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Wayward Pass is as apt a name as they come.
No soul's looking to stick around this old tumbleweed town long, and if they do, they're locals who don't know how to leave, they're prisoners who can't, or they're wanderers who have lost their way entirely.
Dreams wouldn't even go here to die.
But life in Wayward Pass is about to get a hell of a lot more interesting when the arrival of a strange virus threatens to upend life as we know it.
No longer is it dreams we have to worry about dying here...
Zombies have taken over 19th century England,
Las Vegas, trains in Busan, and even musicals...
But now, for the FIRST TIME EVER,
they will invade the Wild West!
LOGLINE
When an Old West town erupts in a reanimating, flesh-eating virus, a rag-tag alliance of unlikely heroes from both sides of the law must band together to save the living from the dead...or succumb to a vicious Hell on Earth.
ABOUT THE FILM
With the feel of a classic western set in the late 1800s, this action-packed
zombie-horror adventure will have audiences on the edge of their seats.
A genre-blend that has yet to be explored will play on our inner fears of disease and death, allowing us to literally attack it head-on in a playful manner.
Like much of our society in recent years, our characters feel paralyzed by hopeless circumstances and must find a way to overcome both life-threatening and life-altering challenges to finally take control of their lives.
And like many of us, the only choice is to dive in and embrace the inevitable.
Join us and seize the opportunity to capitalize on this
untapped market in both the zombie and western genres.
CHARACTERS
BRONCO
The most wanted gunslinger in the West and a former lieutenant in The Lawless Ghosts, a barbarous outlaw gang feared by every man, woman, and critter across the land.
That life started wearing on Bronco Bowen, though. He realized his actions were aiding men who thrived off hurt, while he was far from the callous killers they were.
After a dramatic exit from the Ghosts, he sojourned to Wayward Pass to lose himself. Unfortunately for Bronco, what's lost...is sometimes found.
Now Sheriff McGee's got him behind bars, next in line to be hanged. Not exactly the penance Bronco was looking to pay, but he'll admit his life is the only thing that can offer retribution for all his wrong-doings.
Plans for his execution derail, however, as a mysterious illness brings the dead back to life with a horrific, cannibalistic hunger. Now his quick-draw is needed to ensure there will even be a town to try him for his crimes.
Saving these people may be Bronco's last chance for redemption. But even for an expert assassin, this type of task is unheard of, and all the while, his old friends
The Lawless Ghosts are en route to Wayward Pass to butcher him for his betrayal.
Joanie might have been born into the wrong family. The daughter of both the local saloon owner and the local madam (how's that for a mom & pop shop?), she's grown up having to deal with Wayward Pass drunks and degenerates her entire life.
Joanie doesn't take to any debauchery, though. Caring and loyal by nature, but resentful of the dice-roll life gave her, she dreams of a brighter, healthier future anywhere but here.
JOANIE
This town has failed her, and once she's done taking care of her sickly mother, she's on the first train out. But her ambitions towards greener pastures are stalled when unprecedented havoc breaks out.
Suddenly, her family's lives are endangered, and the place she grew up -- the site of all her anguish and suffering -- needs her more than ever.
Joanie has a choice. She can get outta dodge before things get worse and abandon those who have held her back, or she can summon her courage and fighter's spirit to protect her home in a way it could never protect her.
McGee blew it. He thought his last case would be the one that finally won the Governor over and got him that vaunted endorsement for his mayoral campaign. The one he hasn't mentioned to anyone but practices his speeches for in the mirror every night. He thought wrong.
Now he's relegated to tend the jails of Wayward Pass. Embarrassed to be back doing mundane tasks, McGee seethes
his plots for higher office away, bemoaning his bad luck.
The thing about luck, though, is it can turn around, and it can turn around quick. Within days, not one but two of the most wanted crooks this side of the Mississippi -- Bronco Bowen and The Last Knife Fighter - practically fall into his lap. McGee's gone from a 2-7 to a royal flush. He immediately starts fantasizing about his face on mayoral posters again.
SHERIFF McGEE
But nothing comes easy without a catch, as McGee will soon learn. The Lawless Ghosts are on their way in to ransack his town, and an unforeseen sickness starts to wipe out his constituents, resurrecting them with a gruesome appetite for those still alive.
Our Sheriff has no choice but to uncuff the best arrests of his career and trust them not to flee but instead get in line, take up arms, and stand front-and-center in the fight of their lives.
THE LAST KNIFE FIGHTER
If there ever was a poster child for boozing, gambling, whoring, and bragging about it all through song, ladies and gentlemen, meet The Last Knife Fighter. A scalawag through and through, Knife Fighter's got no fucks left to give. And he didn't have many to begin with.
Knife Fighter is a reckless philanderer and con man with no social grace, and he lives his life completely on his own terms. He refuses to let himself be responsible for anyone else because a hard life has taught him trusting in others only keeps a stallion shackled.
He'd be happy sleazing and cheating 'til the end of his days, but while blacked-out after a game of rummy, his fellow scoundrels sold him out to the sheriff.
There really is no honor among thieves.
Now, Knife Fighter awaits his hanging by chipping away at what's left of cellmate Bronco Bowen's dignity and trying to push the sheriff's staff into an abyss of nihilism.
His sly and tricky ways will come in handy, however, when a nightmarish threat never before witnessed descends on the town. Knife Fighter will have to choose: to die the selfish but unimpeded bastard he fancies himself, or shed the identity he's designed for survival's sake and start putting skin in the game. But time is running out to decide, and the stakes are higher than ever.
The Lawless Ghosts are the nastiest, most sadistic bunch of thugs in all the West. They are adrenaline junkies pushed to the absolute worst and cruelest extreme: sociopaths who test their limits on others for thrills, and so far, they haven't found many limits.
What do you expect in an anarchic culture where the quickest gun rules and anyone's fortune is yours with enough ammunition? Society, to the Ghosts, is a playground, and every playground has its bullies.
JERICHO
&
The Lawless Ghosts
Some men want to watch the world burn. These men do the burning.
Their leader, the ruthless Goliath known as Jericho, has more ice in his veins than a corpse atop The Rockies. An orphan who was kicked out of his loving monastery foster home for torturing the friar's pet rabbit, Jericho now gets his kicks by pillaging missions and small settlements and mutilating all within sight.
A man like Jericho holds nothing sacred, except loyalty and revenge. So, he won't rest until he gets even with Bronco, his former right-hand man, for his mutiny and desertion. But as the Ghosts gallop to Wayward Pass, they soon learn they are in for way more bloodshed than they reckoned.
CASTING WISH LIST
BRONCO
William Jackson
Harper
Kid Cudi
Eli
Goree
JOANIE
Erin
Moriarty
Julia
Garner
Shelley
Hennig
SHERIFF McGEE
Steve
Zahn
Glenn
Howerton
Will
Arnett
THE LAST KNIFE FIGHTER
Rafael
Casal
Garrett
Hedlund
Garrett
Tinkham
Nicolas
Cage
JERICHO
Jason
Clarke
Dave
Bautista
POSITIONING
These days it feels like the world could end any minute, and the only cure for the ailment is brutal optimism -- a dogged and drastic faith against the odds that we can turn this thing around.
We need to confront our demons as much as we need to escape them, and that's why a Zombie-Western is a quintessential next step for genre cinema. A vital, untapped oil-field.
As we continue to feel doomed by our Wild West society run amok -- beholden to the sins of yesterday yet ill-equipped for the consequences of tomorrow -- we yearn for harmony and for a bold step forward. But to do so requires cooperation, and we are in acute peril of becoming the zombie if we continue to attack each other rather than find a solution for survival.
Besides...who doesn't want to see snarling monsters get their purple skulls fucking blasted open by a bunch of cowboys?!
THE DEAD DON'T DIE
“There’s little doubt that the enduring popularity of 21st century zombie movies is reliant on our own global fears about the declining state of our environment, the spread of diseases, the questions of what’s in our food and consideration
of our own ability to survive in a drastically changing world. It’s scary stuff…. Zombie media has proven to be more than a fad. It’s a way of life, one that not only mirrors our own fears and insecurities but also our hopes.”
-The Hollywood Reporter
SIMILAR PROJECTS
Shaun of The Dead (2004)
Director: Edgar Wright
Budget: €4m
Gross: $30,095,802 (WORLD)
28 Days Later (2002)
Director: Danny Boyle
Budget: $8m
Gross: $85,720,835 (WORLD)
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Budget: $90m
Gross: $162,360,636 (WORLD)
Zombieland (2009)
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Budget: $23.6m
Gross: $102,392,080 (WORLD)
BUDGET
$ 8 MILLION
DISTRIBUTION
STREAMING PLATFORMS
CINEMA CHAINS
ORIGINAL SCORE
We all remember the iconic sounds of Ennio Morricone from classic Spaghetti-Westerns like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
(examples below)
Just like the twist on the Western genre,
our vision is to have a score that feels just as familiar as the Morricone classics...
But with an updated sound.
The score will be written by Grammy award-winning musicians:
In addition to the integral role that the score will play, we will feature original songs by Outlaw Folk artist,
The Last Knife Fighter.
Love the Score and Soundtrack?
Own them.
THE TEAM
Jeff Luini
Producer
Jacob Mullen
Producer
Sean Palsgaard
Writer / Producer
Mike Berlucchi
Cinematographer
Christina McAlinden
Costume Designer
Marc Scizak
Stunt Director
John Myers
VFX Producer
Jeff Luini | Producer
Jeff is a 30-year industry veteran with numerous projects under his belt.
He is best known for his work on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Silicon Valley and Arrested Development. Along with his television credits, Jeff currently has various feature films and television series in development, and is a producer on Fools Paradise, starring Charlie Day, Kate Beckinsale, John Malkovich, Adrien Brody, Jason Bateman and many more A-list actors.
Jacob Mullen | Producer
Jacob is a self-taught, award-winning filmmaker and active member of the PGA from Fort Worth, Texas.
He graduated with a business degree from The University of Mississippi and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Film and Television.
Jacob has worked on over 100 episodes of television and an independent feature film. He has completed multiple short films, (written, directed and produced) which have gone on to be selected, nominated and or won on the festival circuit.
He currently serves as a director on the board of directors for the Producers Guild of America and is a proud member of the Television Academy.
Sean Palsgaard | Writer / Producer
Sean is a graduate of The Los Angeles Film School and has over a decade’s experience in Film and Television.
He started out working in the development department at Silver Pictures (The Matrix, V for Vendetta, Speed Racer), where he learned what makes a screenplay successful enough to be turned into a major motion picture.
Since then, he has served as a producer on various successful television series such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Silicon Valley, and Mythic Quest. Sean recently worked with actor/producer Charlie Day on his feature directorial debut, Fool's Paradise.
Mike Berlucchi | Cinematographer
Mike Berlucchi is a creative force quickly moving up in the ranks of the cinematographer community.
He is best known for his work on Mythic Quest, You’re The Worst, Teenage Bounty Hunters, and Kong: Skull Island. He most recently collaborated with director Taika Waititi on his new show for HBO Max, Our Flag Means Death.
With a love for zombie films and unique vision through the lens, Berlucchi is the perfect fit for this newly explored genre-blend of classic western and zombie-horror.
Christina McAlinden | Costume Designer
Christina is a Southern California native and graduate from Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM)
She got started working in the high end fashion retail industry, helping to design outfits for prominent rock stars. Shortly afterwards, she made her way into the world of film and television.
Christina has worked on various feature films (Camp X-Ray, We Are Your Friends, Woodshock, Endings/Beginnings) and many television series (Penny Dreadful, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, I’m Dying Up here, Ray Donovan, Agents of Shield). She is often hired specifically as a period specialist to ensure the look for the project’s era.
Marc Scizak | Stunt Director
Marc’s resume as a stunt coordinator and performer speaks for itself.
He has a number of big-budget action films and television shows where he served as a stunt performer; Dunkirk, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight Rises and Silicon Valley to name a few.
Since then, Marc’s popularity has grown to become a very sought after Stunt Coordinator, recently working on projects such as, WandaVision, Mythic Quest, Jackass 4, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Men In Black: International. He is often hired as a 2nd Unit director for specialized action sequences.
John Myers | VFX Producer
John Myers is an award-winning visual collaborator and visual effects producer with over 30 years of experience in television, feature film, TV, commercial, music and experiential visual art content.
Anyone who's ever worked with John has a tendency to keep hiring him for his quality work and excellent attitude. His credits for film and television include Drive, Spider Man 2, The Day After Tomorrow, Latte Pronto, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mythic Quest, and Mozart in the Jungle.
John has a creative talent for producing VFX that allows for premium visual effects at a budget that suits the project.