Zyzzyx Road Gets Another Chance?
Filed under: Independent, Thrillers, Box Office, Newsstand, Cinematical Indie
Internet buzz is all John Penney needed to give his flick some much needed press. Zyzzyx Road has been in the online gossip circuit for the past week -- it all started with Chud and quickly made its way around the net, eventually landing in Variety (who, as most of you know by now, failed to credit Chud as its source) For those completely out of the loop, Zyzzyx Road made a total of $30 during its release in Texas over the span of a week. Well, not a week, rather, six days back in late February. Thirty dollars. That equaled six movie tickets total! Pretty brutal, even considering Katherine Heigl -- who is on Grey's Anatomy, currently one of the top five rated TV shows -- is the lead actress in the film.Zyzzyx Road is a story about a cheating husband (Leo Grillo) who heads to Vegas to become entagled in a passionate romance with -- from what the trailer depicts -- a female (Heigl) with multiple identities. She's a con artist maybe? I'm not positive. Said woman's threatening boyfriend (Tom Sizemore) jumps back into the picture and is murdered by the couple. The body disappears and the horror begins as Heigl and Grillo defend their lives against an unidentifiable threat.
The synopsis given by John Penney and the trailer found on YouTube tell different tales; neither of which sound interesting. Grillo, who was also executive producer, explains (in a brand new Variety article that actually credits Chud, yet hysterically refers to their own plagarism as a "throwaway non-mention") the film's lack of box office success as a way to abide by SAG work standards without sacrificing possible American buyouts for theatrical release or DVD sales.
This unexpected Internet attention isn't a bad position for Grillo to be in. Especially as Internet companies -- Myspace and Netflix -- are playing the roles of producers and distributors. All of this much needed attention could land Zyzzyx Road a deal, veering it off of its dead end path.
Related stories:
The original Zyzzx Road box-office piece.
Variety Snubs Chud
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-09-2007 @ 11:28PM
Richard said...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Zzyzx" vs. “Zyzzyx”: Producer offers Battle to Box Office Bomb after “Star” Belittles His Film.
Las Vegas, NV January 9, 2007 – The producer of “Zzyzx”® (Zĭ-Zux), the suspense/thriller, internet-hit feature-film inspired by the famed, mysterious exit sign off Highway 15 between L.A. and Vegas, is offering to put his film up for the world to screen against a similarly titled movie, “Zyzzyx Rd.”, after the actor/producer of “Zyzzyx Rd.” belittled “Zzyzx,” implying it was a “cheapo” film. Both movies have gained notoriety for being confused as the lowest grossing box-office movie of all time, a title which goes to “Zyzzyx Rd.”
“Ever since Chud.com broke their virally-generated, infamous story about “Zyzzyx Rd.” grossing a measly $30 at the box office, we were inundated with calls and emails about our film from many distributors and industry people, confusing our film, ‘Zzyzx’, with theirs,” says Richard Halpern, producer/director of “Zzyzx.” “Now, the ‘actor/producer’ of the other Zzyzx movie, if you want to call him an actor after watching his performance in the trailer, is ripping our film, which has truly irked me. I have heard rumors about the other Zzyzx movie and they ain’t pretty.”
Halpern continues, “So, I am offering a duel to the other Zzyzx movie. Let’s put it out there, on Google Video, for the world to see and then decide, whose film is better. Winner gets to keep the movie title, with the losing film’s title being decided by the viewers!” Richard adds, “Heck, our film premiered first as an Ipod downloadable video, selling over 1,000 downloads, so, we are already $2,970 ahead of the other film!”
“Zzyzx” dubbed as "...creepy, demented and voyeuristic" by “The Blair Witch Project's” co-creator Daniel Myrick, is a modern-day thriller about three misfits lost on Zzyzx Road who attempt to "one-up" each other in a grisly game of murder, drugs and greed. “Zzyzx” stars Kenny Johnson, Lemonhead on TV's The Shield and the upcoming TNT series “Grace” (starring Holly Hunter) and Robyn Cohen from “The Life Aquatic.”
“Zzyzx” recently won Best Picture at the Miami Independent Film & Music Festival, is currently a semi-finalist in the $100,000 Flymz.com competition and is distributed by Yarble.com, LLC of Nevada. It is presented on large format dual-layer DVD at www.zzmovie.com and other retailers.
Contact Richard Halpern, 323-957-3456, richard@zzmovie.com
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