Zombieland Director Ruben Fleischer on Woody Harrelson, Pez Dispensers, and Breakdancing Animals

A movie mashup like Zombieland could only be made by a man with credits as eclectic as the film's many influences, and it found its perfect helmer in first-time feature director Ruben Fleischer. The 34-year-old cut his teeth on low-budget music videos before moving onto bigger artists like M.I.A. and Dizzee Rascal, then found success directing commercials, producing the MTV series Rob & Big, and helming episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Now, after a quick shoot and post-production schedule, Fleischer's found himself shepherding one of the most anticipated films of the fall into release tomorrow.

The day after he turned in his final cut, I traveled to Fleischer's office on the Sony lot to get the scoop on Woody Harrelson's casting, the Jonah Hill film he'd first tried to direct, and the perils of luring actresses to a movie called Zombieland.

When I saw you after your panel at Comic-Con, you seemed a little nervous about how the movie would be received.

I was worried about Comic-Con because it was such a core audience. I don't come from that world, I don't have that cool, kind of comic-y fanboy cred. That's just not who I am and it's not my sensibility, but this movie so appeals to that demographic that I didn't want them to call bullshit, basically. When I was down there, I was worried that somebody would call bullshit, but luckily, people just really like it.

So do people quiz you on your zombie movie bona fides?

People do, occasionally. It's not rampant, but that's definitely an easy interview question. The thing is that once I got the job, I watched every zombie movie so I could know the reference points and see how they work. At this point, I actually am a student of the zombie genre, but I didn't go into it that way. There are plenty of horror nerds that love those movies, and for them, it's precious. Because I wasn't one of those people, I was always really insecure about it.

What do you think it is about the genre that's so compelling? The vampire story is having a resurgence right now, and you can see all those elements of sex and lust and danger, but what is it about zombies that attracts such a devoted following?

People have written their dissertations on it -- apparently, there are theories that it has to do with fear about the future. Actually, when times are tough, zombie films do well. That was the case with Night of the Living Dead which I think was '68, and obviously that was a pretty rough patch in American history. Dawn of the Dead was during the recession in the 80's, in the Reagan era. I think people have a lot of anxiety now about the economy and the future. I don't know what the direct correlation between zombies and the economy is, but there definitely seems to be a relationship between America doing badly and zombies doing well.

So there's a silver lining for you!

I also feel like our movie doesn't take itself too seriously and it's just kind of fun. You sit there and watch it and it's got cool music and funny jokes and big explosions and you can just sit back. It's almost like an amusement park ride: You can take your mind off things for an hour and a half. I feel like it's an escape in the truest form, and zombies or not, movies have always done well in times of recession or depression. Hopefully, people can go see Zombieland and watch people blow away zombies and get the girl and have fun and take their minds off of other things.

How much would Shaun of the Dead be a horror-comedy touchstone for this movie?

For me, the touchstones were Shaun of the Dead for sure, American Werewolf in London, and to a much lesser degree, Evil Dead and Scream, which are horror movies that have comedic sensibilities. As far as tone, American Werewolf in London is the closest because it's a grounded, horror-based comedy that happens to have this heightened horror component -- really, though, it's about these two guys backpacking and it just so happens [that one can say], "I'm a werewolf."

Shaun of the Dead was a real reference point because I loved the movie, but also, it's something I was hyper-aware not to overlap with. I made every effort to distinguish our movie from that because the natural thing to do is compare them; if you look online, every kid's comment is, "Oh, America's Shaun of the Dead."

What did you make sure not to do?

A lot of things were already there in the script, the biggest difference being that we have fast zombies and they have slow zombies. Another difference is that theirs takes place at the moment that people start to turn [into zombies], where ours is more like 28 Days Later where it's already post-zombie apocalypse. To me, their movie is very much a parody of other zombie movies through a comedic lens, whereas I never wanted to venture toward parody or satire. I wanted to keep it grounded in character-based comedy the whole time.

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