As mentioned last week, George Romero’s latest zombie epic LAND OF THE DEAD heads to DVD October 18th in both rated and unrated editions (gee, I wonder which will sell more?). At the Edinburgh Film Festival this past week, Romero himself spoke a little on the unrated DVD. Here’s the gist of what George said (courtesy of AICN):
- To get an R rating the MPAA would tell them to remove frames from a shot, to obscure some of the gore. So they filmed Zombies walking across the camera against a green screen to cover said frames, and it also helps the flow.
- The film on DVD has a bit more gore. Greg Nicotero (of KNB) did some stuff that they didn’t even bother putting it because the MPAA wouldn’t have allowed it.
- The DVD will have another scene where John Leguizamo walks in on a “fat cat” in Fiddler’s Green who hung himself and has come back as a zombie. This was to establish that a bite wasn’t the only way people came back zombified. According to George, this scene didn’t come out quite like he had expected, so it was cut. It may be re-inserted for the DVD or left as a deleted scene.
- John Leguizamo adlibbed ALOT.
Also at the festival, George talked about his other projects, including one he’s been trying to get off the ground for quite a while: DIAMOND DEAD.
- The story is there’s this boyband, and one of their girlfriends wants to sing in the group. They of course say no, as it’s a boyband. So she kills them by turning up their amps too high. She then feels bad, and makes a deal with the devil to bring them back. Unfortunately their noses and stuff keep falling off.
- He really wants to make DIAMOND DEAD, and there’s costume designs and everything, but they just don’t have the money to do it yet.
- George is also working on two Stephen King adaptions: “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” and “From a Buick 8”.
The reporter also stated that George was going to have a more extensive Q & A later in the week, so expect more information to come of this and other stuff from Romero.