Indie director parlays web donations into rom-zom-com 'A Little Bit Zombie'

TORONTO - It was in 2006 that Thunder Bay, Ont.-native Casey Walker set out make his first feature film and won over the web with his pitch to shoot an "unromantic comedy" for a million bucks.

A lot can change in five-plus years, including the idea for your film, and how much it'll cost to make it.

Walker eventually changed gears and decided to make his debut film a "rom-zom-com" called "A Little Bit Zombie," which is getting its world premiere this weekend at the Victoria Film Festival. And while he initially nicknamed the project "my million dollar movie," it ended up costing just about double that.
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The journey to create his first film actually dates back at least 10 years or so, when he started working on a script for his big-screen debut with another writer.

"We quickly discovered you can't make a movie in this country unless you've made a movie," said Walker.


Years later, inspired by a student's online campaign that collected donations to pay for his tuition, Walker set up mymilliondollarmovie.com, asking for $10 pledges to help fund his movie.

The website was a hit, made international headlines and gave Walker the push he needed to seriously pursue the film — even if the campaign didn't pay for it entirely.

"We tried to raise a million dollars, that was the goal," he said. "But we got $85,000 online, I put in personally another $275,000 and the rest came from tax credits and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation," based on plans to shoot the film in Sudbury, Ont.

Walker went with the zombie theme after meeting with Christopher Bond (co-creator of "Evil Dead, The Musical!") and Trevor Martin, who would become the writers for "A Little Bit Zombie."

Kristopher Turner ("The L.A. Complex," "Instant Star") stars as mild-mannered nice guy Steve, who is engaged to raging bridezilla Tina, played by Crystal Lowe ("Hot Tub Time Machine," "Final Destination 3," "Smallville"). They're spending a weekend away in a country cabin when things start getting strange, shortly after Steve gets bitten by a mosquito. That mosquito had just finished feasting on a zombie's blood before getting to Steve.

"The (writers) told me the one-sentence idea of what happens when a guy gets bitten by a zombie mosquito: he becomes a little bit zombie," said Walker, adding that the film is a fusion of multiple genres and not aimed at one demographic.

"We went for a broad audience ... this is a movie that if you don't love zombie movies, you're going to love, and if you love zombie movies you're going to love it. There's something there for everyone," he said.

"I think we'll get a lot of the teen audience in — I'm not sure my mother's generation will quite get it, but I know my mom will enjoy it."

For those not in Victoria this weekend, "A Little Bit Zombie" is set to air on Movie Central and TMN (likely in the lead-up to Halloween, Walker said) and before that it'll hit some theatres.

In the same indie, DIY-spirit that the film was made, Walker is seeking out smaller theatre chains or independent venues across the country to screen "A Little Bit Zombie," probably starting in May.

"I'd love it if my film opened on 100 screens with Cineplex, that'd be fantastic, but I'm pretty sure the reality is it's not going to happen, so we're just preparing to go a different route," he said.

Given that "A Little Bit Zombie" will be competing against big Hollywood pictures with multi-million dollar marketing campaigns behind them, Walker said there's little point trying to fight for attention at the huge multiplexes.

"I think that's what Canadian films suffer a lot from, they get put in a theatre where there's 25 other movies playing and you're thrown up (against) that choice," he said.

Watch the Trailer here:  http://bit.ly/weqUnr

By Michael Oliveira, The Canadian Press, thecanadianpress.com, 
Updated: February-03-12