"Dead Friends" Casting News, Unburied Fest Win

Casting News

In an exciting bit of casting news for DEAD FRIENDS FOREVER, it's been announced that Romero zombie legends Mike Ancas and Jeanie Jefferies have been cast a pair of undead in the film. The two were on set this past Monday alongside dozens of extras, including well-known Pittsburgh actor David Ogrodowski, WALTZ star David Dietz, and Rochester native Ryan Beatrice, known for, among other things, his appearances as the "Jack Links Sasquatch" in the popular marketing campaign.

Jeanie is best-known as the "blonde zombie" from DAWN OF THE DEAD, the popular sequel to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, which was filmed in the Monroeville Mall. Her other films include 1981's KNIGHTRIDERS and 1992's LORENZO's OIL.

Mike Ancas appeared in Romero's second follow-up to his zombie opus, DAY OF THE DEAD as a featured zombie who has a notable role in eliminating one of the human characters in the film. He recently completed CHASING ZOMBIES, a retrospective on his and others' experience with coming to fame as Romero zombies.

Filming on Monday involved shooting a number of zombie-heavy scenes, including

a confrontation between a herd of zombies and a small military force led by Mike Psenic's character, James Cormac. Also appearing was Em Sullivan, who plays the mysterious "Ghoul Girl" - a zombie that doesn't appear to be hostile.

Expect more updates from this recent shoot in the weeks to come, as well as info on the next day of filming!

Unburied Festival Win

The evening before the big zombie shoot, Grimm Sleeper Productions was present at the Pittsburgh Moving Picture Company's "Trailer Bash and Raging Pages" film festival and the lovely Lindsay Theater in Sewickley. The festival screened an hour of trailers from independent filmmakers, and announced the winners of their screenplay competition.

Josh Maley's screenplay for UNBURIED was awarded Best Screenplay (Overall).

After the trailers, there was a brief QA panel with a number of stars from DAWN OF THE DEAD, followed with a special screening of the film.