So we’ve seen Comic-cons, Dragon-cons, Famous Monsters-cons and a myriad of other cons become a permanent fixture on the pop culture landscape, particularly in the last decade.  Now ZomBcon will descend on Seattle, Washington during  Halloween Weekend, October 29-31 at the Seattle Center.

ZomBcon will be the first international zombie culture event. The show marks the 25th anniversary of Day of the Dead, which will have a special screening at the event, and director George A. Romero will be honored. There will be over 100 panels and events celebrating all things Zombie. Celebrity guests will include Bruce Campbell, Max Brooks, Malcolm McDowell, and Chuck Palahniuk.

Seattle has previously been home to the largest Zombie Walk ever recorded, and hosts a an annual Red, White and Dead Zombie Walk, making it a natural breeding ground for the new Zombie convention.

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I had a chance to see George Romero’s Survival of the Dead last September during Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX. You can read the full review here. Or, if you don’t want to click a link, I will sum it up by saying I wasn’t in love with the movie.

That’s not to say the movie doesn’t have its good points and isn’t any fun, it does and is. It’s just not a great movie and I was hoping for more.

My opinion aside, the movie will finally be released and to begin the push for that, the studio has dropped the first poster from the film on us. It contains your typical mix of unholy zombies bent on one thing: brains.

Plus, a tag line that actually does a pretty good job of relating one of the central premises of the movie. Nice work marketing team.

Check out the full sized poster after the jump. Survival of the Dead premieres on VOD, Amazon, Xbox Live and Playstation April 30 and in theaters on May 28th.

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Much like vampires, zombies are having quite the resurgence these days. Not that they ever really went anywhere, but it seems after the success of Zombieland (and video games like Left 4 Dead) everyone in Hollywood wants a piece of the zombie pie (which, while popular, probably wouldn’t taste very good).

Recently, AMC announced they were adapting Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead for the network with Frank Darabont in charge and now, not to be left out, MTV is apparently turning George Romero’s classic Dawn of the Dead into a TV series.  Yes, one more non-music program on a channel named Music Television.  Don’t worry, it’s doubtful they’ll make the zombies dance.  At least in that MTV will preserve the greatness that is Michael Jackson’s Thriller video.

So far MTV has not made any details about the project available:

“They haven’t given away much in terms of details surrounding the show, how it will link to the original film or even when it might hit the air. They have noted the show will feature a mix of the classic, slow moving zombies and the latest fad of turning the undead into Olympic sprinters. It’s good to see so much diversity on television.”

A television series based on zombies may seem unconventional, but one only has to look to shows like HBO‘s True Blood to understand the supernatural appeal. Moreover, I can’t help but wonder if some, if not all, of MTV’s motivation is driven by Zombieland itself.  While made into a movie, Zombieland was originally pitched to CBS as a television series.  Coincidence? Perhaps not.

No matter how the project started, is anyone really going to complain about more zombies to watch?  I didn’t think so.

Even though Christmas has passed and we’re into the new year, there’s always time for new DVD releases. This week’s releases include , and the second Dawn of the Dead, End of Days, The Green Berets and 10 Things I Hate About You. Of these releases, we are all pretty excited about The Last Starfighter (pictured above).

Check out this week’s releases:

Movies

Cheaper by the Dozen 2 ~ Bonnie Hunt, Shawn Levy (Blu-ray)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ~ Anna Faris (DVD and Blu-ray)

Dawn of the Dead (2004) ~ Sarah Polley (Blu-ray)

Dogtown and Z-Boys ~ Sean Penn, Jay Adams (Blu-ray)

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