Zombeavers: Micro-Budget Horror-Comedy Chomps Down On Hollywood
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Pacific Rim. The Lone Ranger. After Earth. White House Down. This is but a handful of this year’s examples that prove the big-budget romps Hollywood clings to so dearly are no longer automatic moneymakers. But films like The Purge and Paranormal Activity were made for peanuts and have raked in millions in pure profit. This is the mindset guiding the acquisition of former stand-up comedian Jordan Rubin’s Zombeavers, a comedy/horror that sounds more like a film from The Asylum than anything Hollywood would touch with a 10-foot log…now, a nine-foot log. Dammit, you beavers!
To be clear, this is a celebration of successful production companies feeling comfortable getting behind original projects, rather than us championing a movie about zombified beavers. Not that we’re against that. (It’s got more appeal than Sharknado, anyway.) Based on a concept trailer, Rubin managed to sell his pitch to producers like Cabin Fever‘s Evan Astrowsky, as well as JC Spink and Chris Bender, the guys who had a hand in the successes of such films as The Ring, The Hangover, and the upcoming comedy We’re the Millers, which hits theaters on Wednesday.
After moving beyond stand-up, Rubin wrote for Carson Daly and Jimmy Kimmel, soon falling under the guidance of Judd Apatow, who gave Rubin his first directing gig with the 2010 Funny or Die PSA for the American Jewish World Service. Before getting a single shot filmed, he decided to put together a proof-of-concept clip that gave people a visual example of something they might have skipped past had it just been a script. He took footage from a BBC nature documentary and spliced it together with bits cobbled from six international horror movies. Granted, it would take someone with literally no imagination to miss the point of the film, given its title, but the trailer proved that Rubin’s vision was strong enough to get behind. Check it out below, and watch for one of the funniest tag lines in movie history.
“It’s one thing to hand someone a script and say, ‘Trust me!'” Rubin said. “It’s another to show them.” And a paltry $2 million later, the first-time director definitely has something to show for his clever promotion. The film’s lone still can be seen below. Let the vagina references commence.
Zombeavers was co-written by Rubin, Al Kaplan, and Jon Kaplan. Starring comedian Bill Burr and a slew of young actors, the film will of course follow a group of college kids just trying to have a sexy time at a riverside cabin. What’s stopping them? Motherfucking zombie beavers, that’s what. If this thing is even as funny as Alexandre Aja’s 2010 flick Piranha, I’ll be impressed. Or at least not dreadfully unimpressed.
To clue you in on his sense of humor, check out Rubin’s laugh-filled Comedy Central Presents below.
