Rumours are circulating that there is to be a new Tremors Movie. According to reports the new film is to be set in Australia and subtitled The Thunder From Down Under. It’s likely to be a DVD only release.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this. I loved the original Tremors movie, but by the time of Tremors 3: Back to Perfection it had got so silly that I didn’t bother with The Legend Begins.

As usual, it all depends on the script.

The acclaimed zombie novel World War Z (WWZ) by Max Brooks has been on my “must read” list for a while now. It looks like the forthcoming film will also go onto my “must see” list.

Movie rights for the novel were bought by Paramount in 2006 and the project is set to be handled by Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B. The great J. Michael Straczynski is already on board for the script and now Variety reports that the World War Z will be directed by Marc Forster. Forster is currently enjoying success as director of hit James Bond film Quantum of Solace.

WWZ might turn out to be a very diferent zombie movie to the sort we’re used to seeing. The novel itself is set ten years after the actual outbreak and involves interviews for a UN Postwar Commission trying to investigate the disaster. According to Forster:

The genre always fascinated me, and when they pitched it to me, it reminded me of the paranoid conspiracy films of the ’70s like ‘All the President’s Men’

A little while back I mentioned the new campus game Humans vs Zombies. Well at the University of Maryland at least the humans seem to have won. The game has been shut down.

Diamondback Online reports that the University NERF Activity Society has cancelled the game after discussions with the University police. Police spokesman Paul Dillon said there was “a mutual agreement to cease and desist the game” because of safety fears: a professor had reported what he thought was an armed man on campus, only for it to turn out to be a zombies vs humans player.

Dillon also said that he was concerned “people may not feel safe when they see someone dressed in dark colors carrying a NERF blaster”.

When you put it like that I suppose he’s got a point…

Fans of the Friday 13th movie series are to be treated to a documentary retrospective on DVD: His Name Was Jason, hosted by Tom Savini, will be available to buy next year.

The retrospective will cover the “career” of Jason Voorhees throughout the movies and will include “reminiscences and ruminations spanning Jason’s entire film history, as well as a virtual who’s who of contemporary film horror”. It will be released in the US on DVD by Anchor Bay.

As well as the main documentary the DVD “splatter edition” is expected to contain some four hours of bonus material including behind the scenes footage.

The documentary receives its world premier this week at the the 31st Starz Denver Festival with the US DVD release scheduled for Feburary 2009.

The new BBC exorcism drama Apparitions starts this week – Thursday 13th November at 9pm on BBC1. The series is in six parts, each lasting an hour.

Apparitions stars Martin Shaw as Catholic priest Father Jacob. In episode one Jacob “is approached by a young girl who believes her father is possessed by the devil”.

The show has already been criticised by Mediawatch, so it’s almost guaranteed to get high ratings. Personally I’m really looking forward to it.

If Apparitions comes even close to the success of Dead Set then, taken with the renaissance of British SF/fantasy shows, we could be on the verge of a new golden age for genre TV in the UK.