Local residents are being invited to participate as extras in a zombie horror movie being shot now in Charleston.
“Kudzu Zombies” began filming in the city on May 25. Executive Producer Daniel Wood said the movie is scheduled to wrap June 14.
During the first few days of shooting, the abandoned airplane hangar of Brown’s Flying Service, located near Cowart, provided the backdrop and set for moviemakers.
On Tuesday (May 31), filming began in downtown Charleston — around Court Square — and will continue there this week.
The Dailey lot on the northeastern corner of Court Square is being transformed into a mini-carnival to provide the setting for the fictitious Mose Allison Music Festival, a nod to the celebrated local jazz/blues pianist, singer and songwriter who was born at Tippo.
A large-scale scene is planned there Saturday (June 4) and will require “hundreds of extras.” To learn how to be a part of the film, either as a zombie or a townsperson, simply drop an email to kst_1987@yahoo.com.
“June 4 is going to be our big day, when we’re going to invite the whole town out,” said Wood. “We’ve got caterers coming from restaurants around the area. I’d like to be able to feed everybody who shows up.”
Wood said Saturday’s scene will feature a live band from Memphis who will be performing on a stage, as well as a variety of booths.
“The booths will be generally working carnival games,” he noted. “There’s the large action, and then there’s more specific, smaller actions that happen inside the booths.”
The premise of “Kudzu Zombies,” an independent film being made by FilmQuake Entertainment LLC, centers around one company’s efforts to eradicate kudzu — that out-of-control, invasive green vine with which Tallahatchians and hill-country Southerners everywhere are all too familiar.
Wood developed the storyline after spending time in Charleston in late 2004 working on another movie, “Texas Heart.” In that production, Charleston was portrayed as the fictional town of Juniper, Texas.
In “Kudzu Zombies,” a 90-minute feature film, Charleston will play itself — with, of course, some artistic license taken for movie magic, and zombies.
“I designed the story around Charleston, and the reason is the kudzu,” said Wood. “There’s a lot of kudzu around here, and that was what inspired the story.”
In “Kudzu Zombies,” according to Wood, “A group of high school teens must escape their small Mississippi town that is besieged by kudzu zombies when an experiment to control kudzu goes terribly wrong.”
In the film, a company called GloboBioTech tests a new herbicide, Quadoxin, in the area. It is aimed at controlling kudzu, but the chemical enters the local food chain via goats who eat the treated kudzu. The goats become the key ingredient in meat pies that are sold at the music festival.
Wood said he had first envisioned that the movie might make more of a generalized statement about food, but that concept faded.
“In my original idea, I was trying to make a point about diet, because you should actually know what’s going into your food,” he said. “These people don’t know that they’re eating tainted meat pies that have a herbicide in it that can turn them into a zombie.”
In the end, Wood said, the movie follows the tried and true path of the genre.
“Zombies are chopped up all over the place,” he said.
— * —
Principal actors include Escalante Lundy (“Django Unchained”), YouTube star Chris Monroe (“Prank Invasion”), Moses Moseley (“The Walking Dead”), Michael Emery (“Bone Tomahawk”) and Michael Joiner (“Saved by Grace”).
A number of Mississippi actors appear, including husband-and-wife team Susan McPhail (“A Walk in the Woods,” “Mississippi Grind”) and Johnny McPhail (“Free State of Jones,” “True Detective”), Scotty Whitehouse, Andy Douglas, Montana Byrd and Max McDonaldson.
Mark Newton of Los Angeles directs “Kudzu Zombies,” but the majority of the crew was hired from Mississippi, including producer Laura Warner and her daughter, production coordinator Montana Byrd, both of Tallahatchie County.
— * —
After being a part of “Texas Heart,” Wood said returning to Charleston for his latest project was an easy call.
“I had such a great time here and I saw how easy the town made it for us to get things done that I wanted to feature the town,” he noted.
“Instead of it being Texas, I wanted it to be Mississippi. There aren’t many films about Mississippi. Mississippi is a misunderstood place, and I think it’s just because they don’t come here and check it out. There’s a lot to see here, particularly the people. I mean, the Southern hospitality actually does exist.”
Local pilot Chris Finke, who loaned his crop-dusting plane to last week’s film shoot near Cowart, was upbeat about “Kudzu Zombies.”
“I think it’s good for Charleston, and I’m glad to see them here doing all of this,” Finke noted.
The crew works out of a former East Main Street storefront now on the grounds of the Lily Rose Bed & Breakfast.
IN THE PHOTO: Actors, production crew members and supporting cast of “Kudzu Zombies” pause for a group photo after a movie shoot Friday afternoon (May 27) on the grounds of the old Brown’s Flying Service hangar near Cowart. Both an airplane and helicopter were featured in one scene. (Photo by Clay McFerrin)
