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Romero's Dead Films

A good interview with GAR.

Including this about the post-911 theme:

You wrote the first draft of Land of the Dead under the title Dead Reckoning in the pre-9/11 days. What did you change in the post-9/11 era?

In the wake of that national tragedy, everybody wanted to make warm, fuzzy, comfort movies. But what cultural pundits and industry analysts grossly misjudged was the kind of escapist fare audiences would also want, and that was a good scare. In common with my aborted vampire picture The Ill, the first Land drafts were more of an AIDS allegory than anything else, but it was still about ignoring a social problem. Then I made it more political, more about what was turning into America’s ‘new normal’. You know a government that had felt it was protected by water. My script is about a city that’s protected on all sides by rivers, and they are able to defend it by putting a barricade along the base of the triangle and try and carry on. The folly being the ‘new normal’ is not really normal at all. Is the fortified city of opportunists making money out of being surrounded by zombies an allegory for America living with terrorism and trying to keep the threat at bay? That isn’t exactly what my story is about because here the whole world knows the dead have come back to life. This particular group in the Fiddler’s Green enclave led by Kaufman (Hopper) has tried to set up a society that ignores the fundamental problem. So you can sort of call the people in the city ‘Bush America’, living around the problem, almost profiting from it.

So does Kaufman = George W. Bush?

Yes, in my own mind. It’s as simple as that. Land of the Dead is not really about the zombies as they are just sort of walking through all of this. It’s about the humans, their attitudes, the same theme of people not communicating, things falling apart internally, not dealing with issues. Everybody is still working to their own agendas, not willing to give up life as it was, as they wanted it to be. That’s sort of the overall theme that runs all the way through it. And this has more of that concept than anything in the past trilogy; the idea of trying to build a society on glass, and not caring about what’s going on, like a blind man wearing blinkers to the problem.
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That sounds very promising, still a little confused by how intelligent the zombies will be, and a little concerned about any "Leader" zombies...Emperor thanks for all your Land of the Dead updates, they are wetting my already ravenous appetite..."Send more cops!!"
 
Redneck said:
That sounds very promising, still a little confused by how intelligent the zombies will be, and a little concerned about any "Leader" zombies...Emperor thanks for all your Land of the Dead updates, they are wetting my already ravenous appetite..."Send more cops!!"
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LOL - now worries ;)

I wouldn't worry about the intelligence angle it isn't anything like RotLD but more a step on from Bud (I've read an interview somewhere were Romero said not to worry so I'm happy).

---------------
I am not so happy about this:

May 20: Now it’s DAY OF THE DEAD being remade (?!)

Sad, but inevitable… According to The Hollywood Reporter, a remake of George A. Romero’s DAY OF THE DEAD will be produced by Nu Image/Millennium Films, which will distribute the movie, in partnership with Emmett/Furla Films and Taurus Entertainment. The producers will by Avi Lerner, Randall Emmett and James Dudelson; no other talent has been attached, but it can be assumed Romero will have nothing to do with it. These guys are no strangers to reduxes; Emmett/Furla was part of the team behind the new AMITYVILLE HORROR and is currently involved with updates of THE WICKER MAN and TERROR TRAIN, while Dudelson recently directed and produced the unofficial sequel DAY OF THE DEAD 2: CONTAGIUM. —Michael Gingold
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www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=4058

Contagium is an unofficial effort to bracket Day of the Dead with more plot and it sounds horrible and the trailer wasn't up to much:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0411269/

To add extra confusion there are rumours that if Land does well Unversal may give Romero the money to remake Day of the Dead as well (which may or may not kill the above remake) - his original script was a lot more ambitious than the one that eventually got made and is more of a natural bridge to Land (although some say it is pos. too much like Land to be a natural step):

The original script, for which Romero couldn't get budget for, involved the scientists living over-ground in a fortress protected by electrified fences and the military living safely underground. It also involved a small army of trained zombies, and the conclusion to the trilogy more brutal than the current version.
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www.imdb.com/title/tt0088993/trivia

List of "Dead" movies (which will probably need hefty updating in a year or two if all of the abvoe comes about)
 
Thanks, I found it on your favorite website, Aint-it-cool-news.com. :lol:
 
'Dream of the Dead'

Watched Dream of the Dead the other nite on IFC. This was a half hour doc about the making of the film done by the same guy that directed, Document of the Dead back in the 70's. There was a short interview with Romero, where he talked of his dislike for CGI(using Van Helsing as an example) and how he tried to keep it to a minimum in the film. There was a lot of time spent on showing Tom Savini getting made up to play the zombie of the biker character that he played in Dawn. Supposedly Land takes place a year and a half after the events in Dawn. Romero also said that they only had 2/3 of the budget that the remake of Dawn had.
 
Thanks for that - reports I'm hearing are more than favourable: plenty of gore, some tool use (even a zombie wedding band??) but only to really demonstrate how crude it is, etc. - Universal aren't giving it as big a push as they did with the Dawn remake film but Romero back on form should generate more than eough word of mouth to make it drawn in decent money through the box office (and the DVD should sell really well with lots more goodies - like that documentary you mention).

We've got some passes and posters for a showing unfortunately its in Seattle which doesn't do me much good - a 2 and a half months wait is going to kill me :(
 
A good article on Romero and his influence, etc.:

Posted 6/20/2005 9:43 PM

Back among the dead

By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY


Robert Rodriguez will never forget his first time.

Or his second, for that matter.

"I saw Night of the Living Dead in high school, and it freaked me out," the Sin City director, 37, says of his initial exposure to the stomach-churning nightmare world of zombie auteur George A. Romero. "Then Dawn of the Dead. I remember trying to eat chips and dip while watching it, to see if I could. I couldn't get five minutes in. I had to put it aside."

Rodriguez might not have been able to finish his snack while consuming 1978's guts-strewn Dawn, but he did develop a taste for graphic gore, as anyone who has ever endured his 1996 vampire orgy From Dusk Till Dawn can attest.

Rodriguez is just one of Romero's many unwitting victims who have developed a frightful appetite for the Pittsburgh-based filmmaker's pulpy brand of horror and feel compelled to make their own exercises in terror. Call them the spawn of the Dead.

Romero, 65, who reawakened the zombie genre with his still-shocking black-and-white directing debut, 1968's Night of the Living Dead, is as sneaky as his shambling flesh eaters when it comes to grabbing hold of a viewer's psyche. You think you can just shake him off. But before you know it, he creeps up on you and — CHOMP — you've been bitten by the zombie bug.

Prepare to be bitten again. Thanks to a zombie revival with such films as 28 Days Later and last year's remake of Dawn of the Dead, which nearly earned back its $28 million budget during its first weekend, Romero has gotten a chance to add a fourth chapter — for a whopping-for-him $17 million price tag — to his continuing saga of a virulent plague of famished fiends. After a 20-year lag since his last zombie film, 1985's Day of the Dead, his much-awaited Land of the Dead arrives Friday.

What is truly scary is how many other filmmakers have followed in the bloodstained footsteps of the maestro of the macabre. Long before he was named Premiere magazine's most powerful person in Hollywood this year and won 17 Oscars for his Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson did a zombie film. In fact, 1992's Braindead has been declared the bloodiest film ever made. How could he have his hero attack a house full of waddling corpses with a lawn mower?

Blame Romero. "Dawn of the Dead is a landmark," declares Jackson, 43, during a visit on the New Zealand set of his remake of King Kong, due in December. "I saw it four times in one week."

The list of directors inspired by Romero reads like a who's who of modern terror specialists. Besides Jackson, they include Sam Raimi, Tim Burton, Danny Boyle, Quentin Tarantino, Clive Barker, John Carpenterand Guillermo Del Toro.

But a generation of filmmakers in their 20s and 30s — some struggling, some on the brink of mainstream success -also fell under his gruesome spell. Edgar Wright, 31, the British director and co-writer of last year's zombie spoof and Romero homage Shaun of the Dead, says he first saw Dawn as a teenager. "There is a back story and a sadness that marks his work," says Wright, who has a cameo in Land. "It contains so many other elements — the political stuff, the satirical stuff, the pathos, the humor — that other horror films don't have."

Many can't help but compare the anticipation for a new serving of Romero to the excitement over another George's ongoing epic that began in the late '70s. "This is like Star Wars for horror fans," declares Eli Roth, 33, the director of 2002's Cabin Fever, a Romero-influenced tale about friends on a camping trip beset by a flesh-eating virus.

And just as Star Wars lovers will always remember George Lucas' Star Destroyer that sweeps overhead at the start of the 1977 original, so, too, those who revere Dawn of the Dead forever will recall how a spinning helicopter blade neatly lopped off a zombie's head at the beginning of the movie.

"I now know the helicopter blades were animated into the scene later and (pioneer effects artist) Tom Savini took off the dude's head by using a fake extension attached to a fishing line and running with it," says Eric Vespe, 24, who co-wrote the vampire short Blind, which made the festival rounds. "But I don't believe it. I think they killed that man still to this day."

Romero, who often speaks to film classes, attends conventions and offers encouragement to his followers, is tickled that he has touched so many young people.

"The amazing thing for me is I'm among the filmmakers whose work young people rent," he says. "Hey, I made a black-and-white film. Man, that makes me old. But it is tremendously gratifying to have a video afterlife."

Asked whether a man who lives off the dead might not be considered weird, he says, "Maybe. But I see it as a way to say some things, just indicate what my opinions are. I like the idea of trying to reflect the times a little bit and tell stories about people who are missing the boat." And the boat they are missing in Land is steeped in post-9/11 paranoia and class warfare.

Universal Pictures, the first major studio to distribute one of the Dead outings, is confident that a generation long denied the chance of experiencing a Romero-staged zombie rampage will gobble up this helping. So confident that Land of the Dead's opening was moved from the safe haven of Halloween to the competitive summer season.

"There seemed to be an opportunity to sneak into the marketplace with a little sleeper," studio vice chairman Marc Shmuger says.

To an unwavering maverick like Romero, having a studio involved for once is a necessary evil, one that requires an R rating. (His other Dead films are unrated and are as ripely raw as fresh tartare.)

But the true master he answers to are his fans, whose enthusiasm has kept him going through the dry patches. The last film he directed was 2000's little-seen Bruiser.

"George knows his audience, and he knows there are thousands of ravenous fans who want to see this film," says Land effects supervisor Greg Nicotero, 43, the Emeril Lagasse of body-part bouillabaisses.

The industry appears ready to give Romero some respect. When 14 minutes of Land previewed at May's Cannes Film Festival, the reception for the gray-ponytailed Romero was rousing enough to wake the dead. "It was the longest standing ovation I've ever been a part of, and I've done good work," says longtime admirer John Leguizamo, 41, who leads a rebellion against the ruling elite in Land.

"It's beautiful to see people acknowledging him. He's like those old artists, like Bob Dylan up there, with his dungarees."

Land's female lead, Asia Argento, 29, daughter of Italian horror master and Romero collaborator Dario Argento, took particular pride in the reception for her director.

"It was like seeing my father up there," Argento says. "I have my own theory on why those who run the studios are allowing people like George to make movies now. When they were young, they watched his movies. They understand more than the previous generation."

Romero already has another idea cooking for a fifth Dead. Will he ever tire of his needy creatures? "Oh, no," he states emphatically.

"Guys like George have made amazing films and generated millions of dollars and don't get the respect they deserve," says Rob Zombie, 39, the heavy-metal rocker and filmmaker whose ultra-violent Devil's Rejects opens July 22.

"It's a drag to see things that are pure garbage being handed awards," Zombie says. "They're still talking about Dawn of the Dead. Is anyone still talking about The English Patient?"

Movies of the living dead

George A. Romero has successfully strayed from zombies from time to time, such as with 1977's Martin, about a shy young man who is convinced he is a vampire, and 1988's Monkey Shines, about a quadriplegic in a wheelchair whose trained simian begins to act upon his owner's darkest urges.

But the director's cinematic legacy probably will be forever tied to those lumbering legions of die-hard carnivores. A look at Land of the Dead's predecessors:

Night of the Living Dead, 1968
Budget: About $114,000
Box office: $12 million domestic, $20 million worldwide
Setting: Isolated farmhouse
Social inspiration: Horrors of the Vietnam War, racial unrest

Dawn of the Dead, 1978
Budget: $1.5 million
Box office: $40 million worldwide
Setting: Suburban mall
Social inspiration: America's gone-bonkers consumerism

Day of the Dead, 1985
Budget: $3.5 million
Box office: $5.8 million
Setting: Underground bunker
Social inspiration: Military bureaucracy out of control
Source for data: Internet Movie Database
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www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2005- ... dead_x.htm
 
Lots of news flooding out - if anyone is in San Anotnio:

Eugene "Big Daddy" Clark, described as "lead zombie actor" in George Romero's "Land of the Dead" movie, will be "zombieing" it up at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Westlakes on Thursday and Friday. Local psychobilly troupers Saturday Night Shockers on Thursday will bring their horror movie-inspired sounds to the Drafthouse prior to the midnight "Land of the Dead" showing.
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Source

And a range of reports and interviews:

http://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=10110

http://movies.about.com/od/landofthedea ... 062105.htm

http://movies.about.com/od/landofthedea ... 062105.htm
 
Emperor said:
We've got some passes and posters for a showing unfortunately its in Seattle which doesn't do me much good - a 2 and a half months wait is going to kill me :(
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And the reports are glowing!!

Great special effects, people worried about the intelligence of the zombies shouldn't be and there is a some well judged comedy and social commentary but it doesn't get in the way of a great film.

While this makes me happy :) the wait makes me sad :(
 
An interview with GAR:

Thursday, June 23, 2005

George A. Romero - Zombie King

Scott Tady, Times Entertainment Writer
06/23/2005


AP / Chris Carlson

PITTSBURGH - Beyond the gore, the thrills and the violence, there's an important message in "Land of the Dead."

"It's a message of what America has become," filmmaker George A. Romero said Wednesday.

In Romero's new zombie movie, "Land of the Dead," wealthy humans live in a luxurious skyscraper, oblivious to the lower-class people who struggle to survive in the streets while pure evil lurks on the other side of the river.

"The people who live in the high tower are like the administration saying, 'Don't worry, everything will be fine. As long as you buy stock in Enron, everything will be OK,' " Romero said.

"They might say we haven't been invaded since 9/11 and we're protected by water," Romero said. "Well, it's a false security. Just because we haven't been invaded since 9/11 doesn't mean it won't happen again. I don't have a lot of faith that all our bases are covered."

Seated in a hospitality suite at the Renaissance Hotel in Pittsburgh, Romero discussed the motives and genesis of "Land of the Dead" eight hours before its high-profile Pittsburgh premiere at the adjacent Byham Theater.

The Shadyside resident said he started writing "Land of the Dead" more than four years ago, originally intending the movie to comment on homelessness and AIDS.

"It was about ignoring the problems," Romero said.

He started shopping around the script just days before the Sept. 11 tragedy, after which nobody wanted to make such a dark movie. "They only wanted to make friendly little flicks," Romero said.

Subsequently, Romero tinkered with the script, "reflecting the very normal fear of terrorism," he said.

Clearly, the 65-year-old Romero has had some heavy matters on his mind since his last major film, "The Dark Half," in 1993.

With the visually gripping "Land of the Dead," it's as if he never stopped making movies, though between puffs of a Marlboro on Wednesday Romero played down the significance of such an impressive comeback.

"It's not a challenge," Romero said. "You've got your instincts, and they stick with you."

Romero's clout helped nab an impressive cast, including Dennis Hopper, whom he has known since their breakthrough hits, "Easy Rider" and "Night of the Living Dead," came out within a year of each other.

"Hey, we're both children of the '60s, you know?" Romero said, cracking a smile below his wide-rimmed glasses.

In writing the script, Romero included a key Latino character.

"I kept saying we needed someone like John Leguizamo to play that role," Romero said.

The director was delighted to discover that Leguizamo was a fan of his early movies, prompting the comedian-turned-actor to sign on for the role.

"Land of the Dead," Romero's fourth installment in his "Dead"-zombie series, is the first not to be filmed in western Pennsylvania.

"I would have loved to have filmed it here for nostalgia's sake," Romero said, "but there was no way you could beat the incentives offered in Canada."

Romero considered an even cheaper location, South Africa, but preferred the five-hour drive to Ontario.

So why does Romero remain intrigued by zombies?

"I've always been fascinated by them. They're like the blue-collar monsters. And they're us," Romero said.

Unlike, say, outer space creatures, zombies were former people. Through costuming, Romero tries to show the former human lives of his zombies.

"In this movie, there's a guy in a Santa Claus suit," Romero said.

With his landmark 1968 film "Night of the Living Dead," Romero virtually created the zombie genre, a genre that continues to thrive with recent hits such as "28 Days Later" and "Shaun of the Dead."

So why do so many other people like zombie films?

"I don't know, man," Romero said. "Those films tend to be irreverent, and there's a high gore factor, which I think our fans like."

The public's taste for gore has increased, Romero said.

At the Las Vegas screening of "Land of the Dead," Romero was surprised by the reaction to a scene where a guy gets his throat ripped inside out.

"People were giggling," Romero said. "It used to be I'd hear gagging noises."
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Source
 
As I think I said the current fangoria has a Land cover and is one fo the fastest selling in recent times. They have also been running feature son it and the next installement of Things to Do in canada When you are Ded is out:

www.fangoria.com/fearful_feature.php?id=4272

Links down the side give access to the first one -the tird on the premiere) is pending.

They also have an excellent review:

www.fangoria.com/ghastly_review.php?id=4280

A report on the Pittsburgh premiere (4 standing ovations before the film started):

www.post-gazette.com/pg/05174/527152.stm
 
More reviews:

www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=20542

4 man tag team review:
http://chud.com/reviews/3459

And these folks have a number of reviews:

And more stuff from the premiere:

www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_4551.html
www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_4553.html

www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_4564.html

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There is some moaning about the number of theatres showing it:

Land: 2,249

Dawn 2004: 2,745

Revenge of the Sith: 3,663 (max) 2,923 (now)

Although the Dawn comparision is interesting thats still an awful lot of theatres and I'd imagine Romero is probably happy. It'll obviousl struggle to beat Dawn on the first weekend but its longevity that counts so.....
 
Box office estimates are coming in:

http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?s ... -24&p=.htm

They reckon the opening night brought in $4.23 million.

With a rpoejected opening weekend of $10.23 million.

While I think this goes most of teh way to redeeming the outlay it doesn't compare well with Dawn 2004's opening night of $10.86 million and an opening weekend take of $26.72 million

http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?s ... -19&p=.htm

Then again Day of the Dead took $1.7 million in the opening weekend:

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=dayofthedead.htm

And its twice as much as House of the Dead :)

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=houseofthedead.htm

It should be enough to get it into the top five of zombie movies:

http://boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=zombie.htm

[edit; A news report on this:

June 26: LAND OF THE DEAD off to $10-million start

Various sources have reported that George A. Romero's LAND OF THE DEAD grossed an estimated $10.2 million at the box office for Universal in its first weekend; final figures will be released Monday afternoon. While the figure is significantly lower than the $26 million grossed by the opening of the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, released in a less competitive slot and with a lot more hype by Universal last spring, it's on par with the $10 million taken in by 28 DAYS LATER in its first session in late June 2003; that film went on to a total of $45 million. LAND achieved a solid $4,550 per-screen average and placed fifth in the busy weekend that also saw the openings of BEWITCHED and HERBIE: FULLY LOADED, plus a strong second frame for BATMAN BEGINS. —Michael Gingold
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www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=4291
 
Box Office

It's box office will probably drop this week, since War of the Worlds is opening Wednesday.
 
Has no one been to see Land yet?

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July 6: George Romero zombie tribute on-line

VRRRM.com has posted a video mini-tribute to George A. Romero and his zombie oeuvre, currently represented in theaters by LAND OF THE DEAD. The three-and-a-half minute Windows Media presentation includes on-set clips from LAND and interview bits with Romero and other fright luminaries including Clive Barker, Guillermo del Toro, Eli Roth, SHAUN OF THE DEAD’s Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg and others. The page linked above also contains a complete transcript and numerous frame grabs from the tribute, which was produced by the Canadian science-fiction channel Space. —Michael Gingold
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www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=4338

The video is at:
http://vrrrm.com/tv/Space/05/07/garHS50703.php
 
I finally got to see this one this past weekend. I liked it quite a bit, I found it to be better than Day of the Dead, but not as good as the first 2. I liked how Romero set up the whole 'have and have-nots' scenario. You get to see the zombies eating people. The vehicle 'Dead Reckoning' looks like something out of The Road Warrior. The zombies are getting smarter, well, at least 3 or 4 of them are.
 
There is another release of NotLD in the pipeline out here in the UK on 26th Sep 2005. You can pre-order it now:

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009 ... ntmagaz-21

I have the press release:

THE DEFINITIVE DVD EDITION OF GEORGE A. ROMERO'S HORROR CLASSIC!

In 1968, writer-director George A. Romero redefined the horror movie genre with his seminal zombie film NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Over the years, many different versions of this landmark film have appeared on DVD in the UK but, to date, none have ever given it the treatment it deserves. Now, thanks to Contender Home Entertainment, Romero's masterpiece can finally be seen on DVD as the director intended. Fully restored and remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, this Special Collector's Edition of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD comes in limited edition packaging and features a host of previously unavailable extras, making this the most definitive DVD edition of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD ever to be made available in the UK.

Brought back to life by a mysterious cosmic incident, the recently deceased have begun to rise from their graves and are determined to fulfill their most primal instinct – to feed! Amid the ensuing chaos, a group of strangers find themselves stranded in a farmhouse in the quiet Pennsylvania countryside under siege from the hordes of newly risen corpses with a taste for human flesh. Terrified by the zombie onslaught and haunted by paranoia, the small band of people soon become increasingly mistrustful of each other. As darkness descends on the remote farmhouse, the only question on anybody's mind is, "Who will survive the Night Of The Living Dead?"

A work of tense, unrelenting terror from start to finish, George A. Romero's masterful NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is undoubtedly one of the greatest horror films ever made.

This Contender Home Entertainment release of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD on DVD coincides with the UK theatrical release of George A. Romero's long awaited fourth chapter in the "Dead" series, "Land Of The Dead", on 9th September 2005.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: SPECIAL COLLECTOR'S EDITION (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (£19.99) by Contender Home Entertainment on 5th September 2005. Special Features include feature length audio commentary by director George A. Romero, feature length audio commentary by cast members, star Duane Jones' final interview, interview with cast member Judith Ridley, original US theatrical trailers and TV spots, Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, photo galleries, selected scenes from George A. Romero's lost film "There's Always Vanilla", and much more.
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However there is a R1 Millenium Edition which is pretty deifnitive compare the above with the extras as listed on Amazon:

* DVD Features:
o Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
o Commentary by creator/ director George A. Romero and the entire cast
o Film Parody "Night of the Living Bread"
o Still Photo Gallery, Featuring Rare Color Photos
o The History of George Romero's Company - The Latent Image
o Scenes From the "Lost" Romero Film, "There's Always Vanilla"
o Video Interview with "Night of the Living Dead's" Judy Ridley
o Final Interview by Star Duane Jones
o Foreign and Domestic Posters and Collectibles
o Original Props
o The Entire Shooting Script
o Cast Members' Personal Scrapbooks
o Romero Directed TV Spots and Short Films
o Liner Notes by Romero and Stephen King
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www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005Y ... enantmc-20

and while the critical bit is "making this the most definitive DVD edition of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD ever to be made available in the UK" it can still be picked up via Amazon.co.uk so.......

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000 ... ntmagaz-21

However, it is a classic film and if people don't have it and don't have a multiregional DVD player........
 
Recently read a piece by Stephen King in one of the glossy ''entertainment'' weeklies wherein he bemoans the fact that Land of the Dead was not the blockbuster it could/should have been, and lays some of the blame for this at the feet of George Lucas(?)

Steve, as you well know, the motion picture business is a highly competitive battlefield, and your ''product'' will either sink or swim, depending upon it's success with the filmgoing public. Land of the Dead (which I liked - just not as much as the original NOTLD or Dawn ) was one of the single most highly anticipated films in years, and I, like many horror fans, were rooting for Romero to hit this one out of the park, put the Dawn remake, 28 Days Later, and all the other pretenders in their place, and finally reap the praise, recognition, and financial rewards long due him.

It didn't happen.

George Romero is a hero of mine, and Mr. King, you have written some truly wonderful stories, but to blame the lack of success of one film on the success of another strikes me as sour grapes. George Lucas may very well be a hack, but Steve...you've phoned-in enough filler for the past 12 or so years to provide a not-inconsiderable supply of insulation for my attic, basement, living room....
 
When is this coming out in the UK?? They're taking their bloody time.
 
went to see Land of the Dead today, the only other one of the original I've seen was Day of the Dead, which I didn't think was that good. L0tD is quite good though, about 90 minutes long and could have been longer in some places without affecting the story.

The only minor thing I have is, even though they're trying to be "normal", why the zombies hadn't bothered going the the city the survivors are walled up in before, and also why the people in the city didn't think about building stronger walls around them (even though the weak point that got breached was on the other side of the river to the city) at some point, they could've save a lot of trouble.

but still good though, 7/10, even with an army of tooled-up pissed-off zombies the living dead are getting slightly boring now. Nice attempt at making them seem more the victims than the living at the start, still wouldn't invite one home for dinner though :)
 
Dawn of the Dead (the original) is IMHO the best horror film ever made, so I was looking forward with much trepidation to Land of the Dead. It wasn't as good as I would have liked, but wasn't as bad as I might have feared either! Dawn of the Dead is a very hard act to follow, and neither Day of the Dead nor this latest offering are a patch on it. Still, enjoyable and worth seeing!
 
Yeah I'm looking forward to going. My excitement did peek early (thanks to the early American release) but its building back up again. They are showing his three films this week so I might use that to get my excitement levels up (OK I have them on VD but.....):

Night

BBC 2 - 11.35 pm on Sunday Sept 25th

Dawn

BBC 1 - 11.45 pm on Tuesday Sept 27th

Day

BBC 2 - 12.05 am on Wednedsay Sept. 28th

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Garudian review:

George A Romero's Land of the Dead

*** Cert 15

Peter Bradshaw
Friday September 23, 2005
The Guardian

Land of the Dead
Romero is the cruellest director ... Land of the Dead

If Charles Dickens were alive today, some say, he would be writing soap operas. If TS Eliot were around, on the other hand, with his facility for conjuring up hollow men and zonked-out commuters on the London Underground, he might well be getting zombie screenplays off to his agent. Or if he had given literature a miss and devoted himself to rising through the ranks of Lloyds Bank, he would certainly be investing in these films, because they are now madly popular and a virtual licence to print money. When Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg wrote their outstanding film Shaun of the Dead, it was regarded over here as an excellent comedy with a zombie theme. In the United States, these priorities were switched around: it was accorded full honours as an actual zombie film - but with gags. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's 28 Days Later was sniffed at in some quarters over here but in the US it went over like the proverbial gangbusters.

So clearly it is high time for these newcomers to stand respectfully aside and allow another appearance from that maestro of the undead, George A Romero, whose trilogy Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978) and the less admired Day of the Dead (1985) has made him a big enough brand to have his name above the title. His new corpse-opera is entertaining stuff in its distinctively grisly way, and delivers a very high yeeccch-factor, but also has some hilariously clunky moments which channel the spirit of Ed Wood Jr.

The film is set in that trickiest of locales: the post-apocalyptic landscape. Over the opening credits, the catastrophe of zombie-infestation is briskly established. The cutest visual gag comes at the top of the film with a close-up of an old-fashioned sign advertising a diner: Eats. Below this is a shambling community of zombies. One is playing a honking, atonal trombone: thus providing the musical soundtrack to his own awful existence.

They occupy a no-go area adjoining the fiercely protected yuppie-city, horribly called Fiddler's Green, into which the wealthy and powerful have barricaded themselves. The second Untermensch-ghetto is populated by a caste hardly more touchable than the zombies themselves. This is the blue-collar workforce who service the grandees of Fiddler's Green, doing all the dirty menial jobs and incidentally providing the militia who must cull the excess zombie population - the hunters are played by Simon Baker, Asia Argento and the egregious John Leguizamo. Much of the movie's stomach-turning visual invention is channelled into the way the zombies chomp and guzzle and chew. One zombie priest, complete with dog-collar, has a semi-severed head attached by a strip of skin to his neck, which in repose hangs back down between his shoulder-blades; by whiplashing his torso forward he can bring his head up over into position and then forward for a bite. There is a horrible brilliance in the way Romero choreographs this motion and dozens like it.

Ruling over everyone in the rich folks' enclave is the sinister Kaufman, amusingly played by Dennis Hopper: part CEO, part unelected president. He gets the best line in the film when a frowning apparatchik asks if there is any trouble. "In a world where the dead have returned to life," says Hopper thoughtfully, "the word 'trouble' loses much of its meaning."

It is tempting, and enjoyable, to read this movie as a comment on race and class in America: the zombies are leading a kind of unending, futile spartacist uprising against the Wasp rulers in their shopping malls and thousand-dollar suits. On the other hand, the zombies could be a comment on undead America - the cultureless, valueless service-economy drones in their trailer parks and project housing. Satire is admittedly a little undermined by some semi-intentional hilarities of script and performance. Asia Argento is always on the verge of woodenness and it is a dodgy moment when Hopper has to whack an associate, after farcically distracting him by shouting "Look over there!" - and then sorrowfully realises that he didn't have to kill the poor fellow after all. Romero's zombies still have a spring in their shambling step though; there's life in the old corpse yet.
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It's been getting a suprisingly positive treatment from a few of the arty review-type shows on Radio 4 and the whole series has been spoken of favourably as much-needed political satire and social-deconsruction.
 
Man, day was weird the way they educated the zombie by showing him how to use a gun again. Good film though.

Actually a first time that a zombie had feelings for a human too! :shock:
 
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