Special News: Greetings from Dragon Con 2015!

by: Selina Leavitt

Greetings from Dragon Con!

Yup, that’s why Cat is revisiting a couple of films from the past. I’m currently surrounded by geeks and the people who inspire us to be geeks.

It’s super awesome.

Anyway, I didn’t decide to post just out of nowhere, I have news!

Early today, I got to have a discussion with the awesome horror author, Jonathan Maberry.

Do you know who this guy is?

Maberry’s a Bram Stoker award winner and just generally kick-ass author.

He written several zombie/monster-based books: The Pine Deep Trilogy, Joe Ledger Series, Dead of Night, Dylan Quinn and, most important to this article, the Benny Imura Series (aka. Rot and Ruin).

The Rot and Ruin series is one of my favorites of all time. I came across it by accident, actually.

First, I read this interesting short story about Benny and Tom Imura living 14 years after the world fell to zombies. I found the story in an anthology I was reading called The New Dead. I originally picked it up because Max Brooks’ name was tied to it. Regardless, I fell in love with this short story.

A few weeks later I found myself at Barnes and Noble. While I was browsing through the sections I came across the first book of the series, Rot and Ruin, and thought to myself, “oh, this looks familiar.”

I was ecstatic to find that the short story in The New Dead was an excerpt from the book I’d just found.

Needless to say, I immediately bought the box set and forced my best friend, Mike, to read it. (It’s his favorite series now.)

So, what does this book series mean for a movie blog?

Guys, he’s making the series a film! He confirmed that on Twitter, so that’s no surprise, but he revealed some casting possibilities at Dragon Con!

The part of Tom Imura might be played by Louis Ozawa Changchien. Ok, he’s not a household name, but I won’t go into that because of the whole “white-washing” of cinema debate. All I can say is that I’m THRILLED that Maberry and whatever company is producing, didn’t decide to white-wash here.

Changchien has had some minor roles in TV shows like True Blood and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but he’s got more talent than people realize. His most recent “big role” was in a series called Matador. He plays a character name Samuel and is among a cast that includes Alfred Molina (The Forger, Strange Magic, Spiderman 2), Nicky Whelan (Left Behind, Chosen, Hall Pass) and Peter Gadiot (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, The Forbidden Girl, Night Wolf). 

This guy is no joke, and he looks almost exactly like Tom Imura (at least, how I picture him).

Meanwhile, two big name actors were named in the discussion.

It seems that Elijah Wood and Emma Stone may have expressed some interest in playing supporting characters.

I urge fans of the series to remember that this film is in the very early stages. IMDB doesn’t even have a page up for it yet. That means all casting news is tentative and subject to change.

For those of you who aren’t fans, you obviously haven’t read the books and should get on that.

I thought about making some predictions about who else might be involved, but I’m so thrilled with the choice for Tom Imura, that I just plain trust the people involved to get it right.

That being said, who do you hope to see involved?