RIVERTON, Kan. —
If zombies are spotted outside of Riverton this spring and summer, the likely explanation is that they are actors in the zombie apocalypse comedy “Zompocalypso.”
From the trailer: “In 2012, two men retreated to a remote farmhouse armed only with a camera, a small arsenal and a case of expired beans to await the apocalypse.”
Eric B. Anderson and his wife, Amelia Dellos, own Chicago-based Corn Bred Films, which is making the low-budget movie.
Click here to watch a trailer for “Zompocalypso.”
Anderson said the film production company wants to highlight locations and actors in the Midwest.
“The Midwest isn’t just a collection of flyover states on your way to the coasts. It’s America’s heartland, and it’s alive with stories,” reads the Corn Bred website.
Anderson was born in Parsons, and his mother grew up in Baxter Springs. He said he is planning to use the family homestead outside of Riverton as the location for shooting the independent film. As of Tuesday, he hadn’t yet discussed his plan with his aunt, who owns the property.
Anderson said that for about six months after he graduated from the University of Iowa, he was editor of the Baxter Springs newspaper.
Anderson said improvisational actors Chris Meister and Mike Manship play rural brothers Dale and Darren in the movie. One is a free spirit, the other a hard-core conspiracy theorist who believes that the end of the world thought to have been predicted by the Mayan calendar will be brought about by zombies.
“We thought we would shoot it as if the brothers were shooting it themselves,” Anderson said.
He said the idea for the film was born from a corporate video he was shooting with Meister and Manship. The two were improvising about looking back at the company from 2015. Much of the session was hilarious but wasn’t appropriate for the corporate video, Anderson said.
Part of it can be seen on YouTube in a video titled “Talkin’ Zombies with Dale and Darren.”
Anderson said he is working with Manship and Meister to further develop the characters and to generally scope out the story.
“We’re going to leave plenty of room for them to be funny and make it up, too,” Anderson said.
He said he thinks of “Zompocalypso” as comparable to Christopher Guest films, including “Best in Show” and “This Is Spinal Tap.”
Anderson co-wrote the screenplay for the 2005 short film “Morphin(e),” which was screened at several film festivals and received positive reviews.
He said he’s hoping to release the zombie film so that it can be screened at independent movie houses by the end of the year, to take full advantage of the apocalypse scare.
He is raising money for the film from a number of sources, including a crowdsourcing website, indiegogo.com/cornbred.
