Bite Size Bio:

Chris is an award-winning director, screenwriter, and producer based in Seattle. After getting his start in the entertainment business as a child actor in Massachusetts, Chris moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1993 and switched to stage managing and directing at fringe theatres such as AHA! Theatre, City 3, and Open Circle Theater. 
In 2003 he graduated from Seattle Film Institute's Total Immersion Filmmaking Program and was immediately tapped to write and direct the I Scream Pride series, a quartet of short films promoting the Seattle Pride Festival. 
In 2005 Chris' short western, Bob Hope's Miracle Cure for Incarceration, was featured in the inaugural Seattle True Independent Film Festival (STIFF), and his production of that film was highlighted on Karl Krogstad's TV show The American Avant Garde. 
Chris returned to STIFF in 2006, garnering an audience award for Rabbit's Foot, a political horror short about a team of campaign workers attempting to influence the results of a national election through dismemberment & animal sacrifice.
Creatures from the Pink Lagoon, his first feature, has now screened in over 30 cities around the world and was honored with the Queer Horror Award for best film of 2006.

Chris Diani - I'm the director, co-writer, and co-producer.

The original idea came to me while spending the summer of 2002 on Cape Cod, recovering from a bad breakup.  I was at a beachfront barbecue hosted by two members of a gay men's discussion group I'd joined when I thought of combining the classic group-of-gay-friends-spend-the weekend-together-in-a-remote-beach-house set-up with a Romero-esque zombie attack.  I went home and wrote the first draft of Creatures from the Pink Lagoon in 5 days.  

At the time we were making Creatures from the Pink Lagoon, the only other gay zombie film out there was Alex Dove's Zombies.  Since that film wasn't a comedy (well, not intentionally), there wasn't much market research to be done.  But to be honest, we didn't give it much thought because it was such an easy sell: a gay zombie comedy!  Hell, the idea even cracked up Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, who heard about it when they screened Shaun of the Dead here in Seattle in 2004.  Looking back now, I can see where we could have made smarter business decisions, but at the time we were just a bunch of enthusiastic kids making the movie we ourselves wanted to see.  That's never a bad thing.  

Keeping the cast and crew interested and engaged was a huge challenge, since we were all working for free on a long, non-traditional shoot (we filmed on weekends only).  It helped immensely that everyone was such a joy to work with, that there were so many hilarious people on set to keep the mood light, and that we all seemed to enjoy pizza, which we ate constantly.  

Keeping the locals from calling the police on us was also daunting.  We talk about that challenge in the extras on our DVD - check it out!

The movie was shot in Seattle over weekends in 2004 and 2005.  I wrote some of the roles with particular actors in mind, people I'd worked with in the past or had seen in shows around town.  For the rest, we held a series of open auditions and I recruited zombie extras via the chat rooms on gay.com.

Because we were spoofing 50s and 60s B monster movies, there really was no choice; the movie had to be in black & white.  I think the campiness turns more people off than the lack of color; even in the gay community, those who love camp are a rarefied crowd.  They're also the best people in the world, in my humble opinion.  

On the first weekend of shooting, there was a car accident on set, (in which, thankfully, no one from the cast or crew was injured) that freaked everyone out and threatened to derail our production.  But we were able to think quickly, defuse the situation, and finish the day with all the scheduled scenes in the can.  What made the experience particularly memorable was how it changed us; we started that day a disparate bunch of people still figuring each other out, but we ended it as a tight-knit family, bound together by a shared traumatic experience.  It was kind of amazing.

Next up is a screwball romantic comedy about furries titled Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits, which I'll be shooting next summer.  A sequel to Creatures from the Pink Lagoon is definitely in the works, too; "like" us on Facebook or watch our Twitter feed for updates on that project.

Good question!  I think it'd be better to turn quickly, otherwise I'd have time to agonize over my fate, pick at my wounds, decide which of my friends I'd eat first...  

Slow zombies all the way!  

I'm near-sighted and I've never gone hunting or shooting - hell, I've never even held a gun - so I'm not sure how well I'd do with a traditional firearm.  I think I could probably do a fair amount of damage with an ax.  But I'd really love to see how effective the rocket-propelled chainsaw is.  Best weapon ever!

I love Night of the Living Dead, of course.  And Shaun of the Dead is the best zombie comedy, hands down.  But my all-time favorite is Herk Harvey's 1962 classic Carnival of Souls, which is spooky and atmospheric and features one of the creepiest dance sequences ever committed to celluloid. 

I was really disappointed in Zombie Strippers, which has a preposterous central concept (zombies are sexy!), some embarrassingly bad dialogue, and features Robert Englund's worst performance.  

Favorite zombie book: it's a tie between World War Z by Max Brooks and Monster Island by David Wellington.  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was a lot of fun, too.

I'd like to encourage anyone thinking about becoming a filmmaker to just go out and DO IT.  These days, the tools are too accessible to sit in your room and just dream about it.  And as valuable as my film school education has been, nothing beats the experience of grabbing a camera and making your own movie.  Take my word for it, it's a blast.

Chris Diani
Director, co-writer,
 and co-producer.

Creatures from the Pink Lagoon
 is on NETFLIX