Zyzzyx Road Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Penney

John Penney is a writer who spent much of his time on science fiction fare such as "Return of the Living Dead III" and the William Hurt film "Contaminated Man". In 2009, he and "Zyzzyx Road" producer Leo Grillo teamed up to produce "Magic", a family film about an angel who appears in the form of a magical dog.
The basic plot of "Zyzzyx Road": A salesman named Grant hooks up with a Lolita-like teen named Marissa. When her crazy ex-boyfriend comes back, Grant winds up killing him and they bury the body in the desert. Except the dead boyfriend isn't as dead as they thought, and he seeks some payback.
Halpern directed a similarly titled film "Zzyzx", released around the same time. Yuzna directed "Return of the Living Dead III". Hickox directed "Contaminated Man".

Answer: Katherine Heigl

At the time she was cast, Heigl had been in about a dozen films, including "My Father the Hero" (1994) and "Bride of Chucky" (1998). She had just shot the pilot for "Grey's Anatomy" in early 2004. Heigl won an Emmy Award for playing Dr Izzie Stevens in 2007. Thora Birch was offered the role of Marissa, but turned it down.

Answer: Accountant

Grant was a married accountant leading a rather boring life. At the start of the film, he is in Las Vegas to meet with some of his accounting clients. He gets distracted when he meets Marissa (Katherine Heigl) and has a torrid affair with her.
While Grillo has done some acting over the years, his main passion is animal rights. In 1981, he founded DELTA Rescue, a no-kill animal shelter in Southern California. It is one of the largest animal shelters in the world, with spaces for over 1500 animals. Grillo has also made several documentaries about animals and animal rights issues.

Answer: Tom Sizemore

At first it was uncertain whether Sizemore would be in the film. As filming started, he was arrested for a probation violation involving drugs. Fortunately, the judge released him so he could work on the film. In 2003, Sizemore was convicted of beating his former girlfriend, infamous Hollywood Madame Heidi Fleiss. Sizemore began acting in 1989, when he debuted in "Blue Steel." Since then, he's specialized in tough guys, generally cops or military men and a mobster now and then.

His credits include "Saving Private Ryan" (1997), "Heat" (1995), "Natural Born Killers" (1994), "Pearl Harbor" (2001) and "Black Hawk Down" (2001).

He has also done a great deal of television work, often appearing on police procedurals such as "Law & Order" and the new "Hawaii 5-0".

Answer: Much of the film was a hallucination by Grant.

At the end, it is revealed that most of the film after the fight between Joey and Grant was actually a hallucination on the part of Grant. Joey is still alive, and locked in a closet.

Answer: Mojave Desert

Zyzzyx Road (correctly spelled Zzyzx) is a real-life location, an exit off of Interstate 15 in the desert near Baker, California. The town was named by Curtis Howe Springer in 1944, and located on the site of a hot springs. Filming took place for three weeks in August 2004.
The road also plays a part in Michael Connelly's crime novel "The Narrows." The serial killer uses it as a location to bury his victims.

Answer: Auto mechanic

Rickey Medlocke played the meth maker, Yorlin Madera played the truck driver and Di Koob was the roulette dealer.
Medlocke was a guitarist with Lynyrd Skynryd back in the 1990s, before he went into acting. Madera, a native of the Dominican Republic, is also in the 2008 film "Insanitarium", about cannibalistic psychos. Koob has a role in Penney's 2009 film "Magic" about a magical dog.

Answer: Dallas, Texas

The film was shown once a day at noon, February 25 to March 2, 2006. Its reported box office was $30, and producer Leo Grillo gave $10 back to one of his crew members and a friend who attended a screening. It actually cost them $1000 to rent the theater for the week.

At the time, the film received a lot of attention on the Internet as "the lowest grossing film of all time" and was even covered in The New York Times", "Time" and "Newsweek".

Answer: Required to by union contract

The film had to play in the United States for one week in order to meet the requirements of the Screen Actors Guild for low-budget films. Producer Grillo hoped to release the film to foreign markets before selling it in the US.

Answer: false

The film has been released in at least 23 foreign countries, including Australia, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Portugal and Spain. While they had not made back the reported cost of production after four years, they have made more than the $30 that was reported in the United States.