Watur2Phunk
09-24-2004, 08:32 PM
A young woman must kill 365 people with the help of a rock band that she accidentally killed and brought back to life.
After years of little activity, George A. Romero is suddenly busier than a flesh-eating ghoul in a shopping mall. Two film projects—the rock-and-roll horror film DIAMOND DEAD and his fourth official entry in his classic zombie series, LAND OF THE DEAD–are now closer to reality than ever before. In fact, after so many false starts and unrealized projects, Romero is now dealing with a different sort of issue. “I’m suddenly faced with a problem of both films having financing, and I believe LAND OF THE DEAD is going to go first, since that deal is basically complete. But I love DIAMOND DEAD, and I hope the money people will wait for me, instead of trying to find someone else to do it.”
Both movies have independent financing, although Romero says that LAND OF THE DEAD (formerly DEAD RECKONING) has a big-name producer behind it. “I can’t say who it is yet, but it’s a major deal,” the filmmaker says. “I hope they leave us alone and don’t want to ‘Hollywood-ize’ it too much, or spend too much money, but those are battles yet to be fought.”
Romero does acknowledge, however, that there’s a very good chance that the initial release version of LAND OF THE DEAD will not have the same freedoms as his original, unrated DAWN OF THE DEAD and DAY OF THE DEAD. “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.”
The director hopes to begin production on LAND OF THE DEAD in October, with KNB already bidding on the FX work, and Romero says the project is “definitely moving full speed ahead.” He’d love to begin work on DIAMOND DEAD immediately afterward, possibly in the spring; the project’s website can be accessed here. A third film—Romero’s adaptation of Stephen King’s THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, is waiting in the wings and could also roll by mid-2005, and the director will executive-produce a Paramount remake of his 1973 film THE CRAZIES, being scripted by Scott (TEXAS CHAINSAW) Kosar. While juggling all these projects could be stressful to some, Romero is perfectly happy: “It’s nice to know that I might be working! I’ve been sitting on my ass for too long. But, yeah, things look really good right now.” —Don Kaye
This sounds like it could be so badass.
After years of little activity, George A. Romero is suddenly busier than a flesh-eating ghoul in a shopping mall. Two film projects—the rock-and-roll horror film DIAMOND DEAD and his fourth official entry in his classic zombie series, LAND OF THE DEAD–are now closer to reality than ever before. In fact, after so many false starts and unrealized projects, Romero is now dealing with a different sort of issue. “I’m suddenly faced with a problem of both films having financing, and I believe LAND OF THE DEAD is going to go first, since that deal is basically complete. But I love DIAMOND DEAD, and I hope the money people will wait for me, instead of trying to find someone else to do it.”
Both movies have independent financing, although Romero says that LAND OF THE DEAD (formerly DEAD RECKONING) has a big-name producer behind it. “I can’t say who it is yet, but it’s a major deal,” the filmmaker says. “I hope they leave us alone and don’t want to ‘Hollywood-ize’ it too much, or spend too much money, but those are battles yet to be fought.”
Romero does acknowledge, however, that there’s a very good chance that the initial release version of LAND OF THE DEAD will not have the same freedoms as his original, unrated DAWN OF THE DEAD and DAY OF THE DEAD. “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.”
The director hopes to begin production on LAND OF THE DEAD in October, with KNB already bidding on the FX work, and Romero says the project is “definitely moving full speed ahead.” He’d love to begin work on DIAMOND DEAD immediately afterward, possibly in the spring; the project’s website can be accessed here. A third film—Romero’s adaptation of Stephen King’s THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, is waiting in the wings and could also roll by mid-2005, and the director will executive-produce a Paramount remake of his 1973 film THE CRAZIES, being scripted by Scott (TEXAS CHAINSAW) Kosar. While juggling all these projects could be stressful to some, Romero is perfectly happy: “It’s nice to know that I might be working! I’ve been sitting on my ass for too long. But, yeah, things look really good right now.” —Don Kaye
This sounds like it could be so badass.