Avary doing a zombie impression...

Hey! I learned a new industry phrase.

Yesterday on the always informative and addictive Coming Attractions site, they posted a piece from writer/director Roger Avary (The Rules of Attraction) in which he mentions he "went in on" the remake of Dawn of the Dead.

Avary has long been a fan of the original film, even having the honor of writing the liner notes for the upcoming Anchor Bay DVD release. But though the selection of screenwriter James Gunn (Scooby Doo, the underrated The Specials) to pen the re-make last summer caused a flurry of fan reaction, no director had been attached to the Beacon Communications production. Until, it seemed, Avary's announcement on Coming Attractions.

Regardless of his appropriateness for the project, I had to nose around and find out if Avary was just blowing smoke. An anonymous source at Beacon Communications confirms that yes, Avary did "go in on" the project, but that the phrase simply means that he had a meeting with the company. So did a few other directors, and so will a few more.

Totally new slang term for me, and possibly others, because even Coming Attractions headlined the piece questioning whether or not that meant that Avary was writing and directing. Whatever happened to "taking a meeting?"

Eventually, Avary will tell the story on his own site, but for those excited or outraged at the prospect of his coming on board the remake of George A. Romero's classic, relax. Nothing is a done deal, not even the studio distributorship. All that our source would confirm is that Gunn's screenplay is still the one being used, and that it looks like Universal Studios wants to give it the greenlight.

For now, fans of Avary can look forward to The Rules of Attraction, which looks damned good, and wonder at what might have been.

Derek McCaw