Your favorite 90s boy bands are back, kids, and they're fighting zombies. Seriously.
Dead 7, a TV movie[1] featuring members of your favorite boy bands like Nick Carter, Joey Fatone and Erik-Michael Estrada taking on zombies in the post-apocalyptic west, debuts tonight on Syfy. 90s nostalgia, meet zombie action. A match made in heaven, right?
As you, me and everyone we can think of are probably wondering, how did this all go down? We caught up with Estrada, a member of O-Town, in a recent phone interview to break down how the movie happened and what was going on on set. We wish we could have been there.
How, exactly, did this come about?
"About nine years ago, Nick Carter decided he wanted to write a movie," Estrada told us, saying that eventually his script was able to get into the hands of the production company responsible for Sharknado. Once the premise was down, all they needed were the boy band-ers.
"They were casting, and obviously they were casting for as many other boy band members as they could," Estrada said. "And during that time they reached out to the guys in my band and I guess they reached out without him necessarily knowing and when he found out that I was available to be in it — originally I had a much small role and after I had agreed to do that smaller role I got another call from casting saying 'Nick has asked if you would be interesting in playing one of the (main characters).'"
The set was kind of like a group therapy session.
When you're a former boy band member, who do you talk to? Who do you reminisce with? Who just gets you? Other former boy band members, obviously.
"We've all crossed paths in different times over the years, during the heights of our careers. And when we got to all be in the same room together, we just started telling each other stories," Estrada explained. "Stuff we did in the quick change room, after-show parties. It's interesting because I think each one of the bands has its own dynamic, but when we're all together, it was the first time we had all had people we could talk about that with, that shared that similar experience. I think it was cathartic (for all of us). For us to be able to just talk to other people who could really relate to us, because we're a pretty unique fraternity of sorts."
Yes, they sang together. At karaoke.
If they hadn't broken out into song at least once (besides the official track they recorded for the film) we would have been sincerely disappointed. So good thing they went to karaoke to let off some steam.
"There was a couple nights that we did karaoke," Estrada said."That was fun. I know the production crew got a thick out of that. (We sang) I Want it That Way, I believe. It was was whatever the karaoke guy had readily available."
We are really good at singing I Want it That Way at karaoke as well. Just for future reference.
They do want to make another one, if they can.
"I know everyone would love to do another one," he said. "So we just have to mash our heads together and we'll come up with something."
Maybe a different genre mashup? Estrada, for one, had a really brilliant idea when we asked. "Maybe some type of old gangster movie meets vampires?"
We'd watch.
Dead 7 airs on Syfy at 8:00 p.m. ET Friday.
References
- ^ a TV movie (www.usatoday.com)
