Int: George Romero

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

JoBlo.com/AITH interviews George Romero

If I need to introduce George Romero
to you, then you’re surfing the wrong site “compadre”. The
Godfather of Zombies was our very last interview. We didn’t get him
for as long as we would’ve wished (the man kinda had a movie to
shoot) but we got enough time with the chain smoking lad (He smokes
more than I do…its nuts!) to get a good and clear idea as to his
intentions with this latest entry in the beloved undead series. Ladies
and germs! I give you GEORGE ROMERO! Nough said…

What took you so long
George?

You know, I was never in
a big hurry. I had this conceit that the other movies were so far
apart, I sort of liked the idea of them reflecting certain decades
and I missed the 90’s. Actually what happened to us in the 90’s was
that my partner and I got in development hell, doing deals for
movies that never happened. So I finally got fed up and did Bruiser;
I took off and did a little movie that I wanted to do. I didn’t
really have a script for this developed yet and after Bruiser which
was a commercial disappointment but I really loved it, I loved doing
it and am happy to have it there, I said all right, I’ll try to come
back for the idea for this.

I had the idea brewing in
my mind of people held up in a city somewhere. It’s not really the
idea from the old Day of the Dead script, it’s very different. So I
never got it together, so after Bruiser I actually started writing
the screenplay, finished it, and started sending it out which was
around the time of 911. Everybody said “Oh” we want to make soft and
fuzzy movies now, go home. So I did and then a post 911 mentality
crept into it so I said well that might be even better.

It’s even more
appropriate now!

Yeah that’s what I felt
so I made some adjustments to it and then we were in negotiations
with FOX forever and it just sort of kept dragging and dragging. One
day, it was pure serendipity; a producer was having lunch with my
Agent and said what’s George doing? And he said, he’s trying to get
this thing going!  And the producer said, hey man, I’ll do it. So
all of a sudden after a year long of negotiation, this deal came
together in a couple of weeks.

We’ve heard a lot
about the possible metaphorical and social commentaries about this
film, how much of it is in the picture?

I tried to relate it to a
sort of Post 911 head in America, its like living with terrorism and
the idea of it being a real threat. It’s not exactly what this story
is though, because within this story the whole world knows that the
dead have come back to life. This particular group have tried to set
up a society that ignores the problem and so you can sort of call
the people in the city Bush America, living around the problem,
almost profiting from it.

Do you feel any
pressure from the fans to deliver a solid horror film?

I’m happy with the stuff!
When Day of the Dead first came out, everybody was kind of
disappointed; they though it didn’t pay off enough. I loved it; it’s
become almost my favorite of the three. Man, you make a movie you
just have no idea; you have to take a couple of years away from it
just to watch it and say this works or this doesn’t work. It’s so
hard specially when you’re right in the middle of doing it, it’s
very hard to see it and I haven’t had any time in the editing room
yet. The editors have started on it, assembling scenes, showing me
sort of a rough cut but I don’t have any idea how the whole thing is
holding together. It’s like instrument flying. Right now the editor
is assembling on his own the stuff that we do and then I’ll go in
there and say that’s not what I meant, do this, do that.

So you’re allowed
creative freedom on this movie?

Oh yes, absolutely, I
always stay involved completely, sound mix and all, I’ll be here
till May!

Do you think you’re
redefining the zombie genre with this movie?

I don’t think so.

But you are doing
stuff that’s never been done in a zombie movie before.

Right.

Like Zombies in water.

I don’t think its
redefining, they’ve been evolving, these guys are just a little bit
smarter than Bub (from Day of the Dead), they haven’t gotten to the
Gym yet so they’re not running but they’re brains are evolving.

What’s the rationale
then? In Day of the Dead; it felt like Bub was more domesticated as
opposed to evolving. You’re taking it in a very different direction
then?

They were trying to train
Bub but I didn’t think it was the training. Even at the end of
“Dawn” you see the one guy who trades in one gun for the other nicer
gun. It’s a brief glimpse, a little moment showing that they are
evolving.

Are there any
particular scenes that you are proud of in this movie?

I love the stuff with the
“hero zombies”, it’s my favorite stuff, I’m always more empathetic
towards those characters as opposed to the human characters. In this
case though, the principal cast of humans is also wonderful.

How did you approach
the casting? What were you looking for?

Its funny, I always
though of Asia since I’ve known here since I did Two Evil Eyes with
Dario where he brought her to Pittsburg. So I’ve known her since she
was a little kid. So the moment we started to work on this, I said,
yeah she’d be great. And Dennis, I never would’ve thought that he
would’ve said yes. It was one of those situations where he was
perfect for it. And I feel kind of a connection with him because of
the 60’s; I want to play Steppenwolf every time he comes on set. And
Robert Joy I’ve known for years; he was in Dark Half, so he was
great. And Simon I just met; there’s a Pittsburg connection with
Simon though; because he did a series there named “the Guardian”.

And John?

I can’t believe I haven’t
mentioned John; he’s another guy that like Dennis where I said
forget about it. When I wrote Cholo, I said, it would be great if we
could get somebody like Leguizamo; sort of saying…”wish list”….and
John said yes; I feel incredibly gratified that all these guys said
yes.

You once said; we
could make a Zombie for each decade, sort of a commentary on the
decade.

Well initially I had this
conceit before between the first and the second one, there was so
much time that passed before Dario called. Now this movie is set 2
or 3 years after the phenomenon has started, but the movies
themselves are very far apart. I like the idea that this a is a
continuing saga but the cars are not period cars, its not set in the
60’s and I like the idea of taking it and trying to reflect a little
bit about the decade. That’s why I wanted to set it in the 90’s
because I missed them.

How will the Zombies
reflect our society now?

Its not about the
Zombies, the zombies are just sort walking through all of this man,
its really the humans, their attitudes, the same theme of people not
communicating, things falling apart internally, not dealing with
things. Everybody is still working their own agendas not willing to
give up life as it was. That’s sort of the theme that runs all the
way through it. And this has more of that; the idea of trying to
build a society on glass, and not caring about what’s going on, like
a blind wearing blinders to the problem.

In terms of handling
zombies, when are they easier to handle? When you do the movies or
when you do a comic book like Toe Tags? What’s more satisfying for
you?

That’s really hard to
say; when I did the comic book; the cool thing about that was that
you can always make the shots. It doesn’t cost 200 grand a day to
sit with an artist and take the shot; it’s tremendously free.

Have you considered
doing other comics then?

Well nobody’s ask me to
do another one. But sure I’d love to do it. I had a great time with
it. They were very welcoming and it was a lot of fun. And the art
was amazing!

Land of the Dead wise,
this is a lot of money more than you ever had in the past, its also
under a Studio, how is that changing your process as a filmmaker?

It’s not.

At all?

No man, when you make a
movie, you have 5 bucks or 5 hundred thousands, it’s the same
process. You figure out what this and that is going to cost and do
what you can with it.

The Studio hasn’t been
interfering?

They’ve been wonderful;
the producers are great and I’ve been working with my partner who
keeps me from saying angry things to people when I shouldn’t.

So we’ll get a George
Romero movie.

Yeah man, I think so, so
far.

No Monkey Shines
experience on this one.

Mmm you never know;
actually I did that one with Peter too and we didn’t have any
problem with that until the end. It was just one of those things
where the previews changed the ending.

When you started the
Dead films in the 60’s did you envision how far it would go; was the
whole storyline always in your head?

What happened when I
first started it; I wrote a short story, the first part of it was
basically what became Night of the Living Dead. The second part was
a paragraph and the third part was a sentence where the Zombies rule
the earth. I ripped off Richard Matheson’s “I Am Legend” but instead
of vampires it was ghouls. And I had this sort of simplistic view of
what the end of it all would be; the zombies rule the earth. And
what came to me later; with the second film and in particular
through the third film is that they don’t have to rule the earth so
quickly; it would be nice to see what happens along the way and how
people deal with it.

 It’s become a forum
for me. Most of the time; you’re working off somebody’s novel, or
somebody’s idea and you don’t get a chance to say who you are, have
a little fun, tell a joke, express some of your opinions. And this
has become a format that I can keep going back to as a way to say
“Hey, you know, here’s an idea, here’s a spin on this, here’s the
way I’m thinking and sort of just a little wink; I’m with you guys,
I’m still a democrat.

Wow…I got to meet Dennis Hooper and
George Romero on “one” set visit. I’m f*cking spoiled! Its days like
this that make all the slaving I do behind my wretched computer
worthwhile. Thank you George, thank you cutie Publicists, thank you
everybody for the fine set visit. I can’t wait to walk THE LAND OF
THE DEAD! YEEEHAWWWW!

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1
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 PART 3
OF MY LAND OF THE DEAD SET VISIT