Praise Satan! Jim Jarmusch Is Making A Zombie Movie With Bill Murray
Jim Jarmusch is experiencing quite the late period run (not that his filmography ever really dipped in terms of idiosyncratic quality). Paterson was a near perfect motion picture about a blue collar everyman (Adam Driver) discovering poetry in the mundane. Only Lovers Left Alive saw Jarmusch transforming vampire mythos into existential hang out cinema, contemplating the destructive nature of human beings, as well as the meaning of everlasting love.
Now, Jarmusch is re-teaming with Bill Murray - whom the No Wave auteur obtained a career-best performance from in Broken Flowers - for The Dead Don't Die, a zombie movie that (if we had to guess) is probably going to re-mold the tired-ass monster in the writer/director's image.
Speaking with Philly.com back in March, Murray had this to say about the project:
"I’ve got a good job coming up. Brace yourself: It’s a zombie movie. Jim Jarmusch has written a zombie script that’s so hilarious and it has a cast of great actors: Rosie Perez, Daniel Craig. It’s titled The Dead Don’t Die, and it shoots over the summer. But, no, I will not play a zombie.”
Damn, Daniel Craig too? Looks like Murray wasn't lying about the production dates, as Just Jared (I know, I know...) posted these set photos from the shoot in Fleischmanns, New York, which also feature Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny in cop uniforms, and Selena Gomez looking like...well, Selena Gomez. The project's apparently filming under the title Kill The Head, which - if I'm being honest - has a much cooler ring to it (sounding like an old punk song that Jarmusch favorite The Stooges might have written back in the day).
For deep cut cinephiles, The Dead Don't Die will probably ring a bell, as it was also the title of Curtis Harrington's '75 horror-noir period piece that showcased a '30s sailor (George Hamilton) who connects his brother's wrongful execution to a madman's army of zombies. It sort of plays like a tamer Lucio Fulci film, crafted for TV instead of 42nd street. Despite the undead throughline, we here at BMD doubt that Jarmusch's movie is anything approaching a remake.
There's not a whole lot else out there to report on this project, unfortunately. Even the IMDb page contains barely any info on it. Jarmusch has been working with Amazon a bunch on his last few projects, so The Dead Don't Die may be coming out through them once it's complete. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, maybe rent Paterson on Prime and zone out with its sublime zen vibe.
