The Dead Don't Die: All-Star Cast Assembles In First Trailer For Zombie Comedy
Meet the greatest zombie cast ever assembled — er, disassembled.
Focus Features dished up a delightfully screwball-y first look at The Dead Don't Die, writer-director Jim Jarmusch's zombie horror comedy that touts an A-list cast sure to enliven the dead-filled tale with humor abound.
There's iconic actor Bill Murray as Chief Cliff Robertson and Star Wars franchise standout Adam Driver as fellow man of the law Officer Ronald Peterson, the film's two main dudes. Tilda Swinton is on board as a katana-wielding makeup artist who pretties up corpses prior to burial and is confident she can take down the undead, while Chloë Sevigny plays a law enforcement officer and Selena Gomez portrays a young woman named Zoe. Also featured are Austin Butler as a guy called Jack, Steve Buscemi as Farmer Miller, Caleb Landry Jones as Bobby Wiggins, Luka Sabbat as Zach, Danny Glover as Hank Thompson, and Tom Waits as Hermit Bob — plus Rosie Perez, Sara Driver, and RZA. Oh yeah — and Carol Kane and Iggy freakin' Pop play a pair of zombies. As if this movie wasn't cool enough!
The trailer keeps most of the plot specifics six feet under, but it does fit together the skeleton of the story: Murray's Chief Cliff and Driver's Officer Ronald must strap up for a brutal fight when they learn that zombies are ravaging their small town and the people who live in it. Though Cliff initially suggests that "wild animals" may be the cause of a grisly crime scene at a diner, presumably the inciting event of all the madness, Ronald has a different idea — one that ends up being totally true.
"I'm thinkin' zombies," he says in the clip. "You know, the undead? Ghouls?"
In the world of The Dead Don't Die, as this fresh footage explains, zombies gravitate toward the things they enjoyed when they were alive. That means tennis-playing zombies, zombies begging for coffee (Iggy Pop's character) and chardonnay (Carol Kane's undead lady), and zombies hanging out in packs, scrolling through their phones. This piece of film lore creates endless possibilities for undead antics, and we can't wait to see what happens.
Clearly, The Dead Don't Die will be a zombie comedy romp to remember and a return to Jarmusch's horror movie roots, as the filmmaker previously spooked us all with the vampire flick Only Lovers Left Alive. It also sees Jarmusch reunite with three of his most noteworthy collaborators — Driver, Murray, and Swinton — and reteam with Iggy Pop, the subject of his recent documentary Gimme Danger.
How The Dead Won't Die will stack up to other genre offerings remains to be seen, but we have a feeling the forthcoming film will become an instant classic. If our intuition isn't enough to inspire confidence in you, let Murray's past remarks about the film do the job: "I've got a good job coming up. Brace yourself: It's a zombie movie. Jim Jarmusch has written a zombie script that's so hilarious." If Murray loves it, it must be pretty darn awesome.
The Dead Don't Die is scheduled for release on June 14.
