“I’m not your typical zombie fan”, admits ''Zombieland'' director Ruben Fleischer at the top of our interview. And it’s not a surprising pronouncement – after all, his film isn’t your typical zombie film. “I didn’t really grow up with zombie movies growing up”, the first-time feature director continues, “I only saw most of them when I got the job”.

Thankfully writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick had seen all the classic zombie movies though, so their script did feature a lot of the age-old zombie movie customs. If it hadn’t have, the filmmakers would surely have been (excuse the pun) eaten alive by fans of the genre.

“We put the fans first – by giving them what they like to see in a zombie film – and then expanded on that”, says Fleischer, whose previous film ''Six Days in May'', was a documentary about the Gumball Rally.

“This is such an original take on the zombie genre though – not that I can take much credit for it, that’s doing. So much of it was in their script”.

Sort of an amalgam of George Romero’s classic Dead saga, and the side-splitting zombie spoof ''Shaun of the Dead'', ''Zombieland'' focuses on two men, A cowardly shut-in named Columbus, and a seasoned undead slayer named Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who are forced to join up to combat the zombie apocalypse. Joining them on their mission are ring-ins, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), two young girls who have resorted to some rather unorthodox methods to survive amidst the chaos – which shifts to an amusement park setting in the film’s third act.

It was only when the legendary Harrelson decided he wanted to play the lead role of Tallahassee that the film “became real”, says Fleischer, who began his career as an assistant on films like ''The Good Girl''. “Suddenly we had an Academy Award Nominated actor attached”.

Even now, Fleischer’s surprised Harrelson, an “accomplished actor”, wanted to do a zombie movie. But is rapt he did!

“He was just so generous. And really gave it his all. I can’t say enough nice things about the guy”, he admits.

Just as he was with Harrelson, Fleischer was also surprised young Oscar Nominee Abigail Breslin – from ''Little Miss Sunshine'' – didn’t flat turn him down when he asked her to do the movie.

“There was a part for a 12-year-old in the script –and automatically, because she’s the most famous 12-year-old out there, and one of the best actresses in that age range, I thought of Abigail Breslin. I never thought she’d do it though. But I talked to her – and her mother – and she agreed to do it. It was great”, he says, continuing. “And she’s so talented – insanely talented”.

“Abby also hadn’t shot a gun before and one of the first times I met her, I think the first day I met her, we went out to the gun range and I had a twelve year old shooting a shot gun and a rifle and it was really, really fun”, he laughs. ‘’And she has some serious kills. She does a really good job. ‘’

Young Jesse Eisenberg was cast to play Harrelson’s polar opposite (“In real life they’re actually very alike, believe it or not. They’re now good pals”) in the film. But having just made a movie set in an amusement park (Greg Mottola’s ''Adventureland''), it’s a surprise that he actualy agreed to do the movie. Or is it?

“Everyone was really excited to be making a movie in amusement park. At the beginning of the shoot, all of the actors were like ‘this is so cool! We get to film in an amusement park!” says Fleischer, who also created the MTV series Rob & Big. “But then, as the cold set in, and they tired of the night shoots, they were ready to leave”.

The budget didn’t allow for too many computer generated effects, but you’ll spot some PC-enabled tricks in the first and third acts of the film.

“The sequence at the start, that’s supposed to be Washington DC? That’s a parking lot in Georgia. It’s amazing what you can do with CGI – everyone assumes that’s Washington”, says Fleischer, adding that the “zombie that goes through the windshield” and the “rider the smashes the zombie (at the amusement park)” were also created on computer. “But a lot of it was practical”.

Despite the fact the middle section of the flick is set in Los Angeles, Fleischer admits “we only shot 1 day in Los Angeles. We had the good fortune of shooting on Hollywood Boulevard and kind of making Grauman’s Chinese Theater look destroyed and devastated and filled the road with zombies and I think it’s one of the cooler locations in the film. But the rest of the movie was filmed in Georgia – including the amusement park’’

With Zombieland a surprise success at the U.S box office earlier this year, the filmmaker won’t have to fight too hard to snag himself a bigger budget for the sequel (which, not surprisingly, “The studio says they’re up for”, says Fleischer). Which is just as well, considering it looks like it’s going to be shot in 3-D.

“I think the genre really lends itself to 3-D”, says the filmmaker, who adds that the original cast is ready and willing to go zombie-hunting again as soon as “we crack the story”.

- CLINT MORRIS