EXCLUSIVE: Mark Benton, Paul Kaye join Ella Hunt; AMP handles sales; Creative Scotland among backers.

Ella Hunt

Shoot on zombie comedy-musical Anna And The Apocalypse is underway in and around Glasgow, Scotland.

In the movie, a girl and her friends must fight – and sing – their way through a zombie invasion to reach the supposed safety of their school, not knowing if their parents and friends will still be alive when they get there.

Emerging UK actress Ella Hunt (Our Robot Overlords) stars in the title role alongside Mark Benton (ITV drama The Halcyon) who plays her father and Paul Kaye (Game Of Thrones), who plays the wicked antagonist Savage.

Ryan McHenry, who wrote and directed the 2010 short film Zombie Musical upon which it is based, wrote the original script and was due to direct the feature but the filmmaker died of cancer in 2015 aged 27. He was best known for creating viral hit Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal.

Directing duties have now been taken on by John McPhail, director of 2016 rom-com Where Do We Go From Here. Writers are Alan MacDonald and McHenry. 

Rounding out the ensemble cast are newcomers Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Ben Wiggins and Marli Siu.

Producers are Naysun Alae-Carew and Nicholas Crum of Blazing Griffin and Tracy Jarvis of Parkhouse Pictures. Executive producers are Tracy Brimm of Forward Films (Grabbers), Allan Niblo, Todd Brown, Mark Thomas and James Norrie.

Roddy Hart and Tommy Reilly composed the film’s music. Unit 3 Media and Creative Scotland provide finance. The film will shoot for five weeks.

AMP International, the sales company launched last week by former Salt executive James Norrie and Alliance Media Partners, is handling international rights. North America is repped by XYZ Films.

XYZ and Salt collaborated on 2015 Toronto Midnight Madness title Baskin, which was picked up by IFC Midnight for the US, and horror The Void.