I firmly believe Zombieland was one of the best films of 2009. It simply came out of nowhere, defied expectations, and even went so far as to inspire some of us.  Given the films success it’s no surprise that a sequel would be on the horizon. Now, Variety is able to confirm that a sequel is in development and chances are it will be in 3D:

“Everyone had fun watching (the first) ‘Zombieland’; making it a more visceral experience can only make it better,” said the film’s producer Gavin Polone. “I don’t think you want to see ‘Ordinary People’ in 3-D. But ‘Zombieland’ is clearly one movie that will benefit from (the technique).”

Now, I’ve never been sold on the whole 3D thing.  Personally, I think it’s a gimmick and haven’t gone out of my way to see any recent 3D films.  Simply put, I have yet to find a compelling reason to see a film in 3D over its standard counterpart.

That being said, Zombieland may just be the film I actively seek out a 3D theater to see it in.  It was so brilliantly campy that it begs to bring that pseudo third dimension to the adventures of Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg). It’s perfect, and so would a title of Z3D.  Okay, that may work better for a third film, but it’s still cool.

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Though Zombieland hit theaters a week ago, it’s still making headway with viral marketing on its official site. Over at the site, we’ve just stumbled across a cool new tool that is bound to get even the most timid of zombie fans excited.

Welcome to Zombify-Yourself.net where you can turn yourself into a flesh-eating member of the undead, without having to go through all the trouble of being bitten and the actual eating of flesh. The site uses a flash application to upload a picture of your choosing, and adds in great features like “bleeding eye cavity” or “missing lips” to complete your zombie look.

With Zombieland coming it at number 1 at the box office last weekend, and taking home roughly $30 million in a week, we are bound to see more from this franchise, in either a possible sequel or, if we’re lucky, a good old-fashioned Hollywood reboot.

Catch Zombieland in theaters everywhere now.

Zombieland opened this week and let me tell you it is, in my opinion, one of the best films of 2009. Only a day into its release Hollywood insiders were predicting the movie could go onto make $30 million in its opening weekend. If that happens it means Zombieland will have made back the $26 million and change it cost to make. While those numbers may not carry the weight of the billion dollars The Dark Knight made Zombieland’s rapid return on investment cannot be overlooked. Hollywood, take note, Zombieland should be the new standard of success.

All that said, I’m not writing a review of Zombieland by any means (Chris already wrote a great one), nor am I looking to talk about the merits of the film, of which there are many. No, I’m casting all the business stuff aside for the moment to speak about one thing: inspiration. You see, immediately after watching Zombieland I got home and was compelled to write (in this case a novel I’m working on). I had in me a burning desire to create. Therein lies the true success of Zombieland. For this writer, it spurred the creative forces that drive cinema.

How did it do this?  Simply put, the film was honest. There was no allusion to a grand design or twist ending. The characters were endearing and story practically A to B simple. Moreover, it defied stock conventions of the genre.  The girls weren’t running away screaming and guys not always the most heroic. These were characters anyone in the theater could relate to personally or through friends they probably know.  Being able to create that rapport with the audience was the secret weapon of Zombieland.  It connected with viewers (trust me on that, I saw the response from the packed theater first hand) and even if only for a few moments at a time they could see themselves in that world of zombies and loved it. Those are the moments writers, specifically, aspire to.

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Part monster movie, part buddy road comedy with a dash of romance thrown in, Zombieland manages to deliver on pretty much every level. Featuring terrific performances by the entire cast, including Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, this film is able to deliver genuine laughs, genuine scares and genuine entertainment for its entire running time. Its a solid piece of filmmaking by director Ruben Fleischer, and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, that should definitely find an audience.

The premise of the film is, as it should be, relatively simple. The world as we know it has come to an end due to some unspecified reason and the dead are now walking the earth. In this world we first meet Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) who, being the introverted, Mountain Dew drinking, pseudo-loser he is, has managed to stay alive due to his nature and adherence to rules he’s come up with as a new citizen of Zombieland. His rules, such as “Cardio Good, Bathrooms Bad, Always shoot zombies twice, etc.” and his loner, anti-social nature have served him well and enabled him to survive.

So, its somewhat against his better judgment that he decides to team up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) on a road trip to find out if any of his family might still be alive in, you guessed it, Columbus. In case you’re wondering, the names characters call each other in Z-land are where they’re from and not their actual names. Better to not develop real ties with anyone seeing as how they might be eaten by zombies at any moment. This provides a bit of insight into the characters and also a bit of humor as well.

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We here at The Flickcast have been pretty vocal about our love of all things zombie, so it only makes sense for us to swoon over new footage of this Fall’s horror comedy Zombieland starring Jessie Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson. Now hitting the web is a new swear-tastic “Redband” trailer with slightly more footage.

Written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, (who’s claim-to-fame is creating the reality-tv parody The Joe Shmoe Show) and directed by Ruben Fleischer (who directed 3 episodes of The Jimmy Kimmel Show), the film focuses on two men who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies. Check out the new trailer after the jump, which has slightly more footage, and much more zombie-goodness.

The film stars Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland), Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone’s (Superbad) and Abigail Breslin’s (Little Miss Sunshine) and is said to be “Hollywood’s answer to Shaun of the Dead”, but will probably shake that stereotype once we finally see it on the big screen October 9th.

Check out all the “Redband” zombie action after the jump.

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