Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer Slices & Dices the Walking Dead

First time feature film director Ruben Fleischer admits he had no business directing the action-comedy roller-coaster ride Zombieland. Starring Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, the film is a zombie-slayin’ badass of a good time.

“I had no right getting this job,” Fleisch­er confesses. “Previous to this I had done a couple of web videos and weird Euro­pean music videos, and commercials that don’t have any zombies in hem and aren’t particularly funny.”

Yet Fleischer delivers a rip-roaring, clas­sic zombie buddy movie (almost) on par with Shaun of the Dead and Peter Jack­son’s Dead Alive. Those two films are Holy Grail territory for fans of the zombie genre. Having failed at writing his own screen­play to direct, Fleischer notes he was read­ing scripts “for a long time” looking for material. “I’m not a writer,” he points out. “I tried for a little bit to be one and I’m just horrible at it. So I realized that wasn’t the best strategy.”

Not a zombie fan either, Fleischer approached his first film as “Midnight Run with zombies” and that seemed to do the trick.

“As soon as I got this job I saw every zom­bie movie,” he says. “You can’t name a zom­bie movie I haven’t seen at this point: Dead Alive, Return of the Living Dead, 28 Days, 28 Weeks, Shaun of the Dead. I grew up loving John Landis movies, especially An American Werewolf in London, and John Hughes movies, and Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis. For me, I had to learn all the zombie stuff.”

Raised in Washington, DC, Fleischer pol­ished his filmmaking chops working as the assistant to director Miguel Arteta on Chuck & Buck, and The Good Girl.

“He was my mentor,” Fleischer says of Arteta, “and really everything I know about directing I learned from watching him. Miguel is great at creating an environment for the actors to feel comfortable to do their best work.”

After immersing himself waist deep in the zombie genre, the young director surround­ed himself with a top-notch crew to help him make the best film possible.

“The role of the director is to hire the right people, and have an idea, but as far as execution, if you work with people that are really experienced then they’ll help you figure it out. My Assistant Director (Kim Winther) was Roland Emmerich and Doug Liman’s Assistant Director, so for him, after doing Godzilla and Independence Day, this was a walk in the park. My Stunt Coordina­tor/Second Unit Director (G.A. Aguilar) is Second Unit Director for Scorsese and Rid­ley Scott, so for him this was nothing.”

A co-creator of MTV’s hit series “Rob & Big” and “Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory,” Fleischer is unaware of his next move. “I’m trying to figure that out,” he acknowledges.

But in the meantime it’s a safe bet that audiences will enjoy the Zombieland adrena­line ride. “I don’t think it’s the most highbrow movie,” the director admits, “but I think it’s a fun ride. I hope people think it’s funny and that they want to see it again. There’s no message, it’s just fun and silly and hopefully they like the action. The most I can hope for is that people think that we really tried to raise the bar on some levels to make it some­what stylized. I’m proud of it.”  ▼