Quote of the Day

Still in mourning over the passing of Irvin Kershner. In tribute, here's one of my favorite quotes:

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size do you? And well you should not! For my ally is the Force - and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us... and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter! You must feel the Force around you. Here: between you, me, the tree, the rock... everywhere. Yes, even between the land and the ship."

--Yoda [The Empire Strikes Back]

Remembering Kersh

First Ingrid Pitt, then Leslie Nielsen - now the director of my favorite movie of all time... What a sad, sad week. Rest in peace, Kersh.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101129/ts_alt_afp/entertainmentfranceusfilmdirector_20101129144514

Project X

My thanks to indie filmmaker Christian Ackerman for allowing us to promote his sensational new zombie film: 'Wisconsin Project X.' Made with very little money, this film is all heart - and it shows from start to finish. When watching WPX, you can't help but think that there are great things in store for Mr. Ackerman - imagine what he could do with an actual budget to work with! Full of creativity, imagination, and charisma - Mr. Ackerman's future looks bright, and we here at the drive-in look forward to whatever may be coming up from this promising young director. To see more of 'Wisconsin Project X,' please go to:

http://www.angelfire.com/film/acksflicks/wpx.html

Metallica Live at Grimey's

Metallica has released a live album called “Live At Grimey’s”. The set was recorded on June 12, 2008 at the tiny 150-capacity venue The Basement, located below the Grimey’s independet Music record store in Nashville. The intimate gig was a warm-up for the band’s debut at the Bonnaroo Festival that same weekend.
Drummer Lars Ulrich told The Pulse of Radio why the band decided to put ‘Live At Grimey’s’ out through independent stores only. “Pretty much all of my musical inspirations and roots can be traced back to independent record stores, where I sort of put my whole collection together, so when they asked us if we would release the Grimey’s performance, it was what we call a no-brainer,” he said. “So people that are interested in getting this and supporting the independent record stores, the mom-and-pop record stores, I mean it definitely has that kind of good vibe to it.”
“Live At Grimey’s” is being sold as a standard CD and as a limited edition two-disc vinyl set in a gatefold sleeve.
The album will be sold only at the approximately 700 independent record stores that support the annual Record Store Day, held each year in April.
In announcing the album, Metallica posted at its web site, “We were honored to be part of the first-ever annual event celebrating independently owned records stores, a.k.a. Record Store Day, with an in-store at Rasputin Music in Mountain View, California on April 19, 2008 and we’re very proud to be a part of another special event with our friends at independent retail.”
‘Live At Grimey’s’

track listing:

01. No Remorse
02. Fuel
03. Harvester of Sorrow
04. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
05. For Whom The Bell Tolls
06. Master of Puppets
07. Sad But True
08. Motorbreath
09. Seek And Destroy

Who says you can't go home?!? This is a must own for any hardcore Metallica fan! stripped down to just the basics and in a small venue , it don't get much better than this! For anybody who loves the early days of Metallica, you will be in thrash metal heaven!

Quote of the Day

"Strangely enough, I don't like horror pictures at all. I love to make them because they give pleasure to people, but my favourite types of films are much more subtle than horror. I like to watch films like 'Bridge Over the River Kwai,' 'The Apartment' or lovely musicals."

--Peter Cushing

Carve up the Leftovers...

Turkey Time (8 of 12)
Originally uploaded by Zombiechik

Hope everyone had a killer turkey day. From our demented drive-in family to yours: have a very happy Thanksgiving holiday!

INGRID PITT - A Legend Forever

Ingrid Pitt, queen of Hammer horror films, dies

LONDON (Reuters) - Ingrid Pitt, seductive queen of the Hammer horror films who survived a Nazi concentration camp as a girl, has died aged 73, a spokesman for her agent said on Wednesday. The actress started her screen career in the mid-1960s with roles in Spanish films and minor, uncredited parts in "Doctor Zhivago" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."

She appeared in the 1968 classic "Where Eagles Dare" alongside Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood, and five years later in the mystery drama "The Wicker Man." But it was for her roles in erotic horror films "The Vampire Lovers" (1970) and "Countess Dracula" (1971) that she was best known in Britain.

"Underrated as both an actress and a writer, Pitt was a warm but stubbornly enigmatic figure," said Marcus Hearn, a historian of Hammer horror movies and a friend of the actress. Pitt was also a writer, producing two novels set during the Peron era in Argentina and several horror-related works of fiction.

She was born in Poland in 1937 to a mother of Jewish descent, and was interned in a Nazi concentration camp during World War Two at the age of five -- an experience she recounted in her autobiography "Life's a Scream."

She told an interviewer in 2006 that she did not particularly enjoy watching horror movies.

"I was in a concentration camp as a child and I don't want to see horror," Pitt said. "I think it's very amazing that I do horror films when I had this awful childhood. But maybe that's why I'm good at it."

Her autobiography also describes Pitt's search for her father throughout the European Red Cross refugee camps and her escape from East Berlin, one step ahead of the police.

"I always had a big mouth and used to go on about the political schooling interrupting my quest for thespian glory," she wrote. "I used to think like that. Not good in a police state."

Pitt collapsed recently and died in London on Tuesday, shortly after her 73rd birthday.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

We're Coming To Get You...

Lost in the Weeds
Originally uploaded by Lost America

More big things on the way in the coming months from Drive-In of the Dead. Stay tuned for some well known names to start popping up from their respective graves. We are truly honored and excited at the response our website has received - and we look forward to promoting the films of these genre legends!

Stay tuned to Radio Z.O.M.B. for more breaking news!

Drive-in Movie

Drive-in Movie
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Clay

Just found this on Facebook. 'Like' it and help spread the word about the historic Cottage View Drive-In in Minnesota.

www.facebook.com/pages/Save-the-Cottage-View-Drive-In/117061611664257

Dead Weeds Pictures

I wanted to thank Iowa filmmakers Anne and Michael Paul for graciously allowing us to showcase their tremendous film: 'Roman's Bride' here at the drive-in. While the film itself is a grim examination of the darker aspects of human behavior, I can definitely say that the Pauls are not at all like the characters in their film. A delight to work with, I see great things ahead for their production company: Dead Weeds Pictures. To see how well done independent horror can be, I urge you to visit their website and pick up your own copy on dvd. Help support the local talent - and enjoy this macabre tale set amid the corn!

www.romansbride.com

Nevermore

Here's the first pic from the set of the James McTeigue directed thriller 'The Raven' starring John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe. As a major fan of Poe, I'm satisfied with Cusack in the starring role (although I would have cast Johnny Depp myself - with Tim Burton directing, natch), but I'm not thrilled with the goatee. Granted there aren't many images of the poet to work off of - but of the known likenesses in existence, I can't recall ever seeing one in which he sported a goatee. Cusack does not look like Poe here - he looks more like some random guy in 1845 wearing sneakers, Professor Moriarty perhaps. I also don't jive with the plot, which seems a little too Sherlock Holmes-ish for my liking:

"A fictionalized account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, in which the poet is in pursuit of a serial killer whose murders mirror those in the writer's stories."

I would have preferred a straight biopic rather than a fictionalized thriller - but hey - no one asked my opinion...

Ted V. Mikels

Here's the exciting news I promised last week!

Drive-In of the Dead is thrilled to announce that we are working with TVM Global Entertainment and Blue Heron International Pictures to help promote legendary cult filmmaker Ted V. Mikels' upcoming feature film: ASTRO-ZOMBIES M4: INVADERS FROM CYBERSPACE. Landing his exclusive promo trailer before anyone else - our partnership with Mr. Mikels' team will allow us to bring exclusive news about his upcoming picture as it happens! We look forward to working with Mr. Mikels - whose vast and storied body of work contains such cult grindhouse hits as: 'The Doll Squad,' The Corpse Grinders,' the original 'Astro-Zombies' and many more. Stay tuned to Drive-In of the Dead for more updates, or visit Ted's official site to watch his past titles:

http://www.tedvmikels.com

Dear Santa...

I've found what I want under the tree on Christmas morn. It's a little (okay - it's actually quite big) book called THE ART OF HAMMER by Marcus Hearn. A compilation of poster art from every film Hammer put out from 1950-1979, The Art of Hammer showcases the beauty of poster art before there was Photoshop. This one's worth owning folks!

Lost Drive-In

Inaccessible Out of use Grove Drive-In theater movie screen
Originally uploaded by ⓣⓨⓁⓔⓡ～＊

This is the kind of dead drive-in I dream about passing when on a road trip. How cool would it be to pass this with a camera handy - to snoop around and see what's left of this ancient relic.

Vintage Hammer

Horror of Frankenstein 1970 Original Vintage Hammer Horror Movie Poster
Originally uploaded by Vintage Movie Posters

Hammer Studios' 'The Woman In Black' is coming soon - but 'Horror of Frankenstein' is where it all started. A great poster for a great movie. This is the UK one-sheet poster featuring amazing artwork by Mike Vaughan.

R.I.P. Dino

Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis dies

ROME (Reuters) – Oscar-winning Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who brought to the big screen nearly 500 films including "Serpico," "Three Days of the Condor" and "King Kong," died in Los Angeles aged 91, Italian media said on Thursday.

De Laurentiis produced several Italian classics in collaboration, including Federico Fellini's "La Strada," for which he won an Oscar in 1957.

He moved to the United States in the 1970s after the failure of his film studios in Rome, and turned to a string of big international productions, including a few flops.

He was behind the legendary King Kong remake of 1976, the killer whale film "Orca," several adaptations of Stephen King's novels, and most recently "Hannibal," the sequel to "The Silence of the Lambs."

(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi; editing by Paul Casciato)

The Woman In Black

Hammer Studios - the storied house of cinematic horror loved by horror geeks everywhere - kicks off their glorious return to mainstream movies with two new stills from their upcoming suspense thriller: The Woman In Black. Starring Daniel Radcliffe in his first non-Harry Potter role since leaving Hogwarts, 'Woman' looks to be the perfect vehicle for both Hammer and Radcliffe to restart their respective careers. I'm liking what I'm seeing - can't wait for this film!For more 'Woman' updates, visit:

http://www.hammerfilms.com/productions/film/filmid/24/the-woman-in-black

Quote of the Day

"OK! I'll talk! In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max's toupee and I glued it on my face when I was Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog... When my mom sent me to the summer camp for fat kids and then they served lunch I got nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out... But the worst thing I ever done - I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony and then, t-t-then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa - and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life!"

More Dead

Good news, dead-heads: AMC has already announced a second season for their hit drama The Walking Dead! Here's a snippet from their official press release...

AMC RESURRECTS "THE WALKING DEAD" FOR A SECOND SEASON

Network Greenlights 13-Episode Season of Original Hit Series

(New York, NY - November 8, 2010) AMC announced today the renewal of "The Walking Dead" for a 13-episode second season. Since debuting Sunday, October 31, "The Walking Dead" has broken ratings records, with the series reaching more Adults 18-49 than any other show in the history of cable television.

Today's announcement also includes Fox International Channels' (FIC) global renewal for a second season, following record-breaking premiere ratings in 120 countries in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. "The Walking Dead" was the highest-rated original series premiere ever to air on FIC simultaneously worldwide.

"The 'Dead' has spread!" said Charlie Collier, President, AMC. "No other cable series has ever attracted as many Adults 18-49 as 'The Walking Dead.' This reaffirms viewers' hunger for premium television on basic cable. We are so proud to be bringing back 'The Dead' again, across the globe."

"I wish all programming decisions were no brainers like this one," said Sharon Tal Yguado, SVP Scripted Programming. "'The Walking Dead' is a TV masterpiece on so many levels. We want at least 10 seasons, if not more. Kudos to AMC!"

American Grindhouse

For those who checked out our main screen you've no doubt seen the trailer for a fascinating picture called 'American Grindhouse.' My thanks go out to Elijah Drenner, the director of the film, for taking a chance on a fledgling website and allowing us to show his trailer. In the weeks to follow you'll see plenty more film trailers from up-and-coming directors (as well as some established genre legends!) Thanks Elijah, for being the first to recognize Drive-In of the Dead as a legitimate outlet for independent film! For more on 'American Grindhouse,' go to:

www.americangrindhouse.com

ZOMBO

Zombo: The Zombie Musical
Originally uploaded by Queen Hal

A zombie musical? I'd go see it.

Bond Is Back?

[From commanderbond.net]

It’s not set in stone, but MGM has announced that new James Bond films starting with Bond 23 may be released every second year starting in November 2012 according to Bloomberg. Right now MGM is only wanting to own 50 percent of Bond 23 with an equal partner paying all of the production costs. Further 007 adventures would be wholly owned and funded by MGM.

Before any of this occurs though MGM must first go through bankruptcy which it recently filed for, and take care of its obligations for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. MGM announced that they’ve already paid $20 million to fund production of the two films and estimates that they may be required to pay $275 million total.

Still unknown is whether MGM plans to continue to distribute the James Bond films. Much speculation has been made saying they won’t which could open a battlefront for distribution rights to the lucrative series. Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros, Fox, and Paramount are said to already be in contention.

Killer Things Are Coming!

Zombie Hoard
Originally uploaded by Bostich

I'm excited to announce that some killer things are coming to the drive-in! We've got some really terrific trailers to some great movies on the way - many of which will be featured on our big screen on the main page. We look forward to establishing some great connections, and, hopefully, some long-lasting friendships with many of these artists - so that we may assist in promoting their films for many years to come.

Be on the look-out for a major announcement very soon!

They're coming!

Bat-Grammar

Robin: "You can't get away from Batman that easy!"
Batman: "Easily."
Robin: "Easily."
Batman: "Good grammar is essential, Robin."
Robin: "Thank you."
Batman: "You're welcome."

Quote of the Day

"Yeah, I know I'm ugly... I said to a bartender, 'Make me a zombie.' He said 'God beat me to it.'"

--Rodney Dangerfield

Walking Dead

After a much deserved day off - I'm finally back. The activities of Halloween - not to mention the tear-down effort the next day - really took their toll this year (and I'm not even completely done!) Exhausted would be an understatement. However, Halloween went well - we had over 200+ TOT's this year (we actually lost count of how many came through our haunted garage), the weather was incredible: 50 F with no wind or rain, followed by The Walking Dead on AMC that night.

Tearing down the haunted house went pretty quickly, but I kept thinking: "Man, two months to construct - two hours to tear down!" Now there's nothing left to do but store it all away for another year. Once that's done I'll be able to get back to blogging regularly, as well as writing up some new reviews for the Drive-In. Thanks for your patience - we're looking forward to a great year of movies under the stars!

P.S. If you have any ideas, criticisms, suggestions for the site, please don't hesitate to comment.