Created by Matt Zoller Seitz
Directed by Judith Carter
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
Haruki Murakami
As featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, MovieMaker, SYFY, Fangoria, Yahoo's "It List", SFX, Mental Floss, Total Film, Mashable, and more!
How did a low-budget British movie about Londoners battling zombies in a pub become a beloved global pop culture phenomenon?
You’ve Got Red on You details the previously untold story of 2004’s Shaun of the Dead, the hilarious, terrifying horror-comedy whose fan base continues to grow and grow. After speaking with dozens of people involved in the creation of the film, author Clark Collis reveals how a group of friends overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to make a movie that would take bites out of both the UK and the US box office before ascending to the status of bona fide comedy classic.
Featuring in-depth interviews with director Edgar Wright, producer Nira Park, and cast members Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Bill Nighy, Lucy Davis, and Coldplay singer Chris Martin, the book also boasts a treasure trove of storyboards, rare behind-the-scenes photos, and commentary from famous fans of the movie, including filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth, Walking Dead executive producer Greg Nicotero, and World War Z author Max Brooks.
As Pegg’s zombie-fighting hero Shaun would say, “How’s that for a slice of fried gold?”
"Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and more offer unique insights into the making of their 2004 zombie comedy classic, Shaun of the Dead. The 424-page book traces the film’s story, from late-night pub conversations about surviving the zombie apocalypse to an unexpected hit at Comic-Con 2004." — Rolling Stone
"A sharply written, thorough, and loving tribute to a modern-day cinema classic." — Kirkus, starred review
"You've Got Red on You is a must-buy." — Fangoria
"Witty and deeply researched. What a wonderful, fun, fascinating read." — MovieMaker
"An exemplary movie retrospective, one which combines an astonishing amount of research with a real flair for storytelling. 5/5 stars." — SFX
"Just *look* at Clark Collis's stunning book on the making of Shaun Of The Dead. The red metallic page edging, the cover art, the inside... it's a thing of beauty. In other words: how's that for a slice of fried gold?" — Ali Plumb, BBC Radio 1
"...almost 20 years later, Shaun of the Dead is a cult classic. Director Edgar Wright and actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost inform the bulk of the narrative with hilarious remembrances; Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth, and the late George A. Romero are quoted here too...resulting in a work [that will be] wildly entertaining to horror buffs." — Library Journal, starred review
"A really entertaining read and, if you’re a fan of the film, very illuminating on the struggles to not only get it made, but also to have the film be taken seriously. If you’ve ever wanted to make a movie, you’ll learn a lot in You’ve Got Red on You.” — Shaun of the Dead co-writer/director Edgar Wright
"So many relationships grow and expand over the course of Collis' book that readers will find themselves falling in love with Shaun of the Dead – to say nothing of Wright, Pegg, and Frost – all over again, twenty years on. 4/4 stars." — Starburst
"[You've Got Red on You] gives unparalleled access to near everyone involved with the movie, plus sketches, script drafts, storyboards, and BTS photos aplenty." — Total Film
"One of the best books of the year." — Buzz Magazine
"If you’re a fan of Shaun of the Dead or a filmmaker influenced by the films of Wright this is essential reading. It is so good we read it twice before this review." — Screen Anarchy
"One of the best [pop culture books this holiday season] is You’ve Got Red on You, Clark Collis’ breezy-yet-thorough look at 2004’s horror-comedy Shaun of the Dead…it instantly takes its place in the upper echelon of making-of books." — Josh Sewell, Times-Georgian
"Shaun of the Dead is one of the most widely-discussed horror movies of the 2000s. Released on the heels of Wright’s latest film, Last Night in Soho, You’ve Got Red on You is the definitive account of how Shaun of the Dead came to be, featuring new interviews from the core creative trio, as well other key members of the cast and crew. Take this book with you the next time you book a table 'at the place that does all the fish.'" — Yahoo (the "It List")
"Like a slap of a cricket bat to the face, Clark Collis’s terrific new book, You’ve Got Red on You, takes us on a deep dive into the making of Edgar Wright’s classic horror/comedy Shaun of the Dead. It’s a fantastic view into the effort, heartache and exultation of the filmmaker’s struggle to create a groundbreaking and gore-drenched film." — Phantasm writer/director Don Coscarelli
"The intricately rendered and definitive story behind the creation of Edgar Wright’s cinematic rom-zom-com tour-de-gore’s that is Shaun of the Dead, recounted with affection by the one and only Clark Collis." — The Nun director Corin Hardy
"If you are an Edgar Wright fan, especially if you are a Shaun of the Dead fan, check out Entertainment Weekly scribe Clark Collis' exhaustive (but not exhausting) new book, which takes you deep to the heart of everything Shaun! A fascinating deep dive into one of the best horror comedies of all time.” — director Mick Garris (Stephen King's The Stand / Tales from the Crypt)
"Exhaustively researched and brimming with funny, fascinating stories I didn't know, this book is must read, not just for hardcore fans, but for anyone who's interested in the creative process." — author Melissa Maerz (Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused)
"Rejoice Shaun of the Dead and film fans! You've Got Red on You is an in-depth, thoroughly enjoyable, and inspiring story of the making of the classic film. Collis expertly weaves interviews from cast and crew with other first hand accounts, starting before line one of the screenplay was written. I inhaled this book with a smile on my face. Now let's head down to the Winchester for a pint." — author Paul Tremblay (A Head Full of Ghosts / The Cabin at the End of the World)
“I was a huge fan of Shaun of the Dead. It was my favourite movie of that year. Their jokes were like perfectly placed time bombs.” — Quentin Tarantino
“We didn’t ever really want to parody zombie movies. We wanted to make a zombie movie.” — actor Simon Pegg
"There were zombies getting off with each other. There were loads of zombie relationships. Two zombies got together on the pool table." — producer Nira Park
“I heard it was a romantic-comedy with zombies, and I was like, well, that sounds sh*t.” — actor Rafe Spall
CLARK COLLIS grew up in Edgar Wright’s home town of Wells and, like the director, is a former employee of Wookey Hole Caves. He studied history at Cambridge University, and is currently a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly magazine in New York.
MZS.Press is the online arts bookstore founded by author, critic, and filmmaker Matt Zoller Seitz and directed by Judith Carter. It offers new, used, signed, collectible, and rare books on film, TV, music, photography, and the visual arts. The store was launched in 2019 on a different platform and has expanded to incorporate arts books published by MZSPress's private imprint: titles currently include Seitz's The Deadwood Bible: A Lie Agreed Upon and Dreams of Deadwood, about the HBO Western, and Walter Chaw's A Walter Hill Film.
Our deepest wish is to promote, encourage, and distribute work by small presses, academic presses, and individuals. Extraordinary work tends to get swallowed up on giant platforms like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The store's inventory of nearly 1000 volumes is currently in the process of being reconstructed after its relocation from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Dallas, Texas. The titles featured here are personally selected by a group of curators and advisors, including Seitz, Carter, and an array of critics, artists, journalists, educators, publishers, and arts mavens who are known for their ability to suss out what Seitz's jazz musician dad liked to call "the good sh*t."
"She thinks I'm a fascist? I don't control the railways or the flow of commerce!" —Margot Robbie as Barbie in Barbie (2023)
Matt Zoller Seitz
Critic, Author, Filmmaker, MZS Press Creator
Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large and film critic of RogerEbert.com; Features Writer for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, Contributing Writer for D Magazine and Texas Highways as well as finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. His writing on film and TV has appeared in Sight and Sound, The New York Times, Salon.com, The New Republic and Rolling Stone. Seitz is the founder and original editor of the influential film blog The House Next Door, now a part of Slant Magazine.
Seitz has written, narrated, edited or produced over a hundred hours’ worth of video essays about cinema history and style for The Museum of the Moving Image, Salon.com and Vulture, among other outlets such as Texas Highways and AARP. His five-part 2009 video essay Wes Anderson: The Substance of Style was spun off into the hardcover book The Wes Anderson Collection. This book and its follow-up, The Wes Anderson Collection: Grand Budapest Hotel were New York Times bestsellers.
Other Seitz books include the New York Times bestellers The Sopranos Sessions and Mad Men Carousel; TV (The Book), The Deadwood Bible: A Lie Agreed Upon, and The Wes Anderson Collection: The French Dispatch. He is also an interviewer, moderator, and film programmer who has curated and hosted film and TV presentations for the Museum of the Moving Image, IFC Center, San Francisco's Roxie Cinema, and other venues. He is currently launching a Dallas extension of his MZS Film Series at the historic Texas Theater.
Judith is quoted as saying "his hobbies include exotic dancing, moonwalking, and affixing masking tape labels to every food item in the refrigerator, including eggs. Oh and he has the attention span of a gnat." MZS agreed to it all except the moonwalking.