to get in on it and take it over, etc…
In the end, this petty shit that was thrown my way was no big deal. Just lost the “of the Living Dead” and now the project is called “Rise.”
I began development on this project more than a decade ago and it has been a journey unlike any other project I’ve ever developed. This project has shown me the true colors of so many people who claim to be in it for the right reasons and this production diary will serve as the home for absolutely all things related to the lifespan of “Rise.”
I will be posting unapologetic accountings of my entire experience trying to get this film made and out in the world.
The funny part about it is that there have been countless people who “just want to help me do right by the project and my father’s legacy” until I say “ok, let’s do it.” Then it turns into a shit show of “well you can’t direct it because you’ve never directed a $20M film,” ( this film’s budget has never been $20M) or “this doesn’t feel like one of your dad’s zombie films,” or we need you to write it smaller, like a little one-night-survival story and if it does well, we can explore your idea for a sequel,” or “we LOVE THIS IDEA, but we want to use your title and your father’s name to make OUR IDEA first and if that goes well, we can talk about making your film, but we need to figure out how to do it with your father’s name and not yours,'“ or my personal favorite “we want to make this film as a series for the CW and re-work it into a high school musical type show.”
Buckle up because this diary will reveal a lot of truth about the industry and the people in it and will, once and for all, set the record straight as to why I haven’t made this film yet.
