Dead Rising Movie Unveils This First Look And Comedic Co-Stars
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When the shit hits the fan and the zombies come out to play, who do you want to see leading the survivors? If you said, “One of the funniest guys in comedy,” then you’re in luck. Former Daily Show correspondent and everyman actor Rob Riggle has been tapped as one of the leads for Dead Rising: Watchtower, the first foray into feature filmmaking for the streaming site Crackle. Also joining the over-the-top comedic horror are Keegan Connor Tracy (Once Upon a Time), Aleks Paunovic (iZombie), and Epic Meal Time co-founder Harley Morenstein. Hopefully the latter casting choice means this movie will have Jack Daniels and bacon in it.
Based on the bestselling video game franchise, Dead Rising: Watchtower goes down after a zombie plague has taken over, and a government-created vaccine has been revealed to do absolutely nothing to stop the epidemic from spreading. A group of survivors band together to keep each other alive as they get to the bottom of the zombies outbreak. (Hint: it might be the government’s fault.)
Riggle plays Frank West, the photojournalist who uses everything at his disposal to keep the undead at bay. Paunovic stars as Logan, the head honcho of a biker gang, and Morenstein steps in as Logan’s second banana. Tracy, meanwhile, will play a straight-laced journalist. The previously cast Virginia Madsen, Dennis Haysbert, Jesse Metcalfe, and Meghan Ory, join them for this new adventure.
Crackle also shared the very first behind the scenes image from the movie, which kicked off production at the beginning of the month. There’s admittedly not much going on here, as Madsen and others look off-camera in a slightly worried way. Maybe the craft services table has tipped over. NO!
Riggle has a 1-2-3 comedic punch coming over the next year, with Dumb and Dumber To, the dark animated comedy Hell & Back, and Terry Jones’ Absolutely Anything, with Simon Pegg and Monty Python members also starring. Tracy stars opposite Kristin Chenowith in the Disney TV movie Descndants, while Paunovic has a slew of indie features coming out, though he’ll next be seen in The CW’s iZombie. Morenstein, meanwhile, recently appeared in Kevin Smith’s horror Tusk and has his own FYI series Epic Meal Empire, based on his high-calorie web series.
Directed by Zach Lipovsky, working from a script written by Tim Carter, Dead Rising: Watchtower will make its U.S. debut on Crackle and will later be released on DVD, VOD, and will presumably make its way to television proper at some point next year.
