2009’s Zombieland was a pretty big turning point for both
the people involved in its production and for its genre. As far as zombie
cinema is concerned, its highly self-referential and tongue-in-cheek approach
to the running dead makes for one of the bigger splashes the genre has seen
this side of the new millennium. And for its production crew, it was the first
big break that led to much bigger things: Jesse Eisenberg was on the cusp of
his defining role in The Social Network, Emma Stone was on her way to becoming
one of the best romantic leads of the modern era, writers Rhett Reese and Paul
Wernick’s first collaboration here would lead to great success with Life and
the Deadpool movies, and director Ruben Fleischer… well, I won’t hold Venom
against him, but he got a big boost from it too.
