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Hollywood Outdoor Cinema Screening of Shaun of the Dead

Hollywood Outdoor Cinema Screening of Shaun of the Dead
By HollywoodOutdoorMovies.com
Location: 4400 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, Ca. (In the old Circuit City parking lot)
Event organizer: Jonathon London

Preview:
On Saturday, August 15th 2009 ZWN’s own Marcel-Jean “Dangermouse” Sarfati got to peek inside the brains of the Los Angeles Undead and see what they do for fun. Evidently, they like to throw fashion shows, dance and watch Shaun of the Dead on a very large inflatable screen.

As the entry line to the old Circuit City parking lot on Sunset kept growing, it became clear that humans and Zom bies can mix together in harmony. Anxiously waiting in line to get in, human and Zombie alike got to know one another and some started dancing while others simply propped up their beach chairs and sat on the sidewalk. The wait in line was complemented with some Johnny Cash being played on the other side of the fence. The gates soon opened and people paid out their $10 donations as a Security Guard stood nearby watching. The evening started off with “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus.

First was the gratuitous thanking of the Vendors-Hollywood Outdoor Movies for making it all possible: http://www.hollywoodoutdoormovies.com/

Night Zero, a new photo comic book produced in Seattle, Washington that follows the lives of the surviving population of Seattle after a viral outbreak. It has the look of a feature film, shot on location and using a full cast: http://www.nightzero.com/about.html

Zombieshappen.com, they sell Zombie shirts and bumper stickers from their site. The highlight shirts were: “Zombies Happen” and “I AK Zombies”, and to show their love for Shaun of the Dead, for this month only they have a special edition: “I Cricket Bat Zombies” shirt available. Get it while you can: http://www.zombieshappen.com/

The second event was the gratuitous brain eating contest. Of course these brains were actually brain cakes (cherry with whipped cream). Brain cakes never looked so good.

Authors Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride & Prejudice & Zombies) & S.G. Browne (Breathers: A Zombies Lament) spoke about their respective books. Seth Grahame-Smith told everyone about the new show he’d been writing for MTV. It’s called Hard Times and it’s kind of an updated Wonder Years. 12 episodes will be out in January. Scott Browne plugging his book asked the question, “Is it necrophilia if they’re both dead?” He also informed us that the rights to Breathers had been bought by Fox Searchlight and, being t he optimist he is, he thinks it will go into production by next year.
http://www.undeadanonymous.com/

Next was the Zombie fashion show with tons of Zombie celebrities-Marvel Girl Zombie, Abraham Lincoln Zombie, Salvador Dali Zombie, Paris Hilton Zombie, a Boomer, two hot Zombie chicks and more. The winner got to take home a new X-Box 360. Some Zombies became a bit unruly and the judge, Jonathon London, had to keep them at bay with his impressive cricket bat skills. The two hot Zombie chicks never broke character, by the way.

Then came the ever popular Zombie dance, to Culture Club no less. ‘Nuff said about that.

Host Jonathon London treated the audience to a short film he made called “Gay by Dawn.” The plot was simple: a group of 4 rednecks sitting around a campfire and one of them decides to tell a scary story about….Gays. Done in the sense that they were telling ghost stories, eventually as the story comes to a close they start to grow paranoid and distrust each other and a shootout ensues. The theme song to the movie was one of those catchy jingles that you find hard to pry out of your head; I’m still trying.
http://www.gaybydawn.com/

As the short film was playing I got a chance to meet with Jonathon London. We watched the film and he kept snickering. It was a funny film, absolutely hilarious, but I could tell that there was something deeper going on. He then divulged to me that two of the characters in the film were named Cletus & Cassidy. I knew that name sounded familiar, but couldn’t place it. Then he said, “It’s Carnage, from Spiderman!” So that’s the kind of guy Jonathon is, I thought, then I had him pegged. From Austin Texas, he is the Host & Editor- In- Chief for Geekscape, a site that covers games, movies, comics, and pretty much anything Geek culture. He stated that about 500-550 people showed up for the event and they’d like to continue doing it next year as well and perhaps expand to another screen in L.A. and maybe 1 in O.C. and 1 in San Diego. http://www.geekscape.net/

There were also food and sweets at the event known as ‘Restaurant Row’. It was made up of several catering trucks and they had various types of food–Asian, Mexican, and then there was the Gastrobus (They have their own website and they’re on Twitter, that’s L.A. for you) handing out free popcorn for the event and with a menu consisting of sweet potato fries, bacon wrapped dates, summer corn salad, and a veggie with roasted peppers sandwich that was just too good to pass up. http://www.thegastrobus.com

The Cool Haus mobile was also on hand, which has the best all natural, homemade organic ice cream sandwiches ever. I had them make mine with a Ginger cookie and Earl Grey flavored ice cream & they were given on edible paper (with a picture o f Simon Pegg as Shaun). http://www.eatcoolhaus.com/

Angie Dingman from Love Cakes had her cupcakes with a Shaun of the Dead motif (one of them with cream cheese frosting and brains). http://www.lovecakesonline.com/

Tags: fashion show, hollywood, outdoor, Shaun of the Dead