Project Greenlight was one of those shows you’d think would be a surefire winner. Everybody loves movies, everybody loves drama and everybody loves them some well-constructed reality. Sadly, not everyone watched A&E or Bravo and Greenlight just kind of blew away. But let it be known- there was at least one eyeball shedding a figurative tear at its cancellation.
Still, the project Ben built and Feast destroyed (not REALLY) has yielded a few little breakouts, allowing some regular Joes to get their foot in the door, including awkward in name and personality Tom Gulager, screenwriter team Marcus Dunstan/Patrick Melton and Kyle Rankin, director .5 of the Project Greenlight Season 2 winner The Battle Of Shaker Heights, which starred CHUD-lover and currently buffed-out Shia La Bouf. Rankin is currently attached to direct Infestation, which has just signed Alpha Dog’s Chris Marquette as the slacker lead.
I’m never a fan of a pitch being described as successful movie meets successful movie (in this case, Infestation is described as 28 Days Later meets Shaun of the Dead– except it’s not really zombies, but insects so, you know, it makes sense). I think what they’re trying to say is it’s going for the whole smartly-written, tongue-in-cheek horror approach. To be honest, the premise leaves me feeling a little happy inside. "Infestation" in and of itself is a great word and the film sounds like it delivers on the lingual promise when some dude wakes up to find himself Shelob’d against his office wall. Come to find out, the day of reckoning has arrived as giant alien insects (the very BEST kind) have taken over the world. Naturally, they must be stomped stopped.
Infestation begins filming late next month in yet another country where you don’t have to deal with pesky taxes, silly unions or the US in general. Icon Productions will distribute.