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Post by muthagoose on Jul 15, 2004 11:07:05 GMT -5
Variety reports that George Romero is set to direct "Land of the Dead," a horror film that picks up on the zombie saga he hatched with "Night of the Living Dead" and continued with "Dawn of the Dead" and "Day of the Dead."
Pic, from Romero's own script, is being co-financed by Atmosphere Entertainment and Paris-based Wild Bunch. Production will begin in October in Winnipeg or Pittsburgh. Latter was the site of shooting for Romero's original 1968 zombie trilogy.
New film will be produced by Atmosphere chairman-CEO Mark Canton and prexy Bernie Goldmann, along with Romero's partner Peter Grunwald of Romero Grunwald Prods. Atmosphere's Steve Barnett is exec producer.
Go picture is the first for Atmosphere, which Canton formed late last year with financing from Daedalus Media Partners principal Mark J. Kimsey. While the company hatched a surplus of scripts Canton brought from previous ventures, "Land of the Dead" is a new script buy.
In Romero's new pic, 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. 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.
Canton said Romero's early work was the touchstone for a slew of current horror hits and that his script showed the master hadn't lost his touch.
He and Goldmann described the film as "Night of the Living Dead" meets "The Road Warrior," and Wild Bunch's Vincent Grimond sparked to the overseas potential. The two companies have the ability to cover the budget themselves but expect to land a domestic distributor before the zombies wreak havoc in the fall.
Romero had been developing "Diamond Dead," a black comedy musical that's being produced by Scott Free and Andrew Gaty, and he also scripted an adaptation of the Stephen King novel "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon," which he may direct for Canadian financier Don Archibald and Lions Gate. But he jumped at the chance to dig up the dead again.
"People ask me why I've waited so long to do another 'Dead' film," Romero said. "I made one in the '60s, one in the '70s and one in the '80s. The only reason I missed the '90s is because I wanted to stay faithful to the tradition while coming up with something new."
Romero's new film will have a budget in the teens. The original cost $140,000 and grossed $20 million worldwide, becoming one of the most profitable films of all time. The first sequel, "Dawn of the Dead" cost $1.2 million and grossed $40 million worldwide."
Note: George Romero will be at Horrorfind Weekend 2004.
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Post by LotB on Jul 15, 2004 19:04:48 GMT -5
I'll look forward to seeing this film.
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Post by Stomper on Jul 25, 2004 15:25:46 GMT -5
Thank god! We finally get another "Dead" movie! On my list of most anticipated films!
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Post by Stomper on Aug 8, 2004 10:04:42 GMT -5
Looks like Romero's tradition of filming his "Dead" movies in Pittsburgh is coming to an end. Lack of budget has forced him to move the movie to Toronto, Canada. Hopefully the money they saved will be put to good use, more blood and guts. I guess we'll know soon. Anyway, read the story over at Creature Corner: www.creature-corner.com/news4/aug05landofthedeadtoronto.php3 |
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Post by LotB on Aug 8, 2004 19:37:11 GMT -5
I've heard that Toronto and Vancouver give big breaks to flim makers. Seems like a hell of a lot of movies get shot there these days. It'll be cool to see some Canadian brains getting eaten.
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Post by Üncle Snake on Aug 8, 2004 20:03:19 GMT -5
Vancouver is a great place to shoot. The first five seasons of The X-Files were shot there. Just about any type of location you need is there. That means you can save money on building sets and shoot a lot of what you need on location.
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Post by LotB on Aug 8, 2004 21:13:21 GMT -5
Just finished watching the finale of "The 4400." Towards the end of the credits, sure enough, was the line "filmed on location in Vancouver." I'm going to start paying more attention to this sort of thing.
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Post by muthagoose on Aug 31, 2004 13:22:53 GMT -5
A word from the Horror Channel regarding Tom Savini...
Now that George Romero's Land of the Dead is finally off the ground and almost ready to begin shooting, the cast announcements should be coming in shortly. This weekend at Rue Morgue's Festival of Fear, Tom Savini talked a little bit about the fourth zombie flick and his involvement, which is quit interesting. Read on for the scoop...
The Horror Channel writes, "During a panel at this past weekend's Rue Morgue Festival of Fear convention up in Toronto, Tom Savini gave the crowd quite an earful in terms of what his role in the 4th installment of Romero's legendary film series could be.
Picture this if you will: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of the last "living strongholds" on the planet, is completely cordoned off. Droves of hungry zombies are clawing at the city?s borders, desperately trying to get a taste of the only "fresh meat" around. The city is patrolled and protected by a tank called "The Dead Reckoning." Every tank needs a crew. Every crew needs a leader. Enter Tom Savini.
Savini is in negotiations to co-star in the film as one of the leaders of a salvage team that goes out in the Dead Reckoning to search for supplies and/or survivors. It gets more interesting than this though, folks. Savini mentioned that one of George's plans for him is to run into and kill Blades, his original character from Dawn. As you can imagine, Blades is pretty much the worse for wear and will have a bloated look as he met his "earthly" demise in a fountain some time ago.
According to Ryan's report, nothing is official right now; this is just what's on the table. George has stated that no one has officially signed onto the project as of yet except for KNB, which will be providing what I am sure will be the best Dead FX ever. Romero has also stated that he's very interested in having Asia Argento onboard for the project, but again, nothing is for sure."
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Post by muthagoose on Sept 10, 2004 7:57:05 GMT -5
Here it is folks, the date that will mark the end of George Romero's long overdue zombie journey with 'Land of the Dead', the fourth and final of his planned sequels.
The official release date for the now dubbed George Romero's Land of the Dead is October 21st, 2005!
Following 'Night of the Living Dead,' 'Dawn of the Dead' and 'Day of the Dead,' 'Land' begins when 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.
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Post by Üncle Snake on Sept 24, 2004 10:03:04 GMT -5
Fangoria reports that a cast has been set for George Romero's long-awaited return to the zombie genre - "Land of the Dead". Simon Baker, Asia Argento and John Leguizamo will play soldiers who are among the living survivors in a walled city surrounded by a zombie-populated wasteland.
The trio set out to do battle with the massing creatures in an armored vehicle called the Dead Reckoning. Also in the cast is Robert Joy, a veteran of genre pics, joining previously announced Dennis Hopper. "Land" hopes to launch a series of undead films, begins production on October 11th in Toronto.
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Post by Üncle Snake on Apr 27, 2005 22:47:18 GMT -5
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Post by Ponyone on Apr 27, 2005 22:55:30 GMT -5
It looks ok i guess...Whats with The Resident Evil music in the trailer though?
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Post by muthagoose on Apr 28, 2005 8:02:00 GMT -5
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Post by Captain Obvious on Apr 28, 2005 12:15:35 GMT -5
It looks ok i guess...Whats with The Resident Evil music in the trailer though? I was thinking the same thing, it seems very unlike George Romero to put a hard rock track to one of his films, maybe it was a last minute type-a-thing |
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Post by CaticusRex on Apr 28, 2005 21:05:03 GMT -5
Teaser looks decent but what can you really infer from the little that they show you...
the music didn`t sound too "resident evil-esque" ...more of a newer sound from the Day of the Dead music..
Hope it doesn`t get lost in all the hype of the summer movie season...
THIS I COMMAND
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Post by Ponyone on Jun 23, 2005 21:17:37 GMT -5
Here is a George A. Romero interview that was interesting...
Knight of the living dead
*Zombies are George Romero's specialty, and he's about to unleash them for the first time in 20 years.
By Robert Abele, Special to The Times
As he sips iced coffee in the restaurant of the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel, filmmaker George Romero — the father or, at 65, the grandfather of modern horror films — admits what's scaring him these days: June 24.
"It's terrifying to be opening up in summer," says Romero of his latest zombie opus, "Land of the Dead." It hits theaters Friday — 37 years after the debut of his seminal flesh-eating flick "Night of the Living Dead" and 20 years since his last undead venture, "Day of the Dead."
Originally planned for a Halloween release, Universal bumped up the $18-million film as a sign of confidence in the highly anticipated gorefest. And although early reviews have been raves, Romero says, "I just hope it's not too much of a specialty niche thing. We're sandwiched between 'Batman' and 'War of the Worlds.' Gulp."
Romero, a gangly, soft-spoken man with mad scientist-like black horn-rimmed glasses, has never had the rep of a journeyman scaremeister or no-holds-barred stylist, but instead that of a painterly satirist, a cinematic Bosch.
His zombie sagas, which also include the critically lauded 1979 masterpiece "Dawn of the Dead" (the remake of which was a hit last year), are splatter-happy and sweat-inducing survival dramas, but, as Romero says modestly, he likes "to throw in some observations about what's going on in the world."
"Night" evoked Vietnam-era bloodshed and, with its black male lead trapped in a farmhouse, echoed civil rights hysteria. "Dawn" poked fun at soul-deadening consumerism. And "Day" addressed ethics in science. With "Land," Romero tackles issues of safety and boundaries, showing a community fortifying itself against a murderous horde while its wealthiest keep alive class divisions separating them from the powerless.
"It's the folly of saying, 'Everything's OK, don't worry about it,' " says Romero, who wrote "Land" before the events of Sept. 11. Its focus then was about "ignoring social ills, setting up a synthetic sense of comfort."
He says he didn't have to tweak it much to reflect new fears of terrorism. When told that it's hard not to think of Iraq watching an armored car of trigger-happy humans roll through a zombiefied suburb shooting anything they see, Romero smiles. "That's one of the things I put in there afterward."
Producer Mark Canton, who quickly secured a deal at Universal for "Land" after it had languished at 20th Century Fox, says, "Once again, George has a lot of layers to this movie. It's thoughtful, it's societal, it's political, and it's very cool.... It's the return of the master."
There were the pilgrimages of fans trekking to Toronto last winter for the freezing, all-nights "Land" shoot to fulfill lifelong dreams of being a Romero zombie. Two of those were Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, who created last year's respectful zombie spoof "Shaun of the Dead," which Romero loved. "They're the zombies at the photo booth," tips Romero to their cameo in the film. "They shot their own little film [while] on set, and it's going to be on the DVD."
Romero is busily assembling the unrated DVD edition, so although the R-rated theatrical release has plenty of the crunchy, squishy, visceral extravagance that is the hallmark of a "Dead" movie, the carnage will linger a bit longer for home video.
Until "Land," Romero's MPAA dealings were few — his zombie movies typically go out unrated. And when the MPAA did get involved, it inevitably became about frame counts, something Romero is still puzzled by. "An old film I made called 'Martin,' there's a scene where Martin cuts a woman's wrist, and it took 28 frames. They said, 'Make it 17 frames.' Is that going to protect anyone's innocence?... Either take it out or leave it in."
His is an old-fashioned soul, though, when it comes to what he calls "the personality of horror." "Land" even opens with Universal's '30s-era black-and-white logo, a touch Romero requested as a signal that he aligns himself with the studio's heyday of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy, pictures he first saw as a kid in Bronx movie theaters. (He's lived in Pittsburgh since college.)
And although he found last year's "Dawn" remake "pretty well-made," he dismisses the new vogue of sprinting zombies, a feature of "28 Days Later," the 2003 movie that sparked the zombie resurgence.
"I grew up on these slow-mov-ing-but-you-can't-stop-them[creatures], where you've got to find the Achilles' heel, or in this case, the Achilles' brain," he says, referring to the organ whose destruction waylays a zombie. "In [the remake] they're just dervishes, you don't recognize any of them, there's nothing to characterize them.... [But] I like to give even incidental zombies a bit of identification. I just think it's a nice reminder that they're us. They walked out of one life and into this." (One of the lead zombies in "Land" is a former gas station attendant.)
In Romero's world, the extras are the leads, and the scariest idea in "Land" might be just how much he doesn't take them for granted.
"I'm focused on advancing them mentally," he adds, referring to ways he envisions the franchise continuing. "I say jokingly that my guys will take out library cards before they join a gym."
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Post by muthagoose on Jun 28, 2005 7:24:57 GMT -5
Land of the Dead on DVD
Romero promises more character development and effects on DVD.
June 27, 2005 - George Romero's Land of the Dead opened this week to a respectable $10 million in box office receipts, so it comes as little surprise that the director is already discussing opportunities not only for the forthcoming DVD, but potential sequels. Describing the inevitable unrated version that will appear on DVD, he confesses that much of the material will be character-building content rather than simply extra gore. "There's a few things," he says. "There is one scene in particular where [John Leguizamo's] Cholo, before he meets [Dennis Hopper's] Kaufman, he goes into a neighboring penthouse and finds a human that hung himself and has to kill him. That was a scene that we felt didn't turn out as effectively as it could have and we didn't think it was necessary so that's really the only major scene from the original script that's gone."
"The DVD version, we are working on it now," he reveals. "I think it's about six minutes longer, but it's all just adding back or putting in some effects that were excised and putting in some little things like little bits of dialogue in existing scenes that we cut out just to tighten the pace. It's mostly that, and that penthouse scene."
Romero says that he employed a few CGI tricks to bypass some of the MPAA's objections to the film's gore for the theatrical cut, but did not indicate whether the shots would be restored for the DVD. "Universal was more willing to pony up a little more dough, [so] we got an extra few days to try and improve on some of the gore things and dance around the MPAA a little bit by doing the shadow thing and smoke thing to indicate what was going on without actually having it in your face."
"I used Kubrick's trick on green screen," he explains. "I shot figures walking by so if there was a particular gory shot I could composite it and walk someone in front of it." He marvels at the MPAA's vigilance when it comes to excising or editing questionable footage. "It's amazing sometimes that the MPAA will do a frame count."
"Like nobody knows what's going on here? If it's eight frames shorter it's okay? But I guess they have to be diligent and that's the only way that they measure it. 'Make that a little shorter so it will be alright'," he says, imitating their response.
Beyond the DVD and its many iterations, Romero says he has a few projects on deck, including the Showtime series Masters of Horror and a potential Dead sequel. "Masters of Horror is something I am hoping to do," he says. "It's going to depend, I guess; it's sort of related to what happens with this. If this opens strong, I might be in a situation where I might have to do another one of these or would be asked to do another one of these right away, in which case I've sort of left the [story open-ended]."
"I'd almost want to make chapter two of the same movie if that happens," he continues. "Just sort of finish the story and I have an idea of where to go with and in my mind just think of them both as one movie. So if that happens I may not be able to do the Masters of Horror."
Although Masters enlisted other horror greats such as John Carpenter, he says that simple timing may prohibit Romero's involvement. "I've been so tied up on this thing that I haven't been able to write a script for [the show], he confesses. "Mick sent me a couple of scripts and a couple of them are pretty nice. I'm still hoping that I can get a couple of weeks and still be able to do that." At the same time, the independent-minded moviemaker reveals he has a few other ideas up his sleeve, even if neither of his immediate interests play out.
"I have a couple of other things that we are working on, but everything would get trumped if they want to do a sequel to this."
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Post by muthagoose on Nov 29, 2005 15:23:07 GMT -5
Moviehole talked to George Romero on Monday and the director spoke about his upcoming slate of projects.
He confirmed he is considering a sequel to "Land of the Dead" which would be a theatrical release, possibly shot in Australia, and if it goes ahead "I think I will probably just continue the same story - follow the truck, in which case, those characters (including Simon Baker) would be back" says Romero.
There's no plans for direct to video sequels despite rumours, the gossip most likely spread because Romero is trying to promote a direct to video series of zombie films - but they have nothing to do with his 'Dead' franchise.
Romero still hopes to do his "Diamond Dead" project, but is right now working on two Stephen King adaptations - "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" and "From a Buick 8".
NOTE TO PONYONE: Maybe you can change the thread name to "All Things George A. Romero"[/i]
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Post by muthagoose on Oct 6, 2006 14:07:18 GMT -5
GEORGE A. ROMERO HOSPITALIZED
We've received confirmation from two separate sources that Night of the Living Dead Director George A. Romero collapsed last week and was hospitalized. No word yet on the reason for the collapse, but it doesn't look good as the start date for Diary of the Dead has been pushed back two months. In addition, he has also canceled his personal appearances for the next couple of months, therefor he won't be appearing at Eerie or Shock and Rock. Inside we have a little note from Chris Roe that gives a little more confirmation to this horrible news. All of our best goes out to George and his family. Get well soon!! Texas Chainsaw Massacre
From Shock and Rock's Website:
"PLEASE NOTE: "It is with great saddness and regret that I must inform you that Mr. Romero will be unable to attend Rock and Shock this year. Due to unforseen medical reasons, which are not life threatening, Mr Romero has been given doctors orders not to travel for the next few weeks. He regrets not being there to meet with his fans, but he simply can not attend at this time. He does however hope that he will be invited back for future events."
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Post by muthagoose on Nov 7, 2006 8:59:19 GMT -5
George A. Romero's: Diary of the Dead
A year after a moderate successful release of Universal's Land of the Dead here in the States and a very impressive overseas run, George A. Romero is once again on top of the zombie world and ready for another mouthful of flesh. We broke the news way back last summer that Romero wanted to begin a brand new trilogy of the dead, starting with Land, with the second film being entitled World of the Dead. No news has surfaced since then and I had thought that maybe it was dead in the water - but alas I was wrong! Welcome to George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead! Read on for the official news and plot details!
The dead are rising again.
The Hollywood Reporter writes that horror maven George A. Romero has signed on to write and direct "George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead," the latest sequel to his 1968 cult classic "Night of the Living Dead."
With a story mixing elements of "The Blair Witch Project" and the long-running "Dead" series, the film will follow a group of college students shooting a horror movie in the woods who stumble upon a real zombie uprising. When the onslaught begins, they seize the moment as any good film students would, capturing the undead in a "cinema verite" style that causes more than the usual production headaches.
After going more than two decades without making an independently financed zombie film, Romero told his production partner Peter Grunwald he was frustrated working within the system. "I was trying to convince Peter we could just run off and do it ourselves," he said.
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THE TIMELINE...
Diary will be going back to the time of the initial outbreak, according to Dread Central.
"I wanted a new set of characters and have them deal with these events as they first come," says Romero. "I also want to deal with things from a very different perspective." Romero continues, "I want to do this from a subjective kind of view with no music. You know, something really raw... so it's kind of a stylistic experiment, a low budget, under the radar kind of thing that's just sort of from the heart."
But here's the shocker, Romero is more interested in releasing in a direct-to-video capacity instead of theatrically, although that might happen as well, DC writes.
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CASTING...
Shawn Roberts (Land of the Dead) is the first to be cast in George A Romero's Diary of the Dead, which is currently lensing in Toronto, Canada, according to Variety. Dread Central adds that Joshua Close (The Exorcism of Emily Rose), Michelle Morgan (Alien Fire), Jon Dinicoi (Weirdsville), Phillip Riccio (Rent-A-Goallie), and Scott Wentworth (Elizabeth Rex) have also joined!
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Post by muthagoose on Jul 3, 2007 21:44:06 GMT -5
"Diary of the Dead" News...
With George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead still waiting a release, the infamous zombie director kick started an official blog on his MySpace page with a letter to his fans.
With a story mixing elements of "The Blair Witch Project" and the long-running "Dead" series, the film will follow a group of college students shooting a horror movie in the woods who stumble upon a real zombie uprising. When the onslaught begins, they seize the moment as any good film students would, capturing the undead in a "cinema verite" style that causes more than the usual production headaches.
From Romero's MySpace:
Hi, guys,
Lemme tell ya about Diary of the Dead. I love it. It's the first film since my original Night of the Living Dead that I can say is completely my own.
I've been trying to work under-the-radar, with no hype or press, but lately I've started hearing all kinds of shit about "What's goin' on with Romero?" "What's with his new film?"
Gimme a break over here! I'm up in Toronto workin' my ass off, making Diary the best it can be. Truth is, I'm having a blast. I've gone home to the kind of filmmaking that I used to do, back in the day.
Diary is a hundred percent independent, made with my partner, Peter Grunwald, and our new friends at Artfire. I haven't had this much freedom since 1968. The cast, of what film critics will probably call "unknowns" (they won't be for long) is, in my opinion, fuckin' great.
This one comes from my heart. It's not a sequel or a remake. It's a whole new beginning for the dead.
Thanks to all of you who are out there waiting and wondering. You guys, the fans, have always kept me going. Now Diary's keeping me going, night, dawn, and day.
I love this movie. I hope you will, too. I'll be back here from time to time to keep you posted. Stay tuned.
Stay scared.
George A. Romero
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Post by muthagoose on Aug 2, 2007 21:23:11 GMT -5
Romero To Remake His Own "Witch"
George Romero says he would like to remake his film "Hungry Wives" (aka. "Season of the Witch") as he never really managed to complete it properly the first time.
The story sees a bored suburban housewife turn to tarot cards for a reading and slowly gets drawn into a world of witchcraft where she believes she is a real witch. Her real life begins to seep into her fantasy world and before long tragedy ensues.
Talking with IGN News at Comic Con, Romero says "I've always felt that it's not really a complete work. We sort of managed to get a rope around it and finish it in a halfway decent way, but it's the only one that I'd like to redo."
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Post by muthagoose on Nov 29, 2007 13:28:43 GMT -5
George A. Romero Presents ...
Deadtime Stories, Now Filming!
The creator of the movie "Night of the Living Dead" will partner with a writer-actor from Connellsville to film a horror anthology in Fayette County, according to CBS (thanks to 'Capt Howdy' for sending in the story). Pittsburgh-based filmmaker George Romero is collaborating with Jeff Monahan to make George A. Romero Presents ... Deadtime Stories. Monahan has appeared in the films "Lone Star" and Romero's "Bruiser." He says each installment of the anthology will consist of three stories and will be suitable for a DVD or cable TV release. Filming of the first story, "Dust," is scheduled to begin today at the Penn State campus in Fayette County, as well as at a house and graveyard in Connellsville. The second story, "On Sabbath Hill," is to be shot the following week in Uniontown and at Seton Hill University in Greensburg.
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Post by muthagoose on Jan 11, 2008 13:58:49 GMT -5
George A. Romero's Diary of the DeadIt's finally here, the official trailer for George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, which is playing at this month's Sundance and opens in theaters February 15 from Dimension Films.
View it here:vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=25823794The film will follow a group of college students shooting a horror movie in the woods who stumble upon a real zombie uprising. When the onslaught begins, they seize the moment as any good film students would, capturing the undead in a "cinema verite" style that causes more than the usual production headaches.
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Post by muthagoose on Jan 25, 2008 21:58:44 GMT -5
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