Despite the serious competition from fairy tales, zombies are continuing to swarm across several areas of pop culture and space / time. The past is no exception, with Amazon Studios hiring horror guru Clive Barker to re-write Zombies Vs Gladiators.
Sniffing the rotting flesh-slathered bandwagon, the company – which represents the sales website’s attempt to generate content by having users submit and then review scripts – is jumping aboard the idea.
Zombies Vs Gladiators finds a shaman about to die in the gladiatorial games of ancient Rome’s Coliseum. In revenge, he casts a spell that unleashes the planet’s first ever zombie horde. Another gladiator (hence the title) takes it upon himself to stop the moaning undead and save both the city and the empire.
“I’m excited by the opportunity to interweave two very rich narrative threads,” says Barker in a press release sent out by Amazon. “One of them concerns itself with the reality of the decadence of Rome and its rise and fall. The other is a fantastical narrative element – the living dead. My brief to myself on this project is to give the audience not only zombies they have never seen before but also a Rome they have never seen before.”’
“**Zombies vs. Gladiators **is now in the hands of someone who has written genre-defining material throughout his career,” says Amazon Studios director Roy Price. “We are excited to see how Clive will add his unique narrative to capture the essence of this story and propel the project into something unique and original that could one day be enjoyed by all audiences.”
So… More zombies, then. Are we happy with this latest twist on the walking dead? Or is it time for them to take a break so they can be re-invented again in a few years?