Dead like Me: Life After Death

Dead Like Me: Life After Death
Directed by Stephen Herek
Produced by Hudson Hickman
Sara Berrisford
Craig Roessler
Irene Litinsky
Written by John Masius
Stephen Godchaux
Starring Ellen Muth
Callum Blue
Sarah Wynter
Jasmine Guy
Britt McKillip
Christine Willes
Cynthia Stevenson
Henry Ian Cusick
Distributed by MGM
Release dates
  • February 17, 2009
Running time
 87 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Dead Like Me: Life After Death is a 2009 direct-to-video film directed by Stephen Herek.[1] The film is based on the short-lived 2003 television series Dead Like Me created by Bryan Fuller.

Plot

A crew of Reapers, whose job is to extract souls of people who are about to die, find themselves confronted by change as their habitual meeting place (Der Waffle Haus) burns down on the same day that their boss and head reaper (Rube) disappears (having "gotten his lights"). They soon meet their new boss, Cameron Kane (Henry Ian Cusick), a slick businessman who died falling from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He outfits them with color-coordinated smartphones and treats them to luxurious accommodations, teaching them as Roxy (Jasmine Guy) puts it later, "nothing we do here matters". This tutelage leads the Reapers to perform such misdeeds as saving those they were to Reap (Roxy), abusing immortality for financial gain (Mason, played by Callum Blue), letting a soul wander, instead of showing him "his lights" (Daisy, now played by Sarah Wynter), and otherwise selfishly focusing on their wants.[2]

Georgia "George" Lass (Ellen Muth), the movie's narrator, is fired from Happy Time after she loudly chews out an employee for delivering a report late. The employee quits and later sues for harassment. George ends up admitting her identity to her sister Reggie (Britt McKillip). George finds herself reminiscing with Reggie, helping her prepare for the death of her boyfriend Hudson (Jordan Hudyma).[2]

Her fellow Reapers confront Kane and learned that he had realized (and didn't care) that the "pebbles" of their misdeeds would cause "waves" of misfortune elsewhere. Unhappy with his style of management, they find themselves trying to figure out how exactly a fellow Reaper can be killed as they shoot, drown, and finally dismember and cremate Kane. His ashes are then shot into orbit along with those of Murray, the cat belonging to George's boss Delores.[2] At the launch, Delores tells George that the employee who had sued her for harassment had done so at several of her previous jobs, and George is reinstated, now with a corner office.

The Reapers walk away from the launch, wondering who their new boss is; the movie closes with George who finds herself suddenly showered with Post-Its falling from the sky, like the Post-Its their former leader Rube had used to deliver their Reap assignments. Realizing she's been selected as the group's new leader, she says "I am so fucked" as the camera pulls away from the Earth into orbit.[2]

Cast

Casting

In June 2007, a casting call for the role of Daisy Adair, formerly played by Laura Harris, who was unable to reprise the role due to commitments with Women's Murder Club, was posted on an entertainment industry website. It noted that John Masius wrote the film and also confirmed that Mandy Patinkin, who starred in the original series, was not in the film. In August 2007, it was confirmed that Sarah Wynter would take over the role of Daisy Adair from Laura Harris. Harris and Wynter previously played sisters in the second season of 24. Henry Ian Cusick would play a new character named Cameron Kane.[3]

Release

The film's release date was set for July 2008[4] and later rescheduled and released on February 17, 2009.[5] An exclusive television debut occurred on January 16, 2009 on SuperChannel in Canada.[6] It has also been shown in the United States on Syfy.

References

  1. ↑ "MGM Announces SF DVD Slate". Sci Fi Wire (SciFi.com). April 18, 2007. Archived from the original on April 20, 2007. Retrieved April 18, 2007.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Herek, Stephen (Director) (2009). Dead Like Me: Life After Death (DVD). Montréal, Québec, Canada: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
  3. ↑ McNamara, Mary (August 6, 2007). "MGM Resurrects Dead Like Me". TV Crush. Multichannel News. Retrieved August 8, 2007.
  4. ↑ "So much going on!". Just Push Play. January 28, 2008. Retrieved March 27, 2008.
  5. ↑ "Dead Like Me: The Movie". VideoETA.com. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
  6. ↑ "Dead Like Me - The Movie Coming to SuperChannel". Channel Canada. January 13, 2009. Retrieved February 20, 2011.

External links