You've Got Red on You: How Shaun of the Dead Was Brought to Life

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Rejoice Shaun of the Dead and film fans! You've Got Red on You is an in-depth, thoroughly enjoyable, and inspiring story of the making of the classic film. Collis expertly weaves interviews from cast and crew with other first hand accounts, starting before line one of the screenplay was written. I inhaled this book with a smile on my face. Now let's head down to the Winchester for a pint."— author Paul Tremblay ( A Head Full of Ghosts / The Cabin at the End of the World) I heard it was a romantic-comedy with zombies, and I was like, well, that sounds sh*t.”— actor Rafe Spall Entertainment Weeklysenior writer Collis’ debut nonfiction work tells the story of how a much-beloved zombie movie made its way to the big screen. Softcover edition contains all-new hand-drawn cover artwork by HagCult! As featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, MovieMaker, SYFY, Fangoria, Yahoo's "It List", SFX, Mental Floss, Total Film, Mashable, and more! Shaun of the Dead is one of the most widely-discussed horror movies of the 2000s. Released on the heels of Wright’s latest film, Last Night in Soho, You’ve Got Red on You is the definitive account of how Shaun of the Dead came to be, featuring new interviews from the core creative trio, as well other key members of the cast and crew. Take this book with you the next time you book a table 'at the place that does all the fish.'"— Yahoo (the "It List")

Shaun of the Dead is one of my favorite films and I thought I knew everything there was to know about it,” says author Collis. “I couldn’t have been more wrong. You’ve Got Red on You is full of never-before-heard tales of behind-the-scenes struggles, battles, and near-disasters. But it’s also the story of how a bunch of mates made their dream movie about people fighting zombies in a London pub and discovered that dream was embraced by audiences all around the world. I hope people have as much of a blast reading it as I did writing it.” Romero was a hugely influential figure in the history of horror. Together with a small group of Pittsburgh-based collaborators, the filmmaker had created the modern zombie genre with his low-budget 1968 directorial debut Night of the Living Dead. Previously, movie zombies had been depicted as the subservient tools of evildoers, an idea based on Haitian folklore. Romero’s zombies were a much more alarming species: revived corpses hell-bent on devouring the flesh of the film’s characters, who seek refuge in a remote farmhouse. Once bitten, the ghouls’ victims themselves transform into the undead and go hunting for people to eat. Though slow-moving, Romero’s zombies can only be stopped when they are shot in the head or receive some other significant brain trauma.Some of the unpaid extras who were playing the film’s ravenous undead became hungry for each other during the weeks spent shooting the scenes set at The Winchester Tavern.” There were zombies getting off with each other,” says producer Nira Park. “There were loads of zombie relationships. Two zombies got together on the pool table.” You’ve Got Red on You details the previously untold story of 2004’s Shaun of the Dead, the hilarious, terrifying horror-comedy whose fan base continues to grow and grow. After speaking with dozens of people involved in the creation of the film, author Clark Collis reveals how a group of friends overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to make a movie that would take bites out of both the UK and the US box office before ascending to the status of bona fide comedy classic.

me and Simon standing at the side after doing our intro, looking at each other like, f—ing hell, they’re really loving it. It got a rapturous reception every night.” Pegg had co-written Shaun of the Dead with the film’s director, Edgar Wright. The pair had previously collaborated on the TV sitcom Spaced, which starred Pegg and Jessica Hynes as two impoverished acquaintances who pretend to be a couple so they can rent a flat. Spaced rapidly developed a cult following, but the show left screens after just two seven-episode seasons, partly so that Pegg and Wright could concentrate on developing Shaun of the Dead. An exemplary movie retrospective, one which combines an astonishing amount of research with a real flair for storytelling. 5/5 stars."— SFX Pegg and director Edgar Wright decided to follow the example of legendary director George Romero’s zombie films — and in particular, the consumer culture-parodying Dawn of the Dead— by having a nugget of sociopolitical satire at the heart of their script for Shaun of the Dead. The film foregrounded the idea of how monotonous dead-end jobs, the grind of urban existence, and even the brain-numbing nature of mass entertainment can turn people into the undead even without the intervention of a zombie virus. The overarching joke of the film’s first half would be how long it takes Shaun to realize that Londoners have become zombies, so similar are the shambling, blank-eyed ghouls to the living people they once were.You've Got Red on You] gives unparalleled access to near everyone involved with the movie, plus sketches, script drafts, storyboards, and BTS photos aplenty."— Total Film