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By Don Kaye
Special to MSN Movies

We're Going to Zombieland!

I had a chance to chat last week with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of the terrific new horror comedy romp "Zombieland" (opening Oct. 2). The zombie apocalypse movie stars Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg.

MSN Movies: Even though this started as a TV show, are you glad it ended up a movie?

Paul Wernick: Hell yeah. It's ironic, because we felt that the genre was so well-traveled on the feature side and not explored enough on the TV side. But we've been to the premiere and several test screenings where the audience laughed and cheered and gasped, so it's thrilling for us.

Rhett Reese: But we would like to see it become a TV show again, once it's run its course in theaters -- after eight movies, hopefully. And what better way to sell soap than with disgusting, bloody zombies?

So, Paul, you were a zombie movie "virgin"?

PW: Correct.

RR: I'm not a huge buff and I don't want to characterize myself as such, because then people will ask me some of my favorite more obscure movies.

So I won't ask which '70s Italian gut-muncher you prefer.

RR: My favorite is "28 Days Later," because it breathed new life into the genre. That's my single favorite. But I've adored many of them. I like "Army of Darkness," "Shaun of the Dead" and both "Dawn of the Deads" a lot.

There's a surprise cameo in the movie we can't talk about, but, when the heroes get to Los Angeles, did you ever consider rounding up as many movie stars as you could and having them walk around as zombies on Hollywood Boulevard?

RR: That's hilarious. I don't think we would have done that because of the scene in the "Dawn of the Dead" remake where they're shooting celebrity lookalike zombies from the roof of the mall. It wouldn't be the same, but I think we might have felt like we were intruding on other people's ground there. But that would be great: a whole town of celebrity zombies.

Did you guys actually come up with 47 rules to survive the zombie apocalypse?

RR: There's no official, actual list. But we can give you a lot off the top of our heads: "Don't put off till tomorrow what you can kill today" is one. "Always have a change of underwear."

PW: "It's a marathon, not a sprint. Unless it's a sprint -- then sprint," "No consequence to global warming."

Do you think the zombie plague is coming?

RR: We all know from the Mayan calendar that the world is going to end in 2012, so it may be a zombie apocalypse. We'll be ready.

('Zombieland'/Sony Pictures)