Johnny Depp and David Lynch Help Teen with Cancer Make a Horror Film
A group of Hollywood’s most famous names—Johnny Depp and
Twin Peaks
co-creator David Lynch, to name a few—helped a teen horror fan with stage four kidney cancer make his very own zombie movie,
. Anthony Conti, 16, is an emerging filmmaker and creator of
, a comedy and sci-fi YouTube series. He also wrote a short film called
The Black Ghiandol
, in which a young man—played by Conti himself—“risks his life to save the girl he loves, after his family is wiped out during a zombie apocalypse,” a synopsis reads (as quoted by Metro.co.uk). Instead of letting the script languish on his computer hard drive, Conti ended up turning the project into a real-life movie.
—a nonprofit organization that helps teens or children with serious medical conditions create short films with the help of a star-studded cast and crew—caught wind of his project, and offered to lend him a hand.
The Black Ghiandol
ended up starring Depp and Lynch, along with actors Laura Dern and J.K. Simmons. As for its directors, they included horror movie heavy-hitter Sam Raimi (
Evil Dead
, 1981), Catherine Hardwicke (
Twilight
, 2008), and Theodore Melfi (
St. Vincent
, 2014). The movie shoot ran for five days, and the film is currently in post-production. Check out some pictures taken during the filming process below, or watch a video of Conti describing his project.