Our own JimmyO recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk to horror legend George A. Romero, topics ranging from SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, to zombie flicks in general, to older films Romero’s directed that he wouldn’t mind remaking.
But don’t let me spoil it for you–here’s what Romero had to say on the subject of zombies (of which, of course, he’s an expert), and whether we’ll see another zombie film from him: The one thing I’ve never been able to do is cross-collateralize characters, storylines and all that, because the first four films were all owned by different people. So I said, okay, how about this… how about I can take these three characters, I came up immediately with like three storylines. [SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD] is the first one and the second one would probably be about the African-American group, those looters that they meet. And the third one would be, my cleanup hitter would be the blonde that escapes in the end.
And I have the storylines laid out. And if this one makes money, then maybe I’ll get to do the other two, and I’d love to have – I have ideas to weave storylines together and sort of make this little collage or montage of what’s going on in the world three or four months in. I would love to do that. If that happens man, I’d happily just go off and do it. It would be almost like a vacation, I mean, it would be
fun! And I would know, okay, here is what I am doing for the next year and a half. And I think it would really free me up to develop these other ideas that I’ve been working on. I think I would feel freer, to do these, you know, a couple more of these. I would feel like the pressure is off and I don’t need to worry about getting a job and I could develop these ideas even further, think about them more sanely, without having to feel any sort of pressure.
That just about blow your mind? Then how about when asked about remaking one of his own films such as MARTIN or SEASON OF THE WITCH? Here’s what Mr. Romero had to say: The only one is Season of the Witch. I wouldn’t want to touch Martin or Knightriders. I mean, they were of the time and they were of a time in my life and they were sort of specifically targeted. I wouldn’t want to touch them. My ex-partner wanted to remake those and I’ve heard rumors that they’re projects in the wind. So I wouldn’t want to do that. Season of the Witch, I’ve always felt that I could do a better job with it now. And I think I could make it more pertinent today.
You know, I was sort of trying to make a women’s lib movement before I understood anything, [Laughing] I was too young, I was unqualified to say the least. And we also had the people that were financing it; they sort of stopped sending the money. They ran out of money and so we had to budget it on half the money that we were expecting we were gonna have. And I know that I could do a better job with it, and I also think that I could really make it look better and make the story work better today. I actually started a screenplay for that at one point, but I don’t know if I really want to revisit that as opposed to try something new.
And that is that on that. Pretty awesome interview, and you know what… this is just the tip of the iceburg. Be sure to stick around later this week for the entire interview between one JimmyO and one George A. Romero. Oh yes… it’s gonna be epic.
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed