BATTLE OF THE DAMNED (Christopher Hatton, 2013)

[Jox]

TV spot
https://twitter.com/marketingMVS/status ... 6175896576

[Scifibuff5]

I definitely recommend this film to fans and action completists. It's not great but Dolph plays an atypical scifi hero here unlike previous films he's done in that vein and it's definitely going to strike a chord with Escape from New York and low budget Zombie film fans.

[savagesketch]

Latest episode of "I Must Break" This Podcast is up! This time I had the pleasure of speaking with Christopher Hatton, writer and director of BATTLE OF THE DAMNED:

https://imustbreakthispodcast.wordpress.com (the image above the episode actually comes from Hatton's private collection!)

or https://soundcloud.com/imustbreakthispo ... the-damned

It was great speaking with Hatton who is extremely down to earth and provided some excellent stories on the making of this film. I honestly feel that we sometimes get bogged down in the low-budget aspect of many of these films that we fail to appreciate the time and manpower that goes into them. Hopefully, Hattons experiences will put this one into a new light for those who passed it off as just another zombie flick. BOTD is unique in a sense and deserves a second look... maybe after listening to this.

Please continue helping spead the word and keep subscribing! Currently available on tunes, Stitcher, and SoundCloud.

[Jox]

I've always thought BOTD had more than people give it credit for despite some flaws, and I agree on the certain sense of care to film the locations and some elegant establishing shots of the sets, and with Hatton's favorite scenes being the intimate moments between Dolph and the girl played by Melanie Zanetti (also featuring really nice lighting). I'm sure Dolph wasn't into the robots and zombies concept at first, but was then seduced by the take of the director. They had actually started to work on a prison flick adaptation of a book shortly afterwards.

[bomaz]

Nice podcast dude.
I'm on the side of the people who thought BOTD was a nice little movie with a cool character driven aspect.

EDIT : and by the way, did you know that Dolph shares the screen with an on screen Batman in BOTD ? Indeed, Bruce Thomas was Batman in an advert early 90's. That was the useless trivia of the day

[Jox]

Nice podcast dude.
I'm on the side of the people who thought BOTD was a nice little movie with a cool character driven aspect.

Yep, the subplot and ensemble piece aspect was better than usual, although it will be ignored and not up the alley of many.

[Scifibuff5]

I thought the CGI was surprisingly strong and it flowed well with solid fights and character struggle. No distracting acting or too many people to keep up with.

[savagesketch]

Saw this image, and I had to laugh... Could Mattel, He-Man, and Dolph have predicted BATTLE OF THE DAMNED...?

[Jox]

Haha yes, I knew the BOTD robots reminded me of something!

[Jox]

[Jox]

Promotional (matches?)





Unused / rejected commissioned US covert art

jetpackjason
The final art has robots added to it and a snarky shot of Lundgren. They also changed it to have more of a "Terminator Salvation" palette. My logo made it to the final box at least!

[bomaz]

Absolutely random, but fun, fact about Matt Doran, who plays Reese in BOTD.

In 'Attack of the Clones' the actor that tries to sell Obi-Wan death sticks plays Mouse in 'The Matrix', the creator of the Woman in the Red Dress program
Later in the scene, the same woman from the Red Dress program can be seen giving a (unsuccessful) seductive look at Anakin

[Jox]

Mais que viennent faire les zombies sur la chaîne sport de l’Equipe ?
https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisi ... 334126.php

(The French newspaper / media "Le Parisien" on why the film is programmed tonight on the national sports channel "L'Equipe")

[Jox]

Interview with Jeff Pruitt
https://www.actionreloaded.com/intervie ... n-returns/

You worked alongside Dolph Lundgren in Battle Of The Damned; what attracted you to the script?


[Image courtesy of Jeff Pruitt]

I never saw a script until I was on set. The actor that was originally cast to play Smiley, Dolph’s war buddy, had a schedule conflict so the stunt coordinator asked me to come to Malaysia to rig some wire gags and play Smiley, so I did. It was a lot of fun working with the Malaysian stunt guys, and the whole crew worked incredibly hard; I was impressed with what they pulled off with such a limited budget.

What was it like working with Dolph?


[Image courtesy of Jeff Pruitt]

Hilarious. On the first day, he had to stand on top of a car and pose with a weapon. There was a crowd of extras, crew, and others all around when he started shouting, “That guy! Him! Right there! That guy”! I was standing behind the crew, next to his stunt double, and I noticed his stunt double lower his head. Then I realized, Dolph was looking right at me! I had no idea what he was mad about; it made no sense. Later, when he discovered I was the replacement actor, he came to talk to me: I asked him why he was acting like such an a**hole, and he said that he does that to instill fear, and show whose boss so everyone would respect him. I told him they didn’t respect that kind of thing at all; they tolerated it because they need their jobs, but in reality, they think that’s just another jackass actor. I see it all the time; there’s no respect there. By that point, he could see that I didn’t give a damn about being fired; I was only there to have fun with my stunt buddies. Besides, they couldn’t afford to fire me and get someone else. Dolph just laughed it off and after that, we got along great. He was rough on other people though, and I don’t think he was having much fun. He does some big-budget features so I’m sure the humid conditions on this very low budget set didn’t appeal to him at all.

[Dida]

This is the first time I hear something bad about Dolph on set.