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Following the death of Stan Rogow this week, Hilary Duff shared a message of gratitude for the producer “who fought for her” to play the lead in the series Lizzie McGuire. Rogow passed away on December 7 at the age of 75.

“Writing this right now is bringing back so many distant memories of what feels like a completely different lifetime…One where I had absolutely no clue where I was heading or how I was getting there, but where I had that eagerness and blind optimism that accompanies youth and your first opportunities to step up,” she posted to Instagram on Saturday.

She continued, “You heavily cherish the people who first believe and see something in you, and for me, there was a special a very special person who fought for me to land a role that would change the entire course of my life…and I’m so sad to hear of his passing today.

Hilary Duff is paying tribute to Stan Rogow, a producer on Disney Channel’s Lizzie McGuire, following the news of his death.

Rogow passed away on Thursday at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, a family spokesperson confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter Saturday. He was 75.

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“Writing this right now is bringing back so many distant memories of what feels like a completely different lifetime…,” Duff, who played...

Stan Rogow, a veteran producer for the Hilary Duff-starring Lizzie McGuire series and feature film, and an Emmy nominee for his earlier work on the TV series Fame, has died at 75.

Rogow died Thursday at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, reports indicate. No cause was given.

Born in Brooklyn, Rogow graduated from Boston University School of Law and worked as a lawyer before serving as an executive in charge of production on the 1980 Emmy-winning CBS telefilm Playing for Time, starring Vanessa Redgrave.

After that, he moved to Los Angeles and soon was working with the TV series Fame, for which he shared in a 1982 Emmy nomination. Rogow served as a producer on the pilot of the NBC series.

Rogow also created the 1992 CBS comedy-drama Middle Ages, starring Peter Riegert, and produced other series such as State of Grace, Afterworld and Woke Up Dead.

Rogow produced Lizzie McGuire and...

Stan Rogow, the writer and Emmy-nominated producer who guided the Hilary Duff-starring Lizzie McGuire series and feature that spawned from the Disney Channel hit and partnered with John Sayles on several projects, has died. He was 75.

Rogow died Thursday at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, family spokesperson Scott Fisher told The Hollywood Reporter.

Early in his career, Rogow served as a producer on the pilot of the acclaimed NBC series Fame and shared an Emmy nomination for outstanding drama series in 1982 with William Blinn and two others.

The Brooklyn native was also an exec producer on the 2004-06 Discovery Kids sitcom Darcy’s Wild Life, starring Sara Paxton, and he co-created another show for the network, the 2005-07 adventure series Flight 29 Down, featuring Corbin Bleu.

Rogow produced Sayles-written The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), starring Daryl Hannah, before they teamed to create the 1990 NBC drama Shannon’s Deal, starring...

Stan Rogow, a veteran writer, producer and music manager who was a key player in such series as “Lizzie McGuire” and “Fame” and the 1986 feature “Clan of the Cave Bear, died Dec. 7 at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 75.

Rogow was most active in television, working on such notable series as “Playing for Time,” “Shannon’s Deal,” “Flight 29 Down,” “Darcy’s Wild Life,” “State of Grace,” “Valemont,” “Woke Up Dead,” and “Afterworld.” His other feature film credits include 1994’s “All I Want For Christmas” and “Men of War” and 2003’s “The Lizzie McGuire Movie.”

Rogow earned three Emmy nominations over his long career, one for the NBC series “Fame” in 1982 and in 2003 and 2004 for Disney Channel’s “Lizzie McGuire.”

Born in 1948 in Brooklyn, Rogow was a graduate of Boston University School of Law. By 1980, Rogow was in Hollywood working as a producer with Gerald Isenberg’s Jozak Co., which...

Tremors 7 has just made a dynamite addition to its cast. First off, yes, for those who perhaps haven't heard, a seventh installment in the long-running franchise is about to get underway. Franchise star Michael Gross is coming back once again as the gun-loving Burt Gummer in what is officially titled Tremors: Island Fury. This time around, he's going to be joined by none other than Napoleon Dynamite himself, Jon Heder.

Michael Gross is in every Tremors movie, as well as the TV series. As of late, he's been sharing updates regarding the next installment and recently made the surprising casting announcement on Instagram by sharing photos of the cast with Jon Heder amongst them. The post was shared with the following caption.

"The cast of #tremors seven!!!"

Also included in the cast will be Richard Brake, Caroline Langrishe, Jackie Cruz, Cassie Clare, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Matthew Douglas, Randy Kalsi, Bear Williams,...

Veronica Mars was where we got our first glimpse of Krysten Ritter’s giant eyes, flawless skin and energetic nature. Her part was rather small, but very noticeable, and we thought big things were in Krysten’s future. She moved onto another small part in another much-loved series, Gilmore Girls, and we still thought she was just biding her time. We kept seeing her face, hearing her name associated with upcoming shows, and never really getting to know what she could do as a leading lady. Maybe if that Gossip Girl spin-off about Serena’s mom, Lily, we would now be referring to Krysten as “Carol Rhodes” in the same way we always just want to call Ed Westwick “Chuck Bass.” But it wasn’t meant to be. Nor were Gravity, or Love Bites. And a show called Woke Up Dead starring Jon Heder as a zombie wasted away on the streaming video network Crackle.

Everything dies. Except when they don’t stay that way. Starting off in a suburbian set piece that could operate as a proper clone of the Dawn of the Dead 2004 remake, The Walking Dead companion web series Torn Apart opens on a mother waking up in her car after hitting a tree, with her children who were in the backseat missing. Much of what made The Walking Dead such a visual masterpiece in a medium not known for it remains here. The art design leaves behind the haunting images of life and civilization that only hours ago had been operating as normal. The zombies themselves show no difference from that of the TV series – which is to say, quite frightening and gross. It shouldn’t be a surprise, as the director and one of the story writers Greg Nicotero is the key special effects makeup supervisor for the series. The...

Do not be fooled into believing that the new Jon Heder comedic horror "Woke Up Dead" is a feature-length film.Although it may be marketed as a movie, "Woke Up Dead" was originally produced as a series of webisodes for Sony Pictures Entertainment's Crackle.com. Edited together as a single flick for DVD, it lacks the finesse of a project originally conceived as a major motion picture and instead resembles a low-budget student project.Heder stars as Drex Greene, a man who accepts a mysterious pill from a stranger and wakes up in a bathtub after being underwater for more...

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Fade to Black" (2010)

Directed by Oliver Parker

Released by Image Entertainment

It looks like we'll have to update our list of actors who've played Orson Welles with this long-delayed drama from "The Importance of Being Earnest" director Parker, which stars Danny Huston as the "Touch of Evil" auteur who gets caught up in a murder mystery all his own on 1948's "Black Magic" in Italy when he finds out his name is on a hit list. Christopher Walken, Diego Luna and Paz Vega co-star.

"30 Days of Night: Dark Days" (2010)

Directed by Ben Ketai

Released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Rare for a direct-to-video sequel, original author Steve Niles returns to co-write this follow-up to the 2007 graphic novel adaptation about a vampire attack in Alaska. This time, "Lost" star Kiele Sanchez is protecting her neck, along with Diora Baird, Harold Perrineau, Rhys Coiro and Mia Kirshner,...

Web series are often the passion projects of those who create them and can become a reflection of their backgrounds and talents. After all, the adage is "write what you know". So imagine what kind of web series would come out of someone whose short bio is "I am America's only ex-cia, rocket scientist, stand-up-comic screenwriter. No, really." It'd probably look something like Universal Dead. Reminiscent of the classic zombie storytelling of George Romano, the series opens on a breathtaking helicopter view of a ravaged landscape. We quickly learn that the planet is consumed by a strange disease that turns people into mindless murderers. A small team of Us Navy SEALs must protect a doctor from the Center for Disease Control on a mission to evaluate the claims of an erratic scientist who may have discovered the secret to mankind's salvation. Let's go back a second: this show opens with a Helicopter Shot.

I have a proclivity for zombie stories, I find the commentary on how people would react to a situation in which other humans (often loved ones) will turn on them fascinating, not to mention the myriad of ways the "not infected" will survive and perhaps ultimately rebuild a society once the brain-eating stops. From the interview-style of the novel World War Z to the brilliant comedy of Shaun of the Dead, the creative ways in which the concept of the dead rising to eat the living can be spun has always been appealing to me. So it's not coincidence that I've come across many the zombie-based web series over the years. I in fact wrote about an upcoming one of them just the other day. One of my top five web series of all time continues to be American Heart, a George Romano-esque comedy (yes, it exists) about a group...

You would think Bigfoot battling a Chupacabra would be a bit of a mismatch given the incredible size difference between the two. Fred Olen Ray is nonetheless readying a David vs. Goliath clash between these two cryptid titans. Sasquatch vs. Chupacabra - place your bets!

Fred Olen Ray has just announced plans for the flick on his Retromedia message board, and an official Sasquatch vs. Chupacabra website is already online.

There's nothing on the website other than a "contact us" link and the following:

From director Fred Olen Ray (Sea Snakes, Turbulent Skies, The Lair) and producer Kimberly A. Ray (Woke Up Dead, Komodo Vs Cobra, Megaconda, Dante's Cove).

No other details at this time aside from the temporary artwork you see below. But it's Bigfoot grappling with a goatsucker; what more do you need?

- The Foywonder

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On a windy, overcast Sunday afternoon the 2010 Streamy Awards took over the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Even though the FearNet webseries “Fear Clinic,” directed by Robert Hall and starring genre favorites Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Danielle Harris, and Lisa Wilcox, stood alone to represent our favorite genre, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a gaggle of horror-related goodies to indulge in while working the red carpet event before the show.

Before the Streamy Awards were under way, Dread Central’s red carpet team of Heather Wixson and Brian Smith had the opportunity to catch up with some new faces in horror as well as some of the genre’s most beloved personalities.

Since we never want to deprive our readers of any sort of awesomeness, Dread Central has cooked up two videos from the Streamy Awards red carpet event. The first video is chock-full of interviews.

Being...

Yes, she's coming back! ScreenDaily (via SlashFilm) is reporting that Alicia Silverstone will be reuniting with Clueless director Amy Heckerling for her upcoming vampire love movie Vamps. The project was first announced last November, described as a "romantic comedy with vampires." The script, by Heckerling, focuses on two young female vampires living the good life in New York until love enters the picture and each has to make a choice that will jeopardize their immortality. From the director of Clueless? Sounds fun! And with the star of Clueless, too? Even better! I already like this more than Diablo Cody's Sweet Valley High. Silverstone will play one of the vampires opposite Krysten Ritter (last seen in "Breaking Bad" and "Woke Up Dead"), who is making her first feature starring role. Production is set to begin in April. Red Hour Films, Lucky Monkey Pictures partners Lauren Versel and Maria Teresa Arida,...

With the fall of some of the early web content studios like maniaTV, 60Frames and ABC/Disney's Stage 9, there were some web series projects that went down with their ships that we thought might never see the light of day. Trenches, a sci-fi action series from creator Shane Felux was one such project. Our last check in with Felux was in August of 2008, when Stage 9 had released its pricey comedy series Squeegees to mixed results. A few months later ABC shuttered its nascent digital studio, leaving Trenches in distribution purgatory. Now the series has found a new home, with Sony Pictures Television licensing the project from ABC to be released starting February 16, 2010 on Crackle. Set in the future on a a distant war torn planet, the story centers around two groups of opposing soldiers fighting against each other only to realize that the real enemy is something else. The 10-episode series,...

Stun Creative released the third episode (above), "Crotch Bomb," of their animated spoof web series Obamourage today on Atom, commemorating President Obama's first year in office. The series, created by Brad Roth and Mark Feldstein follows the day-to-day life of President Obama and his cabinet—Rahm, Joe, Hillary, and Bo, the dog—as they all roll, "Obama-style." [Atom.com] Crackle's Woke Up Dead from Electric Farm Entertainment has scored showcase.ca as Canadian online distributor of the comedy web series starring Jon Heder, Krysten Ritter, Josh Gad and Wayne Knight. Woke Up Dead's 22 episodes will roll out on showcase.ca three times a week starting February 1, 2010 through the end of March. [Channel Canada] Blue Movies rolled out a slick-looking Streamy Awards "For Your Consideration" site along with a video (below) showcasing the talent behind the indie comedy series like writer-director Scott Brown, and lead actors Jareb Dauplaise, Beck Bennett and Sascha Alexander.

More video from CES last week as I had a chance to sit down with Kodak Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Hayzlett (above) and talk about their web TV strategy and where he sees the space going. He also had some new tech to show off from Kodak, including their new waterproof pocket video camera the PlaySport—they crowdsourced the name on Twitter. Hayzlett is no stranger to some on camera work, having done a season on Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice and even a cameo role playing himself on the Kodak-sponsored comedy web series Woke Up Dead this fall on Crackle. During CES, he also hosted a bit of The View-styled chat show with a number of guests on stage including Tubefilter's Jamison Tilsner (left) talking about the Streamy Awards and what's in store in 2010 for original web series. Wearing his marketing expert hat, Hayzlett also shared some advice...

Robin Lippin initially imagined her move to L.A. as temporary. She was hoping to pick up some entertainment industry job experience before returning to her native New York. Two decades and dozens of casting gigs later, Lippin still calls Hollywood home. Her credits include the legendary Aaron Spelling hours "Charlie's Angels" and "Fantasy Island," tween hits "Saved by the Bell" and "Lizzie McGuire," and the Web series "Woke Up Dead" and "Valemont." Currently, she and Jeff Meshel are hard at work assembling the ensemble for the upcoming CW series "Life Unexpected." "It's an incredible show," Lippin says. "To do a show that has comedy and drama and such heart is really a great experience."Spelling ClassGrowing up, my sister was an actress, and I used to see plays all the time in New York. I knew I either wanted to be a casting director or an agent. I came...

omedy is still the king genre of web video. And fittingly there are dozens of sites vying to be the web's go-to hubs for comedy—Funny or Die, Atom.com, My Damn Channel, Comedy.com—but that doesn't mean the broader web series hubs aren't up for some jocularity of their own. Sony's Crackle.com has had its share of original comedies over the past year, most recently bowing Jon Heder led Woke Up Dead, not to mention earlier jabs like David Faustino's Star-ving. But in an effort to bolster their comedy wares, Crackle rolled out its latest push today with the launch of a video slate dubbed "Last Call for Comedy." The package contains just two new original web series—Decisions, Decisions and So On and So Forth—alongside the online debut of the first two seasons of TBS comedy 10 Items or Less and some cult comedy films...

Not since the Streamy Awards have we seen this many web series stars in one place. Ok not really, but with the fourth season of The Temp Life, the Spherion-backed comedy about life inside a dreadful NY temp agency kicking off today, the cast is loaded up with notable web series stars. The casting moves are signs this four-year old web show is growing up with the medium in which it plays. Call it Web TV's version of keiretsu. Creator Wilson Cleveland, Cjp Communications' Head of Digital Media, built the show back in 2006 for the firm's client Spherion. Incidentally, Cleveland also stars in the The Temp Life, as Nick “Trouble” Chiapetta, the once-ceo of Commodity Staffing, the shoddy agency. This new season picks up with some major changes once Chiapetta returns to office after a 33-week Awol. Notable guest (web) stars: Thom Woodley — co-creator and star of All's Faire, The 'Burg and Vuguru's The All-for-Nots.

I hope you don't hate vampires, because they don't seem to be going anywhere. Now Amy Heckerling, the woman behind Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless, is getting in on the bloodsucking. According to Screen Daily, Parlay Films has grabbed the international rights to an upcoming romantic comedy called Vamps, that Heckerling will write and direct.

"The film will be a modern-day tale of two young female vampires living the good life in New York until love enters the picture and each has to make a choice that will jeopardize their immortality." Krysten Ritter will star as one of the lead vamps, and they're still searching for the other bloodsucker. This marks a big jump from the actress, who has moved from bubbly side gigs on shows like Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars to some cinematic supporting roles, a lead gig in the web series Woke Up Dead, and...

Director Amy Heckerling of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless, and those damned Look Who's Talking flicks is ready to throw her hat into the blood-sucking arena with the new film Vamps.

According to Screen Daily Parlay Films has acquired all international rights to the romantic comedy Vamps, which will be written and directed by Heckerling.

The film will be a modern-day tale of two young female vampires living the good life in New York until love enters the picture and each has to make a choice that will jeopardize her immortality.

Krysten Ritter (pictured right) is on board as one of the female leads with additional casting under way. If the name sounds familiar, it's because she's also one of the stars of Jon Heder's new web series "Woke Up Dead" that we reported on recently.

Judging from her previous work, I wouldn't be looking for this flick...

On the surface the Circle of Ei8ht premiere today on MySpace is just another cool looking web series with an exclusive distribution deal. Behind the scenes however, stands one of the most complex digital entertainment deals we've seen yet, with no fewer than six companies—MySpace, Paramount Digital, Milchan/Van Eyssen, Mountain Dew, Adobe, and even Blockbuster making the show's official press release. There's even a few more, William Morris Endeavor and Endemol that had a hand as well. We dedicated some serious pixel time in August to breaking down this well-oiled conference call machine of a project in our Anatomy of a Deal feature. The business of this whole thing aside, it's now time to figure out the big question that actually matters for viewers—is this thing any good? First, there's the plot setup, which is horror flick ready with a spooky downtown La loft building full of overly attractive twentysomething artists.

Making a documentary is a true test of a filmmaker's stamina. After shooting hundreds to thousands of hours of footage, you have to hope you've caught enough interesting moments to string together a compelling story. Now try doing that on a time crunch because the subject you are covering is time sensitive. Oh and there are zombies. Lots and lots of zombies. That is exactly what Joone Studios and Zombie Army Productions are doing with their reality-based web series Days of the Living Dead. The show follows a rag tag group of renegade actors, artists, technical directors and filmmakers working together to produce one of the largest and most heralded haunted houses in the country, Statesville Haunted Prison. If you've ever wanted to know what Hunter S. Thompson looks like as a zombie, wanted to watch people play a game involving kicking around severed heads, or wondered at the proclivities...

Three Torches (Out of Five)

We all know a change is coming in the way we consume entertainment. With Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon proved that content created solely for the internet has a very real future, or even, perhaps, a present. Many television shows have websites where you can go for additional, web-exclusive content.

With more of our time spent on the go, short webisodes seem more and more appealing, a fact that is being capitalized upon by a new web series, Woke Up Dead, starring Jon Heder of Napolean Dynamite fame.

The series begins with Heder's character, Drex, being hit by a bus, only to wake up in the morgue and freak out the resident, Cassie, to whom he then shares a flashback -- he was at a party where he was given a mysterious pill by a guy who was making out with a girl he was in love with.

These days, the really funny stuff seems to be coming out on webisodes versus full-length expensive traditional comedy series on network television. Examples of this phenomenon are "In Gayle We Trust," "Ctrl" and now "Woke Up Dead," which stars Napoleon Dynamite.s Jon Heder. This series is the new live-action zombie comedy from Electric Farm Entertainment for Crackle.com, Sony Pictures Entertainment.s online video network. The original online series stars comedian Jon Heder, Josh Gad, Krysten Ritter (.Breaking Bad") Jean Smart and Wayne Knight among others. This series marks Heder's first foray into the world of web programming, and takes place in various locations around Los Angeles, California. Heder stars as Drex Greene, a regular recent college grad who finds...

This Halloween at midnight, veteran writer-editor Paul Castiglia launches a blog to preview his forthcoming book, Scared Silly: Classic Hollywood Horror-comedies. The blog can accessed here.

Castiglia’s blog and book will offer readers a fun overview of horror-comedy films spanning the 1920s through 1966, the year Don Knotts’ The Ghost and Mr. Chicken was released. “In my mind, ‘The Ghost and Mr. Chicken’ was the last traditional horror-comedy, devoid of PG elements that would pepper later efforts,” said Castiglia.

Also covered will be horror-comedy entries in famous film series including The Little Rascals and The Bowery Boys, and efforts by comedians wildly popular in their day but less well-known now like Wheeler & Woolsey, Hugh Herbert and Olsen & Johnson. Of note to fans of oddball cinema is the inclusion of Brown & Carney, a team pre-fabricated by Rko to compete with Abbott & Costello and Mitchell & Petrillo, the latter aping Jerry Lewis so...

Sony announced today that it's fall tentpole web series, Woke Up Dead, is off to a formidable start racking up 1.4 million streams in just 10 days since its premiere on October 5. 1.4 million for an original web series isn't shabby no matter how you slice it. This show clearly has two big factors pushing it along: Zombies and a recognizable, talent-rich cast. For those that haven't yet checked it out, it's not too late to bang through the first dozen episodes which clock in at a little over four minutes a piece. Jon Heder stars as recent USC grad Drex Greene who lives with his Zi8-sporting video obsessed roomie Matt (Josh Gad) and one day wakes up to find out he's dead. Drex naturally is a little confused and tries to reclaim some form of normalcy. That means taking a droll office job a InfoCorps, where his snooty co-worker Andrew (Wayne Knight). Yes,...

Crackle.com has just launched an exclusive web series, Woke Up Dead.  In this zombie comedy, Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) stars as Drex, a normal guy who wakes up one day without a pulse.  Drex seeks out the help of best buddy Matt (played by The Rocker's Josh Gad) and Cassie, the med student who's surprised by Drex's undead corpse (played by Confessions of a Shopaholic's Krysten Ritter).  We just chatted exclusively with Krysten about shooting her first web series, and the difference between doing a rom-com and zom-com. Did you wake up dead this morning? No.  I did wake up with a scratchy throat! How did you get involved with Woke Up Dead? They called out of...

Anyone else notice that there seem to be a lot more deals going on this month? We're not calling this economy out of the crapper just yet, but Q4 has brought with it some nice reasons for optimism. Kodak backed its first original web series (other than the Streamy Awards..), Woke Up Dead, which premiered this week on Crackle.com. The Jon Heder led zombie comedy is worth your time watching the first 5 episodes this weekend. Netflix decided it has the distribution network and, why not start making its own web series too—signing 80's film star Corey Feldman on for its first horror series, Splatter. Then Wednesday came the news that Babelgum snatched up sci-fi comedy The Crew for a second season, after previously being on online network KoldCast TV. Illeana Douglas' Ikea-backed indie web series, Easy to Assemble, kicked off its second season on Wednesday with a...

Sony is really celebrating zombie comedies. Currently, they have the #1 movie with Zombieland and they also own Crackle.com, which just premiered the new zombie comedy webseries Woke Up Dead, starring Jon Heder and the occassional mention of sponsor Kodak.

A new episode of Woke Up Dead will premiere every weekday leading up to Halloween. So far, seven epsiodes have made their way online, and so far, they are pretty...okay.

Crackle busted out some star power with Heder, (Seinfeld's Wayne Knight also cameos), but as a zombie comedy, all Heder is responsible for is to slowly realize that he's a zombie. The responsibility of the "comedy" portion of Woke Up Dead rests almost solely on the shoulders of Josh Gad, Heder's under-sexed, wanna-be filmmaker roommate who records Heder's every move on a Kodak T-1000 HD video camera (thanks sponsor!). Nothing Gad says or does is something that hasn't already...

It's not exactly coincidence that today's launch of Sony's zombie comedy web seriesWoke Up Dead comes on the heels of the company's box-office-winning $25 million opening weekend for Zombieland. In fact it was pretty much by design. With its debut on Crackle today, the Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) led comedy is the latest example of how the studios are starting the work their digital properties into the synergistic business mix, capitalizing on buzz from one property to drive interest in another. The series is touted as the tentpole of Crackle's fall lineup, one that is slimmed down from previous seasons to feature just a handful of premium, more polished online series from Sony Pictures Television. It's the latest from online creative shop Electric Farm Entertainment, the guys behind web series like NBC's Gemini Division and more recently MTV's Valemont. Heder stars as a six-year USC grad turned office drone, Drex Greene,...

Nothing goes better with Oktoberfest than a Zombiefest – so head over to Crackle.com for their newest original web series, Woke Up Dead. Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) stars as Drex who, as the title suggests, wakes up dead one day. We got a peek at the first couple of episodes, and it looks like it is going to be good. It gets off to a clunky start – the first episode's "let's set up the plot" dialogue felt stilted, but things smooth out by episode two. While we haven't seen any flesh-eating or skin-rotting, we are hopeful for a bit of decay by Halloween. Check out the first episode below.

Napoleon Dynamite himself, Jon Heder, is starring in a new online zombie/comedy called, Woke Up Dead directed by Tim O’Donnell (Lizzie McGuire, Clueless). In Woke Up Dead, Heder stars as Drex Greene, a regular recent college grad who finds himself undergoing an inexplicable transformation that begins when he wakes up at the bottom of a water-filled bathtub. Drex’s roommate Matt, who has been eagerly filming his demise, informs him that he’s easily (and inhumanly) been underwater for more than a half-hour. As he starts to develop zombie-like tendencies, Drex finds it increasingly difficult to focus on his new job and his love life, so he enlists the help of two friends, Cassie and Matt, to help him uncover the truth about the peculiar changes he is experiencing. In the process, Drex meets his match – an exotic beauty named Aurora – who may hold the answers to Drex’s many questions.

Woke Up Dead is a new live-action zombie comedy from Electric Farm Entertainment appearing on Sony Pictures Entertainment’s online video network, Crackle.com. The original online series stars comedian Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite, Blades of Glory), Josh Gad (Back to You, The Rocker), Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad, 27 Dresses), Jean Smart (24, Samantha Who?) and Wayne Knight (Seinfeld). Woke Up Dead, marks Heder's first foray into the world of web programming and takes place in various locations around Los Angeles, California. The story of Woke Up Dead follows Drex Greene (Heder), a regular recent college grad who finds himself undergoing an inexplicable transformation that begins when he wakes up at the bottom of a water-filled bathtub. Drex’s roommate Matt, who has been eagerly filming his demise, informs him that he’s easily (and inhumanly) been underwater for more than a half-hour. As he starts to develop zombie-like tendencies, Drex finds...

Napoleon Dynamite himself, Jon Heder, will headline a new web series, Woke Up Dead, about a young man who finds himself plagued by ever worsening zombie-like symptoms.

According to the press release: Heder stars as Drex Greene, a regular recent college grad who finds himself undergoing an inexplicable transformation that begins when he wakes up at the bottom of a water-filled bathtub. Drex’s roommate Matt, who has been eagerly filming his demise, informs him that he’s easily (and inhumanly) been underwater for more than a half-hour. As he starts to develop zombie-like tendencies, Drex finds it increasingly difficult to focus on his new job and his love life, so he enlists the help of two friends, Cassie and Matt, to help him uncover the truth about the peculiar changes he is experiencing. In the process, Drex meets his match – an exotic beauty named Aurora – who may hold the...

Sony's Crackle.com announced its fall lineup today and as expected, the Jon Heder lead zombie comedy Woke Up Dead is the headlining web series in the bunch. The online network is known for rolling out new 13-week seasons four times a year, and this new slate has just three new original series in it. The other two newcomers, Groundlings comedy Hardline: Inside the Idaho Sex Cult and Barry Sonnenfeld's The Esquire Digital Man join the weekly returning series Anytime with Bob Kushell, Penn Says and My Long Distance Relationship. The most touted is clearly Woke Up Dead from web vets Electric Farm Entertainment (Gemini Division, Afterworld, Valemont), which first popped up in development last summer. After finally lensing earlier this summer, the series calls itself a "re-imagining of the zombie mythology" with Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) plays a USC college student thrust into a world of zombie powers...

Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder will topline the comedic science fiction film Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede. Based on Bradley Denton's 1991 novel, Heder will play a geek named Oliver Vale who has cosmic weirdness intrude into his life when the visage of the legendary rock-and-roll singer appears to Oliver on his TV set and only he can see Buddy Holly. Things get more strange when aliens chase after Oliver because of his budding friendship to Buddy.

Robert Rugan is directing the movie from his own script.

Heder has been keep his profile low but he's also been busy working. He's got a supporting part in the romantic comedy When in Rome but that's not slated for release until 2010. He's also been appearing in a series of short online segments called Woke Up Dead and has been developing a sitcom for Comedy Central with Will Ferrell's production company.

London -- British commercial broadcaster ITV shares may be trading around rock bottom, but it's flexing its muscle in the emerging Internet video market, announcing the acquisition of a 10% stake in Web video production studio Electric Farm Entertainment for an undisclosed sum Friday.

Acquired through its U.S. production unit, Granada America, the acquisition gives ITV a foothold in online drama content creation aimed at a youth audience in the mold of such successes as Bebo's "Kate Modern," "PromQueen" and "Quarterlife."

Current Electric Farm Web drama formats include sci-fi show "Gemini Division" and thriller "Woke Up Dead."

Under the deal, Granada America also is expected to explore new Web video content possibilities for its U.S. factual entertainment brands including "Hell's Kitchen," "Nanny 911" and "One More Time."

Santa Monica-based Electric Farm was founded by former Sony Pictures Entertainment co-president Jeff Sagansky and Disney producer Stan Rogow.

"I'm attracted to this company because they are specializing in scripted direct-to-Internet programming that is economically produced but creatively engaging," ITV Global Content head Lee Bartlett said. "These projects have worldwide appeal to audiences and advertisers alike, with the potential to grow on to other platforms including TV."

ITV shares rose 1.3% to 43p (85 cents) on the news.