Seth Grahame-Smith/Tim Burton collaborate on Night of the Living

[Sawyer]

THR:

THR: The movie rights to Unholy Night have been optioned. When might we see that on the big screen and what do you have coming up next?

SGS: My company is producing it with Heyday David Heyman's company and its the next the script on my docket to write. I'm right in the middle of writing an animated movie for Tim Burton right now called Night of the Living.

THR: Weren’t you going to do a movie set in the a cemetery?

SG-S:That's Living in the Necropolis, which is a book we optioned and have a writer on now. Night of the Living is an idea I have had around for years that I'm doing with Tim Burton. When we were shooting Dark Shadows last year I worked up the nerve to tell Tim about it because I always thought it would make a good movie. When I saw what he had done with Frankweenie and Corpse Bride, it always struck me as a great idea for that form. I'm writing it at Warner's Bros. for him (as a stop-motion monster movie). As soon I'm done with that draft, I'll move into Unholy Night, probably in a matter of weeks. Once we have a script and we'll get together with David Heyman and the studio, we'll go looking for a director.

I'm guessing a reversal on the Night of the Living Dead concept, with zombies as the protagonists and humans as the threat? Either way, I'm interested.

 

[Wolfwood]

So I guess Burton and Grahame-Smith are going to be best bros now. Also if it's a reversal where zombies are the heroes, that'll be mightily interesting.

 

[Secret Fawful]

I was thinking this would be a good idea for a story just the other day.

 

[Crockett]

That'd be a great idea, and I'm always on-board when it comes to stop-motion.

 

[Sawyer]

So I guess Burton and Grahame-Smith are going to be best bros now.

Pretty much. Dark Shadows, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Beetlejuice 2 and now this. I hope they bring out the best in eachother.

On a side note, his new novel, Unholy Night, sounds potentially great.

 

[Sawyer]

Shock Till You Drop:

EXCL: Seth Grahame-Smith on Night of the Living Details, Unholy Night & Beetlejuice 2

Writer Seth Grahame-Smith provided Shock Till You Drop with an update on his upcoming projects while promoting Dark Shadows this afternoon. He broke it down real easy, filling us in on the priority projects that await his attention.

Surprisingly, Beetlejuice 2 is not something he's jumping on right away. The other day, Tim Burton told us he's waiting on the writer's take on the sequel. But it appears Grahame-Smith has some other things he needs to tackle first.

"Everyone is waiting for me to get my ass in gear," Grahame-Smith said. "I just finished a script called Night of the Living, and I'm giving it to Tim this weekend. And I'm moving now into adapting Unholy Night, which I have to deliver to Warner Bros. I've got to do this, then I'm going around the world for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, so I'll be writing Unholy Night on the plane and in hotel rooms."

When we last reported on Night of the Living, I speculated that the plot could be a unique twist on Night of the Living Dead, except that the humans were a threat to the zombies and not vice versa.

Smith said with a smile: "[It's] not just zombies. Let me put it this way, Tim and I are big fans of classic movie monsters. The title pretty much where you're going to be at. Plus, it's a Tim Burton stop motion-animated movie. That movie for me is my love letter to all of the movies I grew up on."

Stay tuned for more with Grahame-Smith as he talks about Dark Shadows.

 

[HighFivingMF]

So I guess Burton and Grahame-Smith are going to be best bros now.

 

[Wolfwood]

Hahaha, that's beautiful.