from December 09, 2005

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“Death Walks the Streets” producer Matt Pletcher

When director James Zahn and producer Matt Pletcher launch their crime-horror epic “Death Walks the Streets” next year, it will be not only a feature film, but the flagship property of a multimedia franchise featuring TV, a video game and a comic series.

“We want to do a studio-style rollout without spending studio dollars,” said Pletcher of Baby Galigo Films.

“We want to think like a studio, but we can accomplish this on a tenth of what it would cost a studio.”

Pletcher and Zahn are raising the $9-13 million budget for the vampire-werewolf-zombie-gangster flick from a combination of private investor groups and a deal with a major independent production/distribution house.

“Lion’s Gate loves the project, they’re just trying to fit it into their schedule,” said Pletcher, who mentioned talks with several other mini-majors.

The plan is to shoot 48-49 days in L.A. beginning next March, plus up to 8-16 days of additional shooting here in May. “We’ll bring substantial actors here, do some aerial shots, a major car chase and some scenes with visible landmarks,” Pletcher said.

Christian Kane stars in “Death Walks the Streets”

Christian Kane (“Close to Home”) plays the anti-hero, “born into an international crime syndicate, thrown into the middle of a conflict of evil vs. evil vs. evil, trying to make sense of it and do the right thing,” Zahn said.

The cast also includes Justin Mentel (“Boston Legal”), Larry Thomas (“Seinfeld’s” Soup Nazi), Scott L. Schwartz (“Ocean’s 12”), and G.W. Bailey (“The Closer.”)

Zahn had already begun packaging the project when he met Pletcher on the set of the “Prison Break” pilot, in which both filmmakers acted in day player roles.

“The concept was to do a massive crime movie with monsters,” said Zahn, who wrote the script with regular collaborator Ben Brezinski.

“Death Walks the Streets” director/co-writer James Zahn

Zahn has already begun plotting a sequel, and the filmmakers plan to shoot a 13-part making-of series to sell to cable and repackage as a theatrical documentary.

Pletcher said several game houses are in talks to create a video game based on the film. “The script lends itself to the format of a video game,” he said.

Zahn is working with Lawrence White, who adapted “Battlestar Galactica” into a comic book series, to create comics titles that include a prequel to “Death Walks the Streets” that begins in 1955, and a series that picks up where the first film ends.

Pletcher’s father Steve Pletcher is overseeing a product placement campaign that will incorporate sponsors’ brands not only into the film, but into the comic book and TV series as well.

“Death Walks the Streets” crew includes DP Pete Biagi (“I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With”), production designer Gregory Hill (“Law and Order: SVU”), composer John Roome (“Nip Tuck”), FX by Bob Kurtzman of KNB F/X and Precinct 13 Entertainment, and sound by Chicago Film Sound (“Dirty Work”).

Pletcher is also an executive producer of Jaime Mariscal’s “Welcome Back to the Barrio” from Mindlight Films, which Pletcher and producer David J. Miller are now shopping as a fine cut to distributors. Pletcher expressed confidence about a theatrical release for “Barrio.”

“We’ll get six to eight weeks in theaters, in Spanish-speaking territories and urban U.S. markets, before the DVD comes out,” he said. “Depending on how theatrical goes, that could be the difference between having five copies in Blockbuster, and having 15-20 copies.”

See www.deathwalksthestreets.com. —Ed M. Koziarski

Ed M. Koziarski is co-director of the feature film “The First Breath of Tengan Rei”. Email:

Can't wait to see Death Walks the Streets. It's fantastic to see a group of artists making it in an industry that has become too concerned with it's own perpetuation, and has lost a lot of creative vision. I think (with great optimism) that Baby Galigo films will be the vehicle through which we all rediscover cinema. Nicole Koretsky —Nicole Koretsky

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