Brad Pitt doesn’t just play the hero who saves the day, he rescues a zombie too.

I’m glad someone is planning ahead. The federal Centers for Disease Control:

1. Identify the types of emergencies that are possible in your area. Besides a zombie apocalypse, this may include floods, tornadoes, or earthquakes. If you are unsure contact your local Red Cross chapter for more information.

2. Pick a meeting place for your family to regroup in case zombies invade your home…or your town evacuates because of a hurricane. Pick one place right outside your home for sudden emergencies and one place outside of your neighborhood in case you are unable to return home right away.

3. Identify your emergency contacts. Make a list of local contacts like the police, fire department, and your local zombie response team. Also identify an out-of-state contact that you can call during an emergency to let the rest of your family know you are ok.

4.Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast.

A retired military friend told me recently that their preparations often were based around zombie apocalypses because so many of the different disaster scenarios required similar preparations so to keep people focused on the training and not on the fictional disaster they would base it off zombies.

At least, that is what they claimed. I think they’re really worried about zombies.

National Geographic:

The fungus species can infect an ant, take over its brain, and then kill the insect once it moves to a location ideal for the fungi to grow and spread their spores.

All four known fungi species live in Brazil’s Atlantic rain forest, which is rapidly changing due to climate change and deforestation, said study leader David Hughes, an entomologist at Penn State University.

We’re so doomed. You know those changes are never good. Soon the fungi aren’t going to use ants, they’re coming for people!

All the President’s zombies in The New York Times.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a book highlighted earlier by protected static, isn’t even out yet and it’s sparked a bidding war for the movie rights. That’s spurred some wags to think of other movies that would be improved by zombies. If I sound bitter it’s because I long ago proclaimed all movies would be improved by vampires and I hate to see another undead species, a particularly foul smelling and nonthinking one at that, get all the attention.

If a picture is worth a thousand words (and in this case, it probably is)…

…I probably don’t need to quote the publisher’s summary, but what the Hell!

The Classic Regency Romance—Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

Indeed. That’s pure, weapons-grade awesome in book form. Click on the photo for a link to the publisher’s site.

[link via Andrew Sullivan, title via Alien Sex Fiend]

Jenna Jameson talks about the upcoming Zombie Strippers:

“I wanted to go into it and kind of show them that I am this character,” Jameson said of her audition. “Really, when I read this script, I was like, ‘This character is me. It’s not going to be a big stretch for me.’ It’s this kind of bossy, streetwise, jaded stripper. Okay, that’s me. So I just kind of went in and they were like, ‘Well, do you need choreography training or anything like that?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, actually, I danced all my life so no worries there.’ And within five minutes of meeting [director] Jay [Lee], he was like, ‘You got the part. Word. No problem. You’re done.’ So it was pretty easy. Seriously, it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in business, 100%. It was a very easy situation.”

Well, the audition was easy. As the zombie stripper gets more and more decomposed throughout the movie, the makeup work got harder. “The only hard part was the makeup process. That was brutal. 6-8 hours in the makeup chair. For my end fight scene where I get my legs and arms ripped off – it’s so funny. Yeah, when I get my legs and arms ripped off, I had to have an exoskeleton put onto my body and I had to stand on weird bars that propped me up and the skeleton dangled underneath me. It was crazy. There was a lot put into this movie so I didn’t really know what I was getting into when I signed up. Halfway through it I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Two hours a night trying to get all the blood off. That stuff stains your skin and your hair. I was pink for like a month afterward.”

Even more outrageous than its storyline, Zombie Strippers includes many overt references to philosophical texts. Jameson read some Nietzsche to brush up. “I thought that it would be important. I kind of fancy myself a smart chick, so I went into it thinking I’m well versed, I know what I’m talking about. Then he’s like, ‘Yeah, you’re going to be reading Nietzsche in the opening scene’ and I’m like, ‘Who?’ So yeah, I tried to do a little bit of studying when it came to getting ready for my character.”

The film is full of political jibes also, which reflected some of Jameson’s own personal struggles. “It was really important because my whole entire career has been based upon kind of taking cover from the establishment. When Bush came into office, I had just started Club Jenna. I was producing my own movies which was a big departure for women in my industry. No women really did what I did, so all of a sudden, I had this glaring spotlight on me from the right wing psychos saying, ‘You’re going to go to jail. This is obscenity.’

Seattle Children’s Theatre has just announced their 2008-2009 season lineup. In October, they’re presenting an adaptation of…

…George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.

TEH AWESOME!

(*sigh* Unfortunately, there’s no way The Boy would sit through that…)

I imagine it went something like this:

“It’s Showgirls meets Day of the Dead.”

Yes folks, a friend of mine just sent me a link to Sony Pictures’ upcoming limited theatrical release; Robert Englund and Jenna Jameson star in…

wait for it…

Zombie Strippers

…

Zombie. Strippers. There really is nothing I can add.

Den of Geek has a good interview with horror/sci-fi script writer Dan O’Bannon that’s worth a read.