SXSW: Zombieland’ director Ruben Fleischer on the inevitability of 3-D zombies

BY TODD GILCHRIST During a South By Southwest panel about the future of horror filmmaking, Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer confessed that he would have loved for his acclaimed 2009 debut to have been in 3-D. “When I look at Zombieland and I think about some of the cool shots that I’m proud of in the movie, I think about how much cooler they would have been if they’d been in 3-D,” he said Saturday afternoon in Austin, TX. “The woman flying through the windshield is the best example, [but] I can only imagine how cool that would look in 3-D. Or some of the splatter gore or whatever. Without being gratuitous, I think it’s just a cool way to make it more entertaining.” “I think Zombieland, what it’s best at is just being pure entertainment,” Fleischer continued. “I feel like 3-D has that component of, in a way like a ride at an amusement park, it’s just a form of entertainment. To me, it enhances entertainment value, especially with a movie with the tone of Zombieland.” After Zombieland became a hit, Sony Pictures, the film’s distributor, announced that it would be produced in 3-D. Fleischer indicated he was still in the process of writing and developing a story that he hopes will maximize the potential of the format. “I’ve been going to all these 3-D [meetings] – like the guys who did Avatar have something and now Sony has something,” he explained. “When I watch their demos and things like that, I get so fired up. I think it looks amazing so I’m excited to make Zombieland 2 in 3-D and I think it’ll really hopefully enhance it.” While neither he nor his fellow panelists – among them Matt Reeves (Let Me In), Ti West (The House of the Devil), and Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror) – suggested that 3-D was automatically superior to two-dimensional moviemaking, he did admit that he was tailoring the film to exploit some of the visual opportunities it affords. “We’re writing it with 3-D in mind,” he said. “I took the writers to the 3-D workshop. We’re really going to try and make it something that’s intentional as opposed to some of the movies where it’s just another component to market or a way to make more money at the box office. For us we really want to make it something that just elevates the entertainment value of the film.”