For anyone that thought Geroge A. Romero was finished with zombies after his latest, Survival of the Dead, premiered on VOD (it hits theaters on May 28), you're wrong. Dead wrong. Romero feels like he's on a roll, and told Movieweb that he'd like to make two more Dead movies, both if which, like Survival, will follow characters from his own zombie apocalypse reboot, Diary of the Dead.
I have this idea. I'm off on a new track here with Diary of the Dead and this film, Survival of the Dead, sort of grows out of Diary. I have this conceit that I would like to do two more using characters from Diary. So that Diary would sort of be the Mother-ship of this little set of films that grows out of that and paints a portrait of what the world is like three months into the phenomenon. So I don't know? It depends on how this film performs financially as to whether or not I will get to do those films. But right now I love the idea. I still love doing these, so it would almost be like taking a vacation for me. If that happens I would really welcome it.
I have ideas for the next couple but we'll see how far they let me go with that. If I had my way I would do one in black and white and one in an old fashion 3D format like House of Wax. But I don't think I'd be able to get away with that. It would be great fun to have them look completely different but be part of a trilogy. I don't know we'll see what happens?
And what ideas does Romero have for more Dead movies? He was more specific with The Boston Phoenix.
... there's this black group of looters that used to be National Guardsmen too (I guess I'm on the National Guard's ass) but I'd like to do them. And then I'd like to follow the blond woman that escapes. So I have ideas for them.
Romero's films have been undergoing a renaissance of late, one that's taken form in several remakes, The Crazies and 2004's Dawn of the Dead. Romero is still making small, low-budget Dead movies and has nothing to with the remakes of his films (The Crazies gave him a nominal "executive producer" credit: "They actually paid a fee to use my name as executive producer and I expected more involvement...they just wanted my name on it," Romero told the Boston Phoenix), but says he would like to personally remake one of his earlier films.
There is one that I always felt was a real failure. Its called Season of the Witch. I was trying to do a Women's Lib thing and I didn't understand anything about women's issues. I was too young to even pretend to have had enough relationships to understand that. Also the people who were financing it ran out of money in the middle and we had to finish it on half of the money that we were expecting to have. The acting was no good and I just think that I could do a better job with it today. I even think that it could be more pertinent today if she were a powerful woman in the world. Yet in her personal life was being squeezed and depressed.
I've actually got half a script done on it. I would personally like to do it and it's one that I control.
However, there are two of Romero's films that he would like untouched by the remake process.
I've heard rumors about remakes being done of Knightriders and Martin. That would bother me more than anything else because I always think of those two films as mine. They are the most personal films I've made and I don't think that you can make them without me. They are uniquely my ideas and without me there's no idea there.
Unfortunately for Romero, the rumors are true. Bloody-Disgusting reported earlier this month that former Romero associate Richard P. Rubinstein is working on a Martin sequel which would contain the exact same plot as the original. Rumors of a Knightriders sequel are alive as well, but have less of a pulse than Martin.
Source: Movieweb
