Abigail Breslin & Arnold Schwarzenegger team up for 'Maggie'

Hollywood's zombie craze has reached a fever pitch. The most recent undead project to join the fray is Maggie. Abigail Breslin will star as a young woman infected with a "walking dead" virus in the feature, which will shoot this fall. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays her father. The original log line for the 2011 Black List script by John Scott 3 read like this: "As a “walking dead” virus spreads across
the country, a farm family
helps their eldest daughter come to terms with her infection as she
slowly becomes a flesh-eating zombie." I can't imagine Schwarzenegger as the comforting type--he's more the kind of actor who solves problems through action--but perhaps there's more beyond the description that suits the action star's strengths.

What Maggie won't have in its favor is novelty. Zombie movies, books, and TV shows are everywhere. The shockingly good 28 Days Later a decade ago may have kick-started the trend, joined by its sequel 28 Weeks Later in 2007, Zombieland in 2009, AMC's "The Walking Dead," which premiered in 2010, and ParaNorman, The Crazies, and this year's Warm Bodies and World War Z. Then there's the still-pending works like the adaptation of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. Zombie culture has become an epidemic in itself.

This feature will start filming this fall, so this casting combination is likely set. Last May, Variety reported Chloe Moretz was circling the role, but that deal fell apart. All along, the commercials director Henry Hobson, who would make the feature debut with the zombie movie, has been attached.  Breslin has since filmed the yet-to-be-released features August: Osage County and Ender's Game, both of which will likely raise the profile of the all-grown-up Little Miss Sunshine star by the time Maggie is released.