KEVIN ZEGERS, LAURENCE FISHBURNE AND BILL PAXTON FIGHT BLOODTHIRSTY CREATURES IN “THE COLONY”

 

Still reeling from the end of The Walking Dead’s season finale? Are you jonesing for more zombie/vampire types ravaging humans in a post-apocalyptic world? The wait is over. In The Colony, Laurence Fishbure, Bill Paxton and Kevin Zegers take charge of a world overrun by ice, snow and yes, a new breed of bloodthirsty creatures.

It’s 2045 and the world is engulfed in an ice age as a result of humans tampering with the weather systems. Survivors are few, and have retreated into makeshift underground Colonies around the world. Influenza pandemics kill off a huge percentage of the world’s population. Others perish in scavenging treks on the frozen surface and in buildings beneath the snow. The world as it once was is lost forever, and food is scarce. Sounds pretty grim, doesn’t it?

In this new world,  (another environmental cautionary tale) outposts of colonists struggle to survive below the world’s frozen surface. Short on supplies, and plagued by illness and internal conflict, the colonists suspect the worst when they mysteriously lose contact with their only other known settlement, Colony 5.

When Colony 7’s leader, Briggs (Fishburne), decides to lead an expedition to discover what happened, he is challenged by Mason (Bill Paxton), his former comrade-in-arms, who has his own ideas of what is best for the colonists. Briggs takes two volunteers on the mission, the young Graydon, and Sam (Kevin Zegers), a strong-willed mechanic who seizes the opportunity to confront the icy wasteland that orphaned him. When they reach their destination, the team discovers a threat much worse than nature and must battle to save themselves and protect their fellow colonists against a new mutated breed of human cannibals known as Ferals (they have fangs), led by a fearsome leader (Dru Viergever) who stops at nothing to get his, and his gruesome horde’s next hot meal.

“I loved the concept from the start; the idea of surviving in this frozen world and the potential to make it an exciting visual treat,” says director Jeff Renfroe, who shot the film in Toronto and at NORAD in North Bay, Ont. “I’m a huge fan of sci-fi. When I was a young, sci-fi films would take you away to somewhere you’ve never been or maybe even imagined. I wanted to give audiences an experience of being immersed in a world that might be familiar, but also like none they could imagine.”

For Fishburne, getting to work in this fascinating genre was something he couldn’t pass up. “I haven’t done anything this physical is quite a while and it’s challenging,” he says. “It’s one of the reasons I said yes to the project because I wanted to challenge myself. I also really liked Jeff and the detailed world that he wanted to create.”

Although Fishburne’s and Paxton’s characters prove to be the strong and most experienced men able to survive the Feral attacks, it’s Canada’s Kevin Zegers who steps up to the plate.

“What I like about Sam, is that he’s an average guy who becomes a hero and I’ve always loved stories like that, with a hero you can relate to,” Zegers says. “He just wants to do the right thing and then gets saddled with being a leader. Jeff and I talked about the script for a few weeks before we went to camera and he’s such a great artist so he really showed me what the world was going to look like and it helped me get into character.”

 

The Colony opens April 26 and stars Kevin Zegers, Laurence Fishburne, Bill Paxton, Charlotte Sullivan, Dru Viergever, Atticus Mitchell, John Tench, Lisa Berry, Lucius Hoyos, Kimberly-Sue Murry, Michael Mando, Helen Taylor, Romano Orzari, John Healy, Kristen Shepherd, Sten Eirik and Julian Richings.

 

—Toni-Marie Ippolito