The Walking Dead Fan Club

Greetings my shambling shuffling friends.

I know you are just as hungry for the summer release of THE DEAD as I am so i decided to wet your appetites with the production notes from THE DEAD official movie site, followed by the video diary links and the trailer.

Indelible Productions and Latitude Films present

A Ford Brothers Film

THE DEAD

STARRING
ROB FREEMAN
PRINCE DAVID OSEI
DAVID DONTOH

Produced by Howard J Ford

Executive Produced by Amir S Moallemi

Special & Visual Effects by Dan Rickard

Special Make-Up Effects by Max Van De Banks

Director of Photography by Jon Ford

Music by Imran Ahmad

Written & Directed by Howard J Ford & Jon Ford

Official film website: www.thedead-movie.com SALES AGENTS: TRICOAST WORLDWIDE: TRICOAST@TRICOAST.COM

THE DEAD

In the first zombie road movie set against the spectacular vistas of Africa, the
Dark Continent becomes a Dead Zone. A stunningly shot horror fantasy
announcing the arrival of the Ford Brothers on the global genre scene, THE
DEAD is as much an emotional journey through terror terrain as it is a
physically demanding and beautiful-looking one. Shot in life-threatening,
never-before-seen locations in Burkina Faso, French-speaking West Africa,
and Ghana, including the Sahara Desert, on 35mm film by the award-winning
Ford Brothers, THE DEAD is the ultimate Living Dead movie.

American Air Force engineer Lieutenant Brian Murphy (ROB FREEMAN)
survives a plane crash and runs the gauntlet across Africa, battling with the
living dead. Joining forces with local military man Sergeant Daniel Dembele
(PRINCE DAVID OSEI) who is desperately searching for his missing son
amongst the chaos, they must fight together if they are to survive the flesheating
horrors of the bush.

Indelible Productions and Latitude Films present THE DEAD starring Rob
Freeman (Saving Private Ryan, The X-Files, Smallville), Prince David Osei
(Pirate of the Night, The Dons in Sakawa, Kiss Me If You Can) and David
Dontoh (Welcome Home, No Time To Die). The highly anticipated horror
chiller is written and directed by Howard J Ford and Jon Ford (Mainline Run,
Distant Shadow). Produced by Howard J Ford, executive producer is Amir
Moallemi and the director of photography is Jon Ford. Music is by Imran
Ahmad (The Greenwich Village Massacre, In His Shoes, Mayomi, The
Foundation), special and visual effects by Dan Rickard with special make-up
effects by Max Van De Banks (Whatever Happened To Pete Blaggit?, Born of
Hope).

THE DEAD SYNOPSIS

When the last evacuation flight out of war-torn Africa crashes off the coast,
American Air Force Engineer Lieutenant Brian Murphy (ROB FREEMAN)
emerges as the sole survivor in a land where the dead are returning to life and
attacking the living.

On the run in a hostile and inhospitable parched landscape, where sudden
death lurks around every sun-burnished corner, Murphy has to use his wits
and ingenuity if he is to get home alive to his family.

When Murphy’s path clashes with that of Sergeant Daniel Dembele
(PRINCE DAVID OSEI), whose village has been torn apart by the reanimated
dead and now desperately searches for his son, they reluctantly join forces.
Two desperate men from two very different cultures fighting together side by
side to survive across the incredible vistas of Africa as the world succumbs to
the deadliest of viruses.

THE DEAD PRODUCTION NOTES

DAWN OF THE DEAD

Known in the United Kingdom as the new Ridley and Tony Scott because of
their similar backgrounds in directing numerous commercials for high profile
companies such as Nestle, Guinness, Unilever and Proctor & Gamble, the
road to THE DEAD began for Howard J Ford and his brother Jon Ford when
they were teenagers. “We used to watch a lot of horror movies”, recalls
Howard J Ford. “George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, Lucio Fulci’s Zombie
Flesheaters and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead were instant favourites the moment
we saw them in quick succession. They had an incredible impact on us. We
watched Dawn of the Dead in a little room above our local fish and chip shop
and I remember that unnerving feeling on the way home afterwards. Every
corner, every back alley became every possible place where a zombie was
bound to loom out and tear at our flesh! Every person on the street was
suddenly going to lurch and grab us. Terrifying, yet somehow intensely
exciting”.

Jon Ford continues, “We were so hooked on the horror genre, my brother and
I would walk miles almost every day just to stand outside the cinema to look at
the poster for Zombie Flesheaters. We were too young to get in to actually
see it so instead we would loiter there for hours studying that image of the
dead rising out of the ground and approaching New York. I became like an
encyclopaedia of horror movies even collecting the entire Video Nasty
‘banned list’ that was causing a moral panic in the UK at the time. But there
was something about zombies that got to our very core and it never left us. It
was around this time we started making short films on Super 8mm film using
friends as actors and learning techniques as we went along. However it was
always our goal to make the ultimate Zombie Movie”.

Twenty years later the Ford Brothers still hadn’t made “that ultimate Zombie
Movie”. But they had made many short films, two features – Mainline Run
(1994) and Distant Shadow (1999) - and loads of successful, award-winning,
commercials for such agencies as Saatchi and Saatchi and Lowe Lintas
Worldwide. “As successful as we became in the industry”, remarks Howard J
Ford, “With large corporations like Guinness and Unilever coming to us to
make their adverts beautiful, we never got round to satisfying our urge to
make a horror movie. The opportunity had never arisen, we never really had
the proper resources behind us and, frankly, we didn’t want to add to the
stacks of seemingly endless rip-off crap that had since been churned out
following the George Romero classics”.

It was while the Ford Brothers were on a particularly gruelling commercial
shoot that they were haunted by the spectre of missed opportunity. “It just hit
us that what we’d been doing was totally not us”, recalls Howard J Ford. “And
at that point we were just doing it for the money. In our minds we felt we had
kind of sold out, which of course we said we would never do. Jon then
reminded me on that shoot about making the zombie movie we never got
round to make, and the rest is history”. Jon Ford adds, “Howard had directed
and I had been director of photography on commercial after commercial for the
last few years. We’d done adverts for almost every kind of product you could
think of and finally were making a good living.

Could we really risk all of that and go off and make the zombie
film we fantasized about as teenagers? Absolutely! Life is all about taking
risks, even though when we started out devising THE DEAD we had little idea
of how truly risky it was going to be”

The Ford Brothers credit their work travels as the main inspiration for
choosing Africa as the location for THE DEAD. It was while shooting several
commercials on the continent, they began to realize the appeal of the littleused
landscape in order to offer something fresh to the zombie genre. “We
wanted THE DEAD to look completely different to other zombie movies”,
points out Howard J Ford, “And while doing that, THE DEAD developed into a
zombie road film set in Africa. THE DEAD had to be a journey for the
audience, and rural West Africa was perfect for that. We wanted to make a
beautiful horror movie, despite the horrific situation we place the characters in,
yet there are still stunning vistas and spectacular scenery to be seen because
the landscape doesn’t change.

It seemed like most other zombie movies were set in Los Angeles, New York, London.
Very familiar locations that you might be able to see every day when you switch on
your TV or go to the cinema. So Africa was the catalyst, the hook and of course
stories of zombies originated in the West African spiritual belief system of voodoo,
which told of the people being controlled as labourers by a powerful wizard, before
being appropriated by the movie industry”. He continues, “Not only that but we
decided to take it even further and shoot the movie with a respect the zombie genre
hasn’t seen for decades. We would shoot on 35mm film and treat the project with the
care and detailing it deserved. Plus the characters in zombie films always ended hauled up
in some building somewhere, whereas we wanted to try and give audiences
something fresh and have our story unfold moment-by-moment in constantly
changing locations. We wanted to take our audience on the ride with our main
character in his epic journey across a lush continent still very few people have
visited or know much about”.

It’s not just the unique West African backdrops of Burkina Faso, Ghana and
the Sahara Desert that makes THE DEAD such a remarkable film either. The
Ford Brothers knew that they had to develop a compelling lead character,
another crucial part of the equation in creating a provocative, inventive and
unique horror chiller. “At the core of THE DEAD is the idea of our main
character being a fish out of water, one ordinary guy stuck in extraordinary
circumstances,” clarifies Howard J Ford. “In writing the script Jon and I
worked hard to avoid every zombie cliché. We didn’t want our lead to be a
heroic character either, but flawed and prone to making the sort of mistakes
we all would in such a terrifying situation. There’s always a game plan until
something goes wrong. Being surrounded by hordes of zombies and no real
sensible explanation makes our hero feel impotent and useless. So THE
DEAD is as much of an emotional journey as it is a physical journey for our
lead. It may sound odd considering the living dead context but the reaction
Jon and I strived for in the plot is a deep emotional connection and an in-yourface
impact the audience wouldn’t forget”.

THE DEAD also had to feature slow-moving zombies states Howard J Ford
emphatically. “Jon and I agreed on that rule before we even put pen to paper
on the script. This is not just because this is how our inspirations did it, but I
also believe you lose something fundamental with these so-called ‘running
zombies’: when an attacker is moving fast, the scene has no choice but to
become an action scene and when you are shooting action, you lose
suspense and suspense is ultimately more powerful. Setting THE DEAD in an
open land where you cannot hide and you also cannot keep going and going
as you are short of food and water and at some point you have to sleep or
rest, no matter how slow something is, if there are enough of them, they will
eventually catch up with you and eat you. And that concept in itself is a scary
thing”.

ARMY OF THE DEAD

To play the lead role of American Air Force engineer Lieutenant Brian
Murphy, the Ford Brothers needed an actor with steely authority, someone
with a commanding presence and a raw physicality. “And into our lives
rollerbladed vegan Canadian performer Rob Freeman”, laughs Howard J
Ford. “Rob just had the look, you felt he could be this technical wiz, but who
could also take care of himself. I knew instantly we had landed a fantastic
headline actor. Murphy was such a physically demanding role only a few
people on this planet could have coped with how traumatic and difficult it was
going to be and Rob was one of the fittest guys I’ve ever met”.

“I was in-line skating the cities of Europe after being in three TV episodes of
Smallville as Superman’s coach”, reveals Rob Freeman, who also appeared
in the television series The Outer Limits, The X-Files and the movies Saving
Private Ryan and The Russia House. “And I ended up in Brighton, on the
south coast of England, to meet with a producer. While in that seaside town I
also met someone who knew Howard and Jon and when we were introduced
they said, ‘Hey, we have this script, would you read it?’ I said, ‘Sure, send it
over’. But they insisted I had to come to their house because of script security
issues. So I went over to their place for a nice afternoon tea and I read it on
the patio. I loved it. ‘Want to audition?’ they said. ‘OK, what date, what time?’ I
said. ‘Now’ came back the surprising reply and they set up a camera in their
living room and we were away. Not exactly the process I’m used to but then
nothing about THE DEAD was usual”.

Freeman continues, “I didn’t just read the script, I talked to the Fords and
asked a million questions. I found out that these guys had worked in factories
in their youth and, instead of going out partying and drinking, had saved their
money and invested it in their own camera equipment and learned how to
make movies from the bottom up. They learned all about directing, lighting
and editing and through sheer hard work became the names in the
commercials industry they are today. I sparked to their passion about wanting
to make a classic living dead movie. I knew if I was ever going to have a shot
at making a classic movie it was going to be with these guys. They just had
that old fashioned tenacity and craft that I knew would make a thrilling feature.
So I joined them for what proved to be an adventure beyond our wildest
imaginations and duress”.

For the role of the local military man, Sergeant Daniel Dembele, who
reluctantly joins Murphy on his survival quest, Jon Ford says, “We were
looking for a particular type of African character, one who has had a hard-life
but is shrewd and clever. Prince David Osei had that earthy, proud, worldlywise
demeanour about him and was a natural to play Demebele. We found
out after we had cast Prince David that he is known in the Ghanaian film
industry as ‘The Tom Cruise of West Africa’”.

Born in the Ashanti region of Ghana, Prince David Osei is a leading figure in
West African cinema. “I was interested in THE DEAD because Africa does not
have a horror movie tradition at all and I wanted to see what it would be like to
star in one. You only have the Nigerian Nollywood productions of 666 and The
Handkerchief 2 or such South African fare as Slash that are usually shot on
video or cheap looking. Clearly THE DEAD was going to be politically
relevant, detailed, epic, high spec – all the things that were important to me. I
was on a shortlist of five for the role, and I was the last person they auditioned
because Ghana was the final country they searched. It was when reading a
portion of the script that I became more inspired by the project and really
wanted to be a part of it. I was so delighted when Howard called me to say I
had won the role”.

“I remember precisely the moment I met Prince David Osei”, recalls Rob
Freeman. “First off I was knocked out by his physicality and beautiful silky
voice. He is one very handsome man. I’ve watched him walk into a room and
become the immediate centre of attention just because of his sheer presence
and charisma. He was a great choice for Dembele. While filming we went
through exactly the same experiences because, even though he’s famous in
West Africa, he was being threatened and intimidated like the rest of us. That
drew us together, and the chemistry you see on camera is real, no doubt
about that. Every scene was a struggle, just to get it set up and shot was so
emotionally draining. So by that time, what you see on screen was our real
emotional responses. I love Prince, he helped me through this film, and I’d like
to think I helped him too”.

Prince David Osei adds, “Rob was like a father to me and our on and off
screen relationship was based on mutual respect. Rob helped me so much,
with dialogue, with tips on how to get the best out of every scene. Rob told me
how to move, slow down, turn, and I found my rhythm thanks to him. I am
famous in West Africa, but THE DEAD was something entirely new for me. It
was important at this time in my career to work with such a professional UK
based operation. These sorts of films never come to my part of Africa and
certainly not on a silver platter like this one did. I think working with Howard
and Jon has helped me make a major step forward in my acting career”.

DAY OF THE DEAD

Howard J Ford distinctly remembers the day he looked at THE DEAD two month
shooting schedule thinking, “A zombie road-movie set in French
speaking West Africa by British filmmakers, with an American lead played by
a vegan Canadian and also starring the Tom Cruise of Ghana. Well, it looks a
little problematic on paper but it wouldn’t be that bad would it? Surely, with a
bit of luck on our side we’d have ourselves an adventure to tell our kids about
and a unique living dead movie to boot”.

The Fords ended up shooting in Burkina Faso because it seemed to represent
the most beautiful but largely unseen aspects of rural Africa. Howard J Ford
continues, “But most people we spoke to hadn’t even heard of the country!
We went on our own road trip for thousands of miles starting on the coast in
Ghana and ending up in the Sahara Desert. We wanted to show our
audiences locations that had literally never been seen by anyone from the
western world and in fact some of the villages we filmed in, foreigners, let
alone cameras had literally never been before. Not only that, nearly all the
guns and military equipment we used were genuine African army, fresh from a
civil war in nearby Sierra Leone”.

Actor Rob Freeman adds, “THE DEAD looks so unique and stunning because
it’s a testament to the Ford Brothers refined sense of style and work ethos. It
was made on the fly without hordes of grips, gaffers or helpers and they did it
all themselves with a skeleton crew. It’s their professional expertise and canny
relationship that made it work as well as it did under such hellish conditions”.
So how does the Ford Brothers co-directing dynamic work exactly? Jon Ford
declares, “Because we’ve done so much together now, we have a shorthand,
an intuition, all we’d have to do is give a look or say a word and each of us
knew what we had to do. There were moments on THE DEAD where three
pages worth of dialogue had to be ripped out of the script to save time. But
we never discussed those issues in depth because we had to make
instantaneous decisions. Yet both of us knew exactly when that was. Do we
ever get angry at each other? Of course, but my rage is a right angle chart. I
go from Zen calmness to flashing anger in seconds. Then it’s over so fast it
seems like it never happened. Howard is much more on an even keel”.

“Jon is very technically minded”, adds Howard J Ford, “Which is something
I’m not at all. For a long time half of our equipment was held at customs in
Africa during shooting so we were missing essential things like batteries for
the camera. Suddenly Jon would appear with batteries he’d made from
scratch himself. I still have no idea how he did it, but he made it all work. I
think our precise teamwork is the reason we’ve had such a long career. We’ve
never been to film school so we’ve literally been learning from our mistakes
together for the past two decades. As professionals, we work well together
because we don’t have to waste too much time in explaining things to each
other. We just simply get each other”.

Part of what makes THE DEAD so special is that it feels real with real
locations, shot with real natives, with real backdrops. “There is something to
be said for that kind of filmmaking”, voices Jon Ford. “Keeping the movie
grounded in the reality of its location the entire time hopefully makes
audiences feel like the events depicted could actually happen. If we went to a
sound stage, it would have defeated the purpose of setting the story in Africa,
and I don’t think we would have made a quality movie. We included real
people in real villages – showing the suffering, the human consequences of a
zombie outbreak rather than just concentrating on straight action pieces. We
really wanted to ground the film in the ‘real world’ as much as possible so the
emotional aspects would have as much power as possible. We wanted World
Cinema to meet the Zombie genre in one innovative close encounter”.
Howard J Ford adds, “We didn’t want to falter far from the path of realism –
once you’re past the idea of the dead coming back to life everything had to
feel real – no guns with everlasting bullets or characters diving through the air
firing double hand guns just to get some style - certainly not wearing long
coats or dark glasses in slow-motion! All that stuff we find cheesy and
unrealistic and as a result takes you out of reality. We also didn’t want to
have 500 year old zombies coming back from the dead as we felt the brain
and muscle tissue would be too decomposed and however much we love the
look, it was stretching believability just a bit too far - the more recent dead
returning to life seemed the logical approach”.

Special zombie make-up effects were handled by Max Van De Banks who
has worked on numerous film and television productions in the UK and across
Europe. “They were absolutely astonishing and seamless”, says Jon Ford
with pride. “Although we can’t take credit for them we did muck in when we
could. We wanted as many physical effects as possible and always erred on
the side of a practical effect because we needed something for the actors to
work with. They needed the visuals to act against. Dan Rickard even devised
a blood splatter device made out of plumbing implements when squibs
couldn’t provide the answer. The zombie at the beginning with the dodgy leg
was real and he could twist it right back so it looked like it was going to snap.
We paid him the equivalent of three months pay for a 12-hour day. Which
caused problems because we had to stop him from smiling with happiness
during the takes. No, you are meant to be nasty!”

“We were filming in villages that had real people suffering various kinds of
illnesses, maiming and poverty”, observes Howard J Ford. “They didn’t have
anything like electricity, or much of anything at all, so we considered it our
duty to use a lot of these villagers as extras and gofers. I don’t think there has
ever been a genre film that had those kinds of realities mixed in, the suffering
of villagers and the surrealism of zombies. There is one scene that is very
disturbing, where villagers are casually tossing bodies onto a fire and you can
see limbs on the ground and burning corpses. We shot that footage in a gritty
documentary style so it would remind people of African newsreel footage and
incorporate the power of the harsh realities we have witnessed in the past”.
Rob Freeman though found it an amazing experience living with the natives in
their mud huts as he recalls. “There was no running water, no toilets – you
had to go out and dig a hole – and we’d be working out to keep fit at night. Yet
we were under the skies and the stars in them were unlike anything I’ve ever
seen, it was just transcendent sitting there. You had just returned from a
frustrating entire day’s shoot, having no food or drink for eight hours, in
searing heat. But you looked up to see this stunning sight, like diamonds on
black velvet, so still, not a sound, a magical moment”.

More down to earth Howard J Ford vividly remembers filming in one of the
mud huts where cockroaches were crawling up his legs continuously. “There
were pots around the sides of the huts, and I was told that no matter what, I
could not touch them because they contained the remains of their dead
relatives. Death was around us all the time – the villagers would even
slaughter an animal in our honour every day, a sacrifice for their good fortune
- which is why I feel THE DEAD is such an apt title for our movie”.

The Ford Brothers also experienced a case of life imitating art when they met
a cannibal at one remote village. Howard J Ford recalls with a smile, “He told
us how they eat people but only if they are already dead and not
decomposed. He stopped by the set and watched our white-eyed Zombies
pretending to eat human flesh and loved it! I remembered seeing this cannibal
laughing with our translator as he eyed the crew and it turned out he was
commenting that he’d quite like to try some ‘white meat’ if he got the chanceM
It was getting dark at this point and we were in the middle of nowhere. It was
an ominous and uneasy feeling... That’s when I knew it was time to leave!”

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

While it was a tough and demanding shoot for every single minute of the
entire eight-week production period, THE DEAD actually turned out to be by
far the most horrific experience a cast and crew should ever have to endure.
Howard J Ford remarks, “If I had known the extent of how truly life threatening
it would be on a day-to-day basis – how much real death we would encounter,
how sick we would become, that we would face knives, guns, constant
corruption, even near death from malaria - if I had truly known how shocking
the situations we would find ourselves in and how many of us would come so
close to our own deaths during the shoot, perhaps THE DEAD would never
have existed”.

Jon Ford continues, “No one will ever know how tough it was to shoot THE
DEAD. It took 5 weeks just to get our equipment into the country even after
the whole cast and crew had arrived. We were constantly stopped by armed
police for money and held up by so many things you could never plan for.
Sometimes we literally would not make it to the location for the shoot because
we would be stopped at gunpoint often with our vehicles and equipment being
impounded until sufficient cash was handed over. There were times when it
felt like we could not get a single shot in the can yet we were being exposed
to stress levels way beyond the norm”.

Howard J Ford adds, “I was mugged at knife-point on the first day and all my
money, credit cards, driving license – everything - was taken from me. Then I
was nearly put in jail for driving without the license that had been stolen! It
became clear that to the local police we looked like a moving cash machine
with our cast/crew/equipment/generator etc. There were even articles in the
local newspapers that mistakenly reported Hollywood had arrived, focusing
undue attention on everything we did. There were times where we couldn’t get
cash into the country fast enough. What’s sad is that this wasn’t money
towards the production - it was more so we could fill up brown envelopes with
money just to stay out of jail”.

Every now and again actor Prince David Osei’s local fame would save the day
and get the filmmakers out of tight spots though. “Once we were stopped by
the police in Ghana”, recollects Jon Ford, “But the moment they glanced
Prince David in the back seat, their faces lit up with excitement as they asked
him for autographs. However the further we got away from Ghana the less
recognition there was and the more threatening the situations became”.
On top of all this when the Ford Brothers finally got to start shooting, lead
actor Rob Freeman collapsed with full blown malaria and very nearly died.
“He was such a tough guy and a fitness fanatic even, but this little malaria bug
put him in hospital on a drip for a total of two weeks... One day he collapsed
on set and started convulsing. The doctor said he had to be treated
immediately or he would be dead within three days. He was meant to be in
every scene so you can imagine how restricting it was and what it did to our
already tight schedule”.

Soon everyone on the crew started dropping like flies. “Not surprising
considering some of the remote locations we had to film in”, points out
Howard J Ford. “Jon and I would sometimes discuss shots and camera
angles in between bouts of projectile vomiting! I’m actually someone who
prides myself on sticking to schedules and budgets, but we had to throw away
those ideals on THE DEAD. Every day we had to figure out who would be
available since someone had a fever, someone had typhoid and someone
was being treated for malaria. Being the writer/producer/director, everything
sort of fell on me, and it was a very difficult time because I had to deliver the
film. To be honest, we all just kept moving forward because everyone wanted
to get the hell out of Africa as soon as we could”.

“From the actors point of view it was all rather exciting”, says Prince David
Osei offering a different view. “Many scenes had to be shortened because of
all the production difficulties and Rob and I would often end up improvising a
lot of our dialogue. I enjoyed that immensely as much as I could see Howard
and Jon tearing their hair out. At the end of the day, many of the scenes were
the result of what we could get right at that moment in time, no messing. What
we could cobble together to make it work the best, adversity being the mother
of invention. It was a credit to everyone we all pulled in the same direction and
it all worked out”.

“When I commit to something, I commit to it unconditionally so leaving was
never an option,” volunteers Howard J Ford. “Throughout the myriad problems
I was just focused on getting THE DEAD finished, and I had to be reminded
more often than I’d like to recall that people’s lives were at stake, including my
own. But we didn’t have the money to just go and finish the movie on a
comfortable sound stage. We wanted THE DEAD to be hyper realistic and not
just another bland CGI movie with obvious green screen backdrops”.

SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD

Even though the Ford Brothers describe filming in Africa as ‘Hell on Earth,’
they had no intention of leaving the continent without completing production
there. “I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to just go home”, says Jon
Ford. “But Howard would always talk me out of it and I’m glad he did. I lost
two stones in weight and I really didn’t have it to lose to start with. We took
loads of pictures on location of course but we were too scared to show them
to our parents because we knew they would worry about how thin we looked.
Now, from a distance looking back, I have no real regrets, just amazing and
vivid memories”.

“I actually do regret one thing”, remarks Howard J Ford. “That we didn’t
appreciate what we were doing when it was all happening, but that’s human
nature. I can’t possibly do justice to how it truly felt to go through what we did
to make THE DEAD. I cannot get across with words the heat, the smells, the
feeling of the dust in your lungs day after day, the stickiness, the unrelenting
flies in your face. How it felt to endure the stresses and at the same time
feeling so ill and weak and that constant feeling the entire team had that we
simply might not get out of this place alive. One thing I’ve learned is that you
can’t control filmmaking at all, whether you are in Africa or your own backyard.
I think we did incredibly well under the very trying circumstances”.
“Yes, the circumstances were awful”, points out Rob Freeman. “But what I
remember the most from the whole crazy, surreal trip was the meal we
cooked ourselves on the edge of the Sahara. We didn’t have much food left,
and we still weren’t sure if we were ever going to get out of Africa in one
piece, but it was our last supper. We had reached that point in filming THE
DEAD where we had totally bonded as a unit. And we were okay with
whatever was going to happen. We relaxed at that moment, what else could
we do, and I can recall an incredible rush of peacefulness. I’ll never forget that
moment, ever”.

“I just hope that what we went through and have produced has resulted in a
wonderful film that can take audiences on a journey they haven’t been on
before”, concludes Howard J Ford. “Entertain them for an hour or two of their
lives in ways they might not expect from the genre, whether they are horror
fans or not. I sincerely hope we have achieved something unique with THE
DEAD”.

CAST BIOGRAPHIES

ROB FREEMAN - Lieutenant Brian Murphy
Rob is an extremely talented actor and has featured in some of the highest
grossing movies of all time including Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan.
He has also had major roles in numerous international TV series such as
Smallville, The Outer Limits and The X-Files. Rob totally immersed himself in
the role of battered flight engineer Lieutenant Brian Murphy, resulting in a
remarkable performance that will captivate audiences around the world.

PRINCE DAVID OSEI – Sergeant Daniel Dembele
Prince David is one of Africa's most exciting young actors and already a huge
star in West Africa. Well known for his lead roles in many successful African
movies including Pirate of the Night, The Dons in Sakawa and Kiss Me If You
Can, THE DEAD is a great opportunity for the rest of the world to see this
incredibly talented and charismatic actor at work in his first major role in an
international production. His latst movie release in Africa is I Sing Of A Well.

DAVID DONTOH – The Chief
David has enjoyed a successful career spanning over thirty years. A star of
stage and screen, David first came to light when he won his first Best Actor
award for the play Mambo in 1984. As well as starring in Ghana's first feature
to be shown in Europe, No Time To Die, David has also starred alongside
accomplished actors such as Danny Glover in Deadly Voyage. The Ghanaian
veteran recently completed Warrior Queen and Penicillin and is widely
regarded as one of Africa's finest actors. His talent comes to light in his
mesmerising role as The Chief, struggling to protect his crumbling village in

THE DEAD.

CREW BIOGRAPHIES

HOWARD J FORD - Director/Producer

THE DEAD is the third feature film from award-winning director Howard J
Ford, who started making short films at the age of 13 and directed his first
feature film Mainline Run aged just 21. Following his second feature film, the
stylish crime thriller Distant Shadow, Howard’s visionary talents have been
further honed whilst directing well over 100 commercials for many high profile
international clients including Guinness, Nestle, Unilever, Proctor & Gamble,
for agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi & Lowe Lintas Worldwide.

JON FORD - Cinematographer and Co-Director.
Jon is an incredibly talented director of photography with four feature films
and over 100 commercials under his belt. His attention to detail has been at
the forefront of every element on THE DEAD including the initial concept. His
outstanding eye for detail has enabled him to photograph perfectly the
stunning scenery of Africa and give the zombie road movie an awe inspiring
cinematic look.

AMIR S MOALLEMI - Executive Producer
Amir is a qualified accountant who has been involved in the entertainment
industry for over ten years advising clients on all areas of business and tax
dealings. He has specialist knowledge in complex tax structures for film and
television. As well as his strong commercial background, Amir has a real
passion for the artistic side of film making and has often been referred to as
one of a few executives who bridge the business and artistic areas of film
production successfully.

END

video diary part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7m_zl1qSdo

video diary part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-mT8zSG6bo

video diary part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrFCSwFl0TM

film trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANpgVWVvpjs

Thanks for reading, and until my next post, i will be shuffling along with the lost.

Jimmy Blue Eyes