In our recent review of The Dead, we mentioned the fact that the Ford brothers had a difficult time shooting in Africa. On top of having to worry about heat, illness, and bugs, there were also problems with the locals that resulted in threats, muggings, and filming delays.
Director Howard Ford wrote a book about their filming experience, titled Surviving The Dead, which will be released next month:
"Director/producer Howard J. Ford of hit zombie film The Dead has written an uncompromising and disastrously toe-curling behind-the-scenes, blow-by-blow account of the making of the feature film that has become the global zombie movie of the year.
SURVIVING THE DEAD – illustrated with never-before-seen stills from the shoot - takes us from England to Africa on a harrowing journey as the Ford brothers try to hold together a film shoot with more horror than any fictional plot could possibly contain. For anyone interested in the harsh realities of filmmaking or nuts enough to actually want to make a film, this is a must-read guide.
Amongst many other secrets exposed within the book, one chapter reveals the true budget for The Dead, and it’s definitely a shocker!
'Frustratingly', Howard says, 'although I’ve since read that our budget was $2-$5 million, we actually had just under $150,000 - $30,000 of which went on corruption and bribery just to keep us moving. The crazy thing about this is that I have directed soap powder commercials that run for only 30 seconds with larger budgets than the entire 100 minutes that is The Dead.'
How they pulled this off and survived to tell the tale is revealed in detail for the first time only in the book, as are: a full expose on the fiery situations that went down on location between Malaria-ridden lead actor Rob Freeman and Jon Ford and exactly why Jon became known locally as ‘The Crazy One’, plus numerous tips and humorous insights on all aspects of the film business."
The book will be available on March 1st and we've included a behind-the-scenes video for you below, so that you can learn more about the making of the film. To pre-order the book, visit the official website at: http://www.surviving-the-dead.com/
After spending more than 10 years as a consultant in the tech and entertainment industry, Jonathan James launched Daily Dead in 2010 to share his interest in horror and sci-fi. Since then, it has grown into an online magazine with a staff of writers that provide daily news, reviews, interviews, and special features.
As the Editor-in-Chief of Daily Dead, Jonathan is responsible for bringing the latest horror news to millions of readers from around the world. He is also consulted with as an expert on zombies in entertainment and pop culture, providing analyses of the zombie sub-genre to newspapers, radio stations, and convention attendees.
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