By Kelly Strodl
Yesterday I talked with Kevin Van Hagen (producer, actor, editor) and director Drew Pierce – of DEADHEADS, a postmodern take on the buddy flick, where the two friends just happen to be two inexplicably coherent zombies!
Reminiscent of such 80’s-epics as Goonies, TeenWolf, My Best Friend’s a Vampire, and the like, the story follows two slackers, Mike and Brent, who find themselves surprisingly un-dead amid a disastrous zombie outbreak. After discovering an engagement ring in his coat pocket, Mike enlists his new found zombie pal, Brent, to embark on a quest in search of his lost love. So they’re undead, that doesn’t mean the two can’t embark on a road trip adventure of Goonies proportions – full of high jinks, awkward reunions, and a search for lost love, unaware that they are being pursued by ruthless, zombie-killing bounty hunters!
Q: How did you hear about the Newport Beach Film Festival?
It had been recommended to us and we'd read an article about the 10 best fests that were worth the price of submission and Newport was up there. Advice to any new filmmakers like ourselves, budget for festival submission costs and do your homework about which ones are worth it.
Q: Tell a little about the story of your film and the production of it.
It's a zombie/buddy/road trip/action/adventure/romantic comedy. Say that three times fast! It's about two zombie pals newly risen from the dead, Mike and Brent, whom embark on a cross country road in search of Mike's lost love as they are pursued by a team of ruthless bounty hunters. After moving to LA to pursue our dreams we quickly entered the lovely world of production assistant employment. Drew came up with the idea of a zombie buddy film andI chimed in with the lost love angle and we started burning the midnight oil on draft after draft of the script out of fear of becoming permanent PA's.
Q: Tell a little about yourself and your story in filmmaking.
Drew and I grew up amid the production of EVIL DEAD as kids, our father was the visual FX artist on it. Watching Sam Raimi and the guys spin out their crazy horror/comedy flick got us itching to do the same. We made some zero budget indie films with our friends back in our home state of Michigan and that was our film school. Every weekend someone was shooting something and if you didn't show up to lend a hand (or your camera) you weren't pulling your weight.
Q: Your take on the performances of the lead actors, (set backs, triumphs, impressions, good surprises, etc.)
Our cast is amazing. Michael McKiddy and Ross Kidder are our zombie comedy duo and it kills me that others haven't picked up on these two yet. Mike and Ross are the type of actors you pray you get. They never flinched that we shot 10 weeks/6 days a week, covered them in fake blood, and rigged them with explosive squibs. Truth is, they wanted to be there just as much as us, they believed in us and the movie. I remember one night we we're setting up for this beautiful wide shot of an old creepy barn with encroaching zombies, and there's Mike next to me in full makup and costume. He looked at me and said with a smile "I can't believe we're doing this!" That makes me smile even to this day.
Q: What do you do when not making a smash indie film?
I'm a production coordinator on a reality TV series and my brother is a freelance animator. After work it's still a full time job on DEADHEADS. The battle for distribution is an entirely different monster and applying to fests can be very up and down emotionally but you just keep moving forward. Making movies is a series of insurmountable problems but it's also the most fun we've ever had in our lives.
DEADHEADS screens on Friday, April 29 at 8:15 PM at the Triangle Square Theater 1. And Tuesday, May 2 at 7:45 PM at the Triangle Square Theater 6.
The Friday show has already sold out, but there are still tickets available for the Tuesday screening.
Purchase tickets here:
http://newportbeachfilmfest.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=358115
Or watch the trailer on YouTube, here:
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