My Zombie Wife! Page 5

Quote: sootyj @ January 26 2009, 12:57 PM GMT

It's bloody odd like a Judy Bloom book about the atom boming of Wolverhampton. A girl gives birth to a human turnip and every one dies.

London after the Bomb and War Day are probably the two best books on the subject. if you're planning to do a crazy post apocalyse sitcom.

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I shall have to check those out just as soon as I'm done with this eternal Murakami I'm reading.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ January 27 2009, 11:53 AM GMT

I thought this was very funny. I liked the flashback sequence too - the more you flesh out absurd and impossible stories the funnier they become.

If anything it wasn't nihilistic enough.

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Thanks, Godot. If anything, I'm encouraged by the sheer amount of response this had gotten.

Quote: David Bussell @ January 27 2009, 1:35 PM GMT

Thanks, Godot. If anything, I'm encouraged by the sheer amount of response this had gotten.

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No disrespect to your sketch, but I think the response has more to do with young unwashed males and their obsession with zombies.

Quote: chipolata @ January 27 2009, 1:37 PM GMT

No disrespect to your sketch, but I think the response has more to do with young unwashed males and their obsession with zombies.

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That's true too of course. Now scrub-a-dub-dub!

Your sketch actually inspired me to write a thirty minute zombie sitcom for radio. Well, the plan for it at least.

Quote: chipolata @ January 27 2009, 1:56 PM GMT

Your sketch actually inspired me to write a thirty minute zombie sitcom for radio. Well, the plan for it at least.

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Cool. You obviously have plenty of good ideas.

Hi David,

I only just read this - my interest was peaked when it first went up but I was writing some zombie sketches myself and didn't want to unintentionally rip you off!

I really like it. A nice mix of tragedy and comedy. I agree that the 'My Zombie Wife' title and the B-movie tone of the beginning don't quite gel with the tragicomedy that follows and could easily be toned down/ditched.

I also agree that the sketches as a whole would perhaps lend themselves better to being part of a short film, feature film or sitcom pilot.

If you wanted to go for the latter, here's a thought. Instead of cutting down on the flashbacks, you could embrace them and keep flitting between the past and the post-apocalyptic present, Lost-style. Each flashback could add detail, fleshing the characters out and reveal shocking truths about their motivations. Like, as already suggested, Thomas has deliberately infected his wife in a vain attempt to keep her from running away from him (perhaps with George). If this came late in a 6-part series, it would be a real shock. Also, the vague nature of how she was infected could be played with if you had multiple flashbacks of her potentially getting infected in different ways (the Doritos bag being one of them).

Introduce more characters (each with their own flashbacks) and I think you've got a good format for a real horror comedy sitcom.

And, like all of you, I too wrote a zombie comedy feature script before Shaun Of The Dead came out. Mine was called Rotten and was set in the basement of a supermarket. It was alright. I tried to introduce a Lovecraftian vibe to it to separate it a bit from other zombie comedies (Reanimator acknowledged) with half-seen tentacled things controlling the zombie hordes. Sigh. So much wasted time!

Quote: glaikit @ January 27 2009, 2:56 PM GMT

Hi David,

I only just read this - my interest was peaked when it first went up but I was writing some zombie sketches myself and didn't want to unintentionally rip you off!

I really like it. A nice mix of tragedy and comedy. I agree that the 'My Zombie Wife' title and the B-movie tone of the beginning don't quite gel with the tragicomedy that follows and could easily be toned down/ditched.

I also agree that the sketches as a whole would perhaps lend themselves better to being part of a short film, feature film or sitcom pilot.

If you wanted to go for the latter, here's a thought. Instead of cutting down on the flashbacks, you could embrace them and keep flitting between the past and the post-apocalyptic present, Lost-style. Each flashback could add detail, fleshing the characters out and reveal shocking truths about their motivations. Like, as already suggested, Thomas has deliberately infected his wife in a vain attempt to keep her from running away from him (perhaps with George). If this came late in a 6-part series, it would be a real shock. Also, the vague nature of how she was infected could be played with if you had multiple flashbacks of her potentially getting infected in different ways (the Doritos bag being one of them).

Introduce more characters (each with their own flashbacks) and I think you've got a good format for a real horror comedy sitcom.

And, like all of you, I too wrote a zombie comedy feature script before Shaun Of The Dead came out. Mine was called Rotten and was set in the basement of a supermarket. It was alright. I tried to introduce a Lovecraftian vibe to it to separate it a bit from other zombie comedies (Reanimator acknowledged) with half-seen tentacled things controlling the zombie hordes. Sigh. So much wasted time!

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Cheers for taking the time, Glaikit. Some lovely ideas there. As you say, there's plenty of scope for taking this in different directions/expanding it. I was writing to a very particular brief though - four parts totalling no more than 20 pages. It's a contribution to a project I'm co-developing with a couple of other BSGers.

I agree with you that the B Movie stylings don't mesh at all with the overall tone. Not sure what I was thinking there.

Funny enough, my Zombie film had 'Rotten' in the title too. It was called "Something Rotten". It sounds as though yours was a bit more budget conscious than mine though - I had a skydiving sequence and a bit where the main character drives a combine harvester through a horde of zombies, ala Braindead.

Quote: David Bussell @ January 27 2009, 3:25 PM GMT

Funny enough, my Zombie film had 'Rotten' in the title too. It was called "Something Rotten". It sounds as though yours was a bit more budget conscious than mine though - I had a skydiving sequence and a bit where the main character drives a combine harvester through a horde of zombies, ala Braindead.

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Budget-conscious, yes, but by the sounds of it, yours was way wilder and more exciting!

I enjoyed reading that David, nice one. One thing about the flashback (which was funny), it comes after Thomas says 'I miss how it used to be, you know? Before all this', so I expected him to be reminiscing about the good times. Which wouldn't be about the time his wife started turning into a zombie.

I know the flashback is there for comic backstory but maybe there is another way of breaking into it. Unless, I'm the only one that felt that... which is very possible too.

Quote: ContainsNuts @ January 27 2009, 3:45 PM GMT

I enjoyed reading that David, nice one. One thing about the flashback (which was funny), it comes after Thomas says 'I miss how it used to be, you know? Before all this', so I expected him to be reminiscing about the good times. Which wouldn't be about the time his wife started turning into a zombie.

I know the flashback is there for comic backstory but maybe there is another way of breaking into it. Unless, I'm the only one that felt that... which is very possible too.

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No, that makes sense.