Released: October 2, 2009

Directed By: Ruben Fleischer

Screenplay By: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick

Stars: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin and a bunch of other zombies.

Plot: A shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, a gun-toting bruiser in search of the last Twinkie and a pair of sisters striving to get to an amusement park join forces in a trek across a zombie-filled America.

Taglines:  Welcome to Zombieland.

How did this movie do?
Budget: $24 Million
Box Office: $102 Million

• Patrick Swayze was offered a cameo role as a zombie before his cancer diagnosis. His scene would have parodied other Swayze movies like Ghost (1990) and Dirty Dancing (1987). Zombie cameo roles were also offered to Joe Pesci, Mark Hamill, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Matthew McConaughey.
  
  
• It is revealed in the DVD commentary that Emma Stone was originally cast to play the role of 406.
  
  
• Evan Rachel Wood and Megan Fox turned down the role of Wichita, while Amber Tamblyn auditioned.
  
  
• Jamie Bell was originally cast as Columbus but dropped out. Taylor Lautner was considered to replace him, but couldn’t.
  
  
• According to writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Kirk Ward was originally considered for the role of Tallahassee. Ward played Tallahassee in the television series pilot.

1. “Cardio”
2. “Double tap” (“Ziploc bags” in a deleted scene)
3. “Beware of bathrooms”
4. “Seatbelts”
5. “No Attachments”
6. “Cast iron skillet”
7. “Travel light”
8. “Get a kickass partner”
9. “With Your Bare Hands”
10. “Don’t Swing Low”
11. “Use Your Feet”
12. “Bounty paper towels”
13. “Bowling ball”
14. “Don’t be a hero”; Columbus later changes the rule to “Be a hero” at the amusement park, after facing his greatest fear (a clown-zombie) to help Wichita and Little Rock.
15. “Limber up”
16. “Ziploc bags” (A deleted scene listed bags as rule 2. Zombieland: Double Tap added it as rule 23.)
17. “It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint”
18. “Avoid strip clubs”
19. “When in doubt, know your way out”
20. “Double-knot your shoes”
21. “The buddy system”
22. “Check the back seat”
23. “Enjoy the little things”
24. “Swiss army knife”
25. “Clean socks”
26. “Hygiene”
27. “Always have backup”
28. “Do not be afraid to ask for help”
29. Wichita and Little Rock have their own rule: “Trust no one. Just you and me.”

• Director Ruben Fleischer has said that he was inspired to make this by Shaun of the Dead (2004) and the game “Left 4 Dead”.
  
  
• John Carpenter turned down a chance to direct. According to producers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, Carpenter was very interested in directing what was then then to be a TV pilot. However, as the project transitioned into a feature film Carpenter withdrew his interest. Although Carpenter loved the script, according to Reese, his schedule would not permit him to the time necessary to direct a full length film.
  
  
• Woody had stipulations when he was cast. One of the conditions required the production to foster an environmentally conscious set. The former included director Ruben Fleischer to stick to a strict vegan diet for a week during the shoot. Fleischer likened the lack of dairy products to an alcoholic told not to drink. However, the one-week challenge turned into an 11-month vegetarian diet for Fleischer.
  
  
• CAMEO: Rhett Reese: the man in the white tuxedo with an assault rifle in the opening credits.
• Originally titled “Another Day in Zombieland”, but the studio feared people would think it was a sequel.
  
  
• William Goldman did uncredited re-writes.
  
  
• Woody Harrelson was arrested for marijuana possession during filming, which delayed shooting for a day.
  
  
• Columbus is afraid of clowns. Jesse Eisenberg’s mother worked as a party clown.
  
  
• The “Zombie Kill of the Week” was leftover from the script’s origin as a television pilot. Every weekly episode would have a Zombie Kill of the Week performed by characters on the show.
  
  
• Tallahassee paints a “3” on his cars as a reference to Dale Earnhardt. Both cars that Tallahassee drove were based on the color schemes of Earnhardt’s cars.
  
  
• The “poor fat bastard” killed in the film’s opening shows up again as the zombie “with a pretty mouth” that Tallahassee kills with a banjo in the supermarket.
  
  
• Woody Harrelson actually plays the banjo in the supermarket scene. Although it could have easily been faked, Harrelson actually took the time before and during production to learn how to play the instrument rather than use a dubbed-in banjo.
  
  
• The tune “Dueling Banjos” that Tallahassee plays in the supermarket and his subsequent line “You got a purty mouth” are both references to the movie Deliverance (1972). Deliverance was filmed in Georgia, as was most of Zombieland, although this scene is probably set in Texas.
  
  
• Abigail Breslin and Woody Harrelson’s conversation in the Hummer scene about Hannah Montana was ad-libbed.
  
  
• During the Monopoly game, Columbus remarks that one of the best things about Zombieland is “No Facebook status updates.” A year later, Jesse Eisenberg garnered an Academy Award nomination for portraying Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, in The Social Network (2010).
  
  
• Bill Murray’s mansion in the movie is actually Lee Najjar’s, wealthy Puerto Rican real-estate investor, house in Buckhead, a wealthy section of Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Najjar’s red Ferrari F430 Spyder is in the garage. Constructed in 2008, the 33,000 square-foot mansion cost $13.8 million. The home comes equipped with nine bedrooms, 17 bathrooms, 7 kitchens, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and a recording studio.
  
  
• Bill Murray did not originally have any lines after he is shot by Columbus. The Garfield line was improvised by Murray.
  
  
• The amusement park scenes were filmed at Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Georgia.
  
  
• Although his character is on a constant hunt for Twinkies, Woody Harrelson is a vegan, and does not eat Twinkies (which contain eggs and beef fat). According to Harrelson, the filmmakers made special “fake Twinkies” out of cornmeal for the scene at the end.