Romero to Step Up with New Dead Flick

I for one say, not a moment too soon. We need the King of Zombie movies to come back before anyone else can butcher his work like Dawn 04. Romero promises more societal satire, no running zombies, and true to form, as little CGI as possible. He says also that the zombies are 'learning'.

www.scifi.com...

Romero Raises New Dead Film

George Romero is set to direct Land of the Dead, a horror film that picks up the zombie saga that began in Romero's original Night of the Living Dead and continued with Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, Variety reported. Based on Romero's own script, the movie will begin production in October in Winnipeg, Manitoba, or Pittsburgh, the site of shooting for Romero's original 1968 zombie trilogy.

In Land of the Dead, the zombies having taken over the world, and those left alive are confined to a walled-in city that keeps out the corpses. Anarchy rules the streets, with the wealthy insulated and living in fortified skyscrapers, and the movie revolves around a group of scavengers who must thwart an attempt to overthrow the city while the dead are evolving from brainless slow-moving creatures into more advanced creatures, the trade paper reported.

All praise Romero. Hopefully, this will revive this most excellent movie anthology.

www.homepageofthedead.com...

[Edited on 7/23/2004 by zsandmann]

Well I thought this might interest some of you, I know I about fell out of my chair when I read it, but I guess there are no Dead Heads around here. Too bad.

No offence, but this is old news as he has been working on it for years. Don't bet to much on the title as he has changes it three times already.

In the film, the zombies having taken over the world and those left alive are confined to a walled-in city that keeps out the corpse corps. Anarchy rules the streets, with the wealthy insulated and living in fortified skyscrapers. The drama revolves around a group of scavengers who must thwart an attempt to overthrow the city while the dead are evolving from brainless slow-moving creatures into more advanced creatures.

LATEST NEWS

7/21/04
The web has been buzzing about the recent announcement that the next entry in the Dead series was a "go" and now the Horror Channel has a little article up speaking with the man himself, George Romero, where he reveals more details on the project. Check it here.

7/20/04
Writer/Director George Romero spoke with HorrorWeb recently, revealing info on this film and various other past and future projects. When speaking of this film the following was revealed: South Africa is another location that they're looking at; this will not be the last of the Dead series as long s he's alive; lastly he varified that the film would most likely be cut for the theatrical release, but get unrated version for DVD.

He was also quoted saying he'd love to have Tom Savini have a role in the film and "love to give him maybe a special zombie, if Greg [Greg Nicotero - FX artist] would let Tom do one particular character or something that would be great, but I need to clear that with Greg."

He then went on to say how he'll need a little CGI in the film in certain sequences, like one needing to show the audience a large number of zombies together, and also to "take half a zombies face off". You can read the whole interview here.

7/18/04
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette posted an article in the paper speaking of the production and how it may really come to them when it's time to begin filming. Romero was quoted saying: "Obviously, I would love to do it here. It's written for here." Former Pittsburgher and president of Atmosphere Entertainment Bernie Goldmann also added "we'll make the decision in the next couple of days."

He then went on to say... "I think George has written a great script. He's updated the whole 'Living Dead' series. He's a great guy, a great director. He created the genre, and it's great to work with the master." The project is tentatively set with a budgeted at between $15 million and $20 million, and the story revolves around a time when the world has been overrun by zombies and what remains of the civilization has retreated into wallad communities. Romero went on to say... "It's about ignoring the problem. The protagonists are commandos who have to go out where the zombies are to bring in food and supplies." You can read more on the article and how everyone seems enthused about it possibly being shot in Pittsburg here.

7/15/04
Variety revealed a lil' more details on the project -- Production is set in October in either Winnipeg or Pittsburgh (original location for the previous films). The above plot is the official one posted on Variety.

7/09/04
The title has been changed from Dead Reckoning to Land of the Dead. Also, writer/director George Romero spoke with Fango recently, revealing that the project is being financed independently with one "big-name producer" attached. He then went onto acknowledge the lack of freedom he'll have with this film compared to the previous two, saying...

"The producers want major distribution, so I�m sure that the first release version, in this country anyway, will have to be R-rated. I don�t think they�ll want to go NC-17. But they�re gonna let me shoot the film the way I want to, and they�ll let me do the cutbacks for release. Hopefully the fans will still show up, and then see the [unrated] edition later on video."

He hopes to have the film rolling in October.

6/14/04
Things have been brewing recently on the status of this project and whether it'll actually happen. There were rumors a while back that this was grenlit and Romero was putting Diamond Dead aside to work on it, but that was false. Though, there is some small truth behind it, because according to Producer Andrew Gaty at the official Diamond Dead website, he mentions that Romero's project may be moving forward and they have to decide which to work on first -- they can do one in October while another can begin next Spring.

2/12/04
Director George Romero recently talked with the UK-horror mag Shivers about this film saying... "I think Dead Reckoning could be the best Dead film I've ever done, but everyone in Hollywood's obsessed with doing Teenage Horror films and it's tough to raise financing, even for someone with a track record like myself, and everyone who's read Dead Reckoning loves it. It's a story about a class struggle amidst the zombie apocalypse with the rich and the poor living opposite each other - the haves don't want to be exposed to the zombies and they don't want to share their community with the have-knots. The Dead Reckoning is this monster truck that the hero of the story travels around in. Maybe if Dawn of the Dead's a hit, it will help my film get made." Thanks to CC.

1/09/04
George Romero is currently doing revisions for the script. Nothing else new, but at least we know he's still workin' on it.

1/03/03
Rumors have been going around that Fox has picked up the rights for the film. There has been no official word about it yet and it's still unclear if it will go direct-to-video or have a theatrical release.

N/A Date
Its been reported that that at this year's Fangoria Weekend of Horrors, George Romero said... "I do have a script at Fox for a fourth zombie film, which looks like it's going to happen...It's going to be the most expensive one...They're basically going to let me make my film and cut it back for R-rated release." The good news is then the DVD will be the full unrated version of the film which'll be budgeted at about $10 million.

From: www.upcominghorrormovies.com...

Yes he has had the script for years. It was originally called Dead Reckoning. The news is that it is being made, starting with filming in October. It has been on hold by Fox, so he sold it out to a new film company that was interested. IT is HUGE news to Dead fans.

plenty of intrest I linked something like this a while back the dimond dead it hink he's calling it ? big zombie fan here

Yeah the Diamond Dead is a dark comedy about a rock band that dies, comes back as zombies and continues to play. He has put it on hold till Land OTD is completed now. Then he will choose to either pursue Diamond or do a movie with Stephen King about bears.