Created by the filmmaking brother duo Kiah and Tristian Roache-Turner, Wyrmwood: Apocalypse is the follow-up to their feature debut zombie hit Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, which dropped in 2014 and garnered an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. Both brothers share co-writing credits while Kiah directs and Tristan produces.
The sequel sees the return of Luke McKenzie, Bianca Bradey, Jay Gallagher, and introduces the new actors Shantae Barnes-Cowan, Tasia Zalar, and Nicholas Boshier. Executive produced for XYZ Films, the movie follows Rhys as he navigates the zombie-infested wasteland to corral civilians for the military. He eventually comes across a half-zombie-half-human named Grace and believes she can end the apocalypse. Described as a combination of Mad Max and Dawn of the Dead, the new movie will be screening at the sci-fi and horror movie festival Panic Fest on May 1. Ahead of the screening, Game Rant had the chance to chat with Kiah Roache-Turner about his Wyrmwood: Apocalypse, the future of Wyrmwood franchise, and how he makes these movies for his 12-year-old self.
Game Rant: When you created the first movie, did you expect it to grow into something more?
Kiah Roache-Turner: We just did the coolest thing that we could think of. At the end of the day, it's a world that is cool - it's a zombie apocalyptic wasteland where the zombies can attach to vehicles and generators as a power source, and you've got somebody who has developed the power to control zombies like puppets, and you can jump into the mind of a zombie like a video game and be that zombie for a while. It's a world that came so easily once we started writing it. I could keep making these films for the rest of my life because we've created a world with a combination of genre elements in it that's clean, good fun. To take the aesthetic of Mad Max and the world Dawn of the Dead, and mix them together is something that nobody has ever done before.
GR: What is your relationship with your fan base?
Roache-Turner: One of the great things about the internet being a thing is that you can chat to your fans and say, "Hey, we're making another film." And then they jump into the comments. We talk to each other, and they let us know what pictures they like, what things they don't like, and they ask, "Can we have more of this? Is Brooke coming back? Is Barry coming back," all this stuff. You get to talk to your fans like they're your mates, which is great. That's the relationship. It'll always be that way, no matter how big or small we get. We've had people who've been ravenously into this since 2010. It's a real community. I love that I live in a world where you can have an instant connection to the people who like what you do.
GR: How do you balance that feedback with your own creative vision?
Roache-Turner: Over the years, the longer you do it, the more you realize everybody has an opinion. No matter how smart, amazing, or brilliant that person is, the one that is the most important is the opinion of the creator. I've got a very specific idea for what it needs to be. At the end of the day, this is my opportunity to make a movie comic book. The one person that I listen to more than anybody is the 16-year-old version of me who went to the comic bookstore and would get X-Men and Punisher, and go home and read it like an excited little puppy.
GR: What are you most excited for fans to see in this new movie?
Roache-Turner: We had an idea for an eight-foot-tall cyborg zombie back in 2010. And when we went to make the film, we realized that we didn't have the budget for that. 10 years later, we finally got the budget together to make it. I don't think there's been a cyborg zombie in films before, so it might be a first. I also love the opening 10 minutes. We released a chunk of that online recently, and it was one of the most successful things we've ever released. It's just this guy waking up in his post-apocalyptic enclosure, and he's surrounded by hundreds of zombies every day. We get to see his how he wakes up- he wakes up, he does his exercises, he takes a pill, he loads his shotgun, he goes out he shoots a bunch of zombies. Then he has to cook his breakfast and the barbecue is powered by a zombie. Then he goes over to his generator and one of the zombie batteries is running low, so he's got to get rid of that zombie. He's got to go out, get another zombie, reattach it, and this is just like his morning routine. It's the most banal morning routine you've ever seen but in the most interesting world. It's also scored by a classic Australian musical artist [Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds]. We've got "Red Right Hand," which is one of my favorite songs sitting over the top of it. It's my favorite scene I've ever shot, a scene that I wrote over 10 years ago, and it has one of my favorite songs. I just look at it, and I'm very happy with it.
GR: Can you tease your favorite new performance in the movie?
Roache-Turner: Oh, that's like asking what's your favorite child. I like new performances for different things. I've always wanted to work with Nick Boshier, and I always wanted to see what he was going to do with the surgeon role because I wrote that for him years ago. I love that because he's doing this weird Heath Ledger-Joker reptilian performance. I really enjoyed working with Jake Ryan, who I think is one of the best actors working in Australia at the moment. It's fun working with a monumental talent like that. Working with Tasia Zalar who plays Grace was amazing. She blew me away every time. The one I probably would highlight is Shantae Barnes-Cowan. She's never had any acting training. She just had a small part in TV series. This was her first film, and she gives such an interesting performance. She anchors the whole film. It's exciting to see somebody who has natural talent in their blood. I'm very much looking forward to seeing people experience her performance.
GR: What is next for the Wyrmwood Universe?
Roache-Turner: It's interesting because the U.S. is our big market. We did the best in the U.S., Americans reacted really well to it. If this release does similar business to the first one, I'll start writing another tomorrow. It's that simple. It's got to get decent business and decent reviews, and we'll make the third one. We're already getting decent business, and we're already getting good reviews. I think we might be able to make the third one. I'm excited to start writing it. I've started writing the structure of it the other day, and I was like, "Oh, this could be good." I just had one of those writing sessions where the ideas would not stop. There may be a TV series.
GR: There was talk about a television series back in 2017 and 2018. Has that continued?
Roache-Turner: The TV series is sitting there, and it's ready to go. It's just a question of finding the right partners. There is a budget that we're going for, where it's low enough for us to have creative control but high enough to make sure that we can make Breaking Bad with zombies. That's what we're waiting for. It's just about finding the right financial partners to make that happen. I'm happy to just keep making movies, but the market tells you what you're going to do. If the market says, "make a couple more movies," I'll do that. If the market says, "Hey, it's time for the series," I'm ready for that, too. I'm ready for anything."
Wyrmwood: Apocalypse will release on VOD April 14.