George A Romero gave birth to the modern zombie with the 1968 classic ‘Night of the Living Dead‘ and the undead have stormed the world of horror and beyond ever since it’s release. From his original successful trilogy including NOTLD, ‘Dawn of the Dead’, and ‘Day of the Dead’ he has been an inspiration to horror creators for decades. His own creations are listed as inspirations for both ‘The Walking Dead’ and ‘World War Z’ which are the very two titles that he cites as the reason he hasn’t been able to create anything new in recent years when he finally has had some fresh new social commentary to share with the world.
The problem popped up when he finally had an idea for something new:
“Then, all of a sudden, here came The Walking Dead. So you couldn’t do a zombie film that had any sort of substance. It had to be a zombie film with just zombies wreaking havoc. That’s not what I’m about.”
The majority of Romero’s films have used zombies or groups of remaining survivors in a post-apocalyptic world to provide social commentary but that style of storytelling no longer seems to be what financiers are looking for:
“Now, because of World War Z and The Walking Dead, I can’t pitch a modest little zombie film, which is meant to be sociopolitical. I used to be able to pitch them on the basis of the zombie action, and I could hide the message inside that. Now, you can’t. The moment you mention the word zombie, it’s got to be, ‘Hey, Brad Pitt paid $400 million to do that.'”
These two comics and books turned to television and film which were inspired by Romero’s work appear to be exactly why he can’t get the budget together for a new one. An argument could be made that if he took to crowdfunding that the film would be financed in a day as there are plenty of us out there who would donate to see another zombie movie from this legendary filmmaker, even if not everyone loved ‘Land of the Dead’, ‘Diary of the Dead’, and ‘Survival of the Dead’.
Are you hoping that a studio throws money at Romero to make another zombie film? Do you think if he turned to crowdsourcing that he would be able to find his funds? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Indiewire
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
