Romero’s Diary: Dead

Zombie maestro George Romero’s DIARY OF THE DEAD is playing at the Toronto Film Festival, and his fifth undead film seems to be receiving generally positive word of mouth. Unfortunately there’s no telling when you might actually see it yourself.

Distribution rights to the movie have been grabbed by the always-ravenous Weinsteins, whose baffling and sporadic acquisition and release strategies guarantee there’s no way of telling when it will actually shamble into theaters, if ever. Perhaps they’ll just stuff it in their vault for a couple of years before quietly putting it on DVD shelves. Or maybe they’ll pair it with another horror movie and release it on Easter weekend, and then puzzle why it tanked. Who can say?

Weinstein Co. most recently displayed their apparent disdain for genre material when they goinked the buzzed acquisition ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE — which they picked up at last year’s Toronto Fest — from their schedule a week before its intended release (it comes in early 2008 from Senator).

Romero’s latest mix of social commentary and mobile deceased is a “first-person” story of film students who find themselves in a real horror movie.