The hawking dead

Nick Lakin –whose life-long wish is to be a zombie in a movie – learns how he may get the chance
Chee Keong CheungChee Keong Cheung
Chee Keong Cheung

Ever wanted to play a zombie in a film?

Chee Keong Cheung, 33, who runs Intense Distribution, is offering members of the public to pay to be part of the living dead.

In January he joined forces with 101 Films to bring the critically acclaimed Banshee Chapter to UK audiences on DVD.

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Chee’s new distribution venture runs alongside his White Cross based production outfit Intense Productions.

Now Chee would like to invite fans of film, and zombies, to feature in Zombie Apocalypse, the first in a planned trilogy.

There are several deals for both individuals and companies with Bronze (£50), Silver (£250), Gold (£500) and Platinum (£1,000) packages.

These include a chance to appear as a zombie, soldier or survivor in the film and die onscreen, enjoy lunch with the cast and crew, receive limited edition signed memorabilia by the cast and crew (T-shirt, poster, DVD), see your name in the credits and receive an invitation to the red carpet premiere attended by the stars from the film.

Chee was just 16 when he started making films.

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Armed with his parents’ home video camera he shot shorts at Lancaster Royal Grammar School and screened them in the hall at lunchtime.

Born in London, his family moved to Lancaster and Chee attended Bowerham Primary School.

His parents have run the Golden Dragon Restaurant in George Street for 30 years.

On leaving school he went on to study film production at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design in Farnham.

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At the same time Chee began working on short films and documentaries, as well as writing scripts.

He went to Cannes Film Festival, which he described as “a big eye opener”, and worked on appraising films to make them more commercial, producing, and looking at movie budgets.

Chee then met with actor, producer and martial artist Mark Strange, (pictured with Chee above) from Leyland, most famous for his film Displaced.

“I started to see a demand and interest in genre films, and I spent a lot of time watching these types of films, “ Chee said.

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“Mark introduced me to this martial arts world, we’d go to gyms and clubs and see people running up walls, I was watching a lot of great stuntmen, and I knew this was an opportunity to direct.

“I wanted to create a showcase for all this talent and that’s where the idea for Underground came about.

“It was distributed to around 14 countries, and that was my first entry into the action world in around 2006.

This led to the release of Bodyguard: New Beginning, which is set in the UK and in Hong Kong.

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“My career to date has taken me in all these different directions, “ Chee said.

“I had the idea for Zombie Apocalypse and then got introduced to Kevin Eastman, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

“He really embraced the idea, and he became a really good friend.

“To have the opportunity to work with him has been a real privilege.

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“We’re going to be filming right across Lancashire, Manchester, Liverpool and London with 105 locations in total.”

Chee said his other venture, Intense Distribution, allowed him to open up other avenues in the film world.

“It’s a way of giving voices or exposure to those films that may not normally get it, to give them a platform. What’s different about Intense is I know how I would want a distributor to work for my films, so we can give a filmmaker that special service because of our experience.”

For details email [email protected].

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