From Fangoria:

May 9: Ving Rhames, Sarah Polley join DAWN remake

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ving Rhames and Sarah (NO SUCH THING) Polley have joined the cast of the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, which rolls for Universal next month under the helm of video director Zack Snyder, from a script by James (SCOOBY-DOO) Gunn. Polley will play a young nurse and Rhames a police officer who, along with a Best Buy employee, a gangbanger and his pregnant girlfriend, get locked in a mall after a mysterious plague (shades of 28 DAYS LATER) causes the dead to rise and eat the living. Won't anyone stop this remake from happening? Anyone???

JUNE 27

*NEW DATE* 28 DAYS LATER (Fox Searchlight): TRAINSPOTTING's Danny Boyle makes his genre debut, directing this story of plague survivors in London battling the living dead. Alex Garland (whose novel THE BEACH was the basis of Boyle's last film) scripted; the cast includes Christopher (THE OTHERS) Eccleston, Cillian Murphy, Naomi Harris, Brendan (LAKE PLACID) Gleeson and Megan Burns. Fango sez this is the year's scariest movie—check it out!

JUNE

CABIN FEVER (Lions Gate): You'd have it too if you were stranded in an isolated house with your friends, battling a flesheating virus. This EVIL DEAD-esque shocker, the feature writing/directing debut of Eli Roth, has been getting great, gory buzz. Jordan (THE SPECIALS) Ladd, Rider Strong, James (SCARY MOVIE 2) DeBello and Cerina (NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE) Vincent star, with FX by KNB. This is another of the year's best horror films, sez editor Tony Timpone

OCTOBER 14

*NEW DATE* BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR (Lions Gate): The third in the Herbert West trilogy (in which the mad doctor continues his gory work in jail) was filmed in Spain, with Jeffrey Combs reprising the role for producer/director Brian Yuzna and Julio Fernández's Fantastic Factory company. Spanish genre veterans Santiago (DAY OF THE BEAST) Segura and Simón (BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE) Andreu co-star, along with Elsa (EL ARTE DE MORIR) Pataky and Jason (TITANIC) Barry; Screaming Mad George and Pedro de Diego created the makeup FX. The movie will play at Fantasia this summer and air on the Sci Fi Channel in July ahead of its uncut video release on this date. Tony and Mike both say it recaptures the gory/outrageous tone of the original.
HOUSE OF THE DEAD (no distributor yet): College students head for a rave on an island off the coast of Florida, only to find themselves trapped in the latest film version of a popular horror video game. Mark (FREE ENTERPRISE) Altman produces (with Dan Bates and Dan Kletzky) and scripted (with THE DEAD HATE THE LIVING!'s Dave Parker); German director Uwe (SANCTIMONY) Boll is at the helm of the movie, which stars Jonathan (FINAL DESTINATION 2) Cherry, Tyron (DINOTOPIA) Leitso, Will (MANGLER 2) Sanderson (no relation to character actor William Sanderson), Clint (TICKS) Howard, Ellie (HALLOWEEN 4-5) Cornell and Jurgen (RIPPER) Prochnow. Fango's Tony Timpone makes a cameo in ghoul makeup; the FX are created by Bill Terezakis and his WCT company. A new game will be released to tie in with the feature.

NEW* UNDEAD (no distributor yet): This one's getting a lot of positive buzz; it's a wild zombie movie from the Australian Spierig Brothers (Peter and Michael), who directed, produced, scripted, edited and created the visual FX. The setting is a small town where a meteorite shower causes the locals to turn into zombies, and a small group of survivors tries to fight the invasion. This will be another film featured at Fantasia; you can find out more about it at www.undeadmovie.com.

NEW* DEAD MEAT (no distributor yet): Lock your doors—it's the first Irish zombie film! Rolling this month for writer/director Conor McMahon and producers Edward King and Michael Griffin, this gruesome horror/comedy is about a “mad cow” that escapes a mass slaughter and winds up infecting humans, who become flesh-eating ghouls. It stars Spanish actress Marian Araujo, David Mallard, Eoin Whelan and David Ryan.

DEAD PEOPLE (MDP Worldwide): A hospital scheduled for demolition turns out to be a spawning ground for plenty of undead people in a new zombie film that (sigh) is intended to spark a franchise. John Fasano scripted and will make what is supposedly his directorial debut--if you don't count his earlier low-budgeters like BLACK ROSES and ROCK 'N' ROLL NIGHTMARE

DEATH ISLAND (Renegade Films): It's another life-terrorizes-art scenario as moviemakers and their gorgeous cast shooting a film on a remote island are assaulted by the living dead. Tom Savini will direct, star and handle the FX for this indie production, written by Rick Danford with Debbie Rochon, Tiffany Shepis, Brinke Stevens and Linnea Quigley co-starring. It's scheduled to shoot later this year in Florida

*NEW* RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 4 & 5 (no distributor yet): Tobe Hooper is in talks to direct this pair of back-to-back follow-ups to Dan O'Bannon's zombie classic, both written by actor William (LEATHERFACE) Butler and Aaron Strongoni and produced by the original's Tom Fox. The first of the two, RAVE FROM THE GRAVE, is college-set and more comic, which the next one, BATTALION, is a straight-faced military chiller. Optic Nerve's John Vulich will handle the makeup FX, and the filmmakers hope to get some of the original RETURN cast (like James Karen and Thom Mathews) for cameos.