If you had Romero's ear?

[Debbieangel]

Ok, If GAR would want us armchair zombie movie critics to help him make one of his movies what would you tell him in 1 or 2 paragraphs? Exactly how would you do GAR's zombie movie including the characters, location, guns etc..? Now have at it describe as much you want to as to how you would do it?

[EvilNed]

I'd probably make him do something random. Like have him do an epic and dramatic underdog-story about a nazi-basketball team in Mexico who have to win THE tournament against all odds in order to hold off the invading mongolian hordes.

[Marie]

If I had Romero's ear..... I'd keep it in a jar of presertive.... No, really I think a crossover might be interesting, Like how the charecters in KnightRiders reacted to the rising of the dead. M_

[capncnut]

I would like to see him go back to the original saga and continue where Land left off. Not with the same characters but set around the same time. I liked the progression with the zombies and thought it was a cool direction to take, even though Big Daddy blew balls. I'd want it to be a little bit more brighter and 'actiony', while still retaining serious threat. Less characters too.

[Wyldwraith]

Hmm, I'm in the camp of wanting a linear progression-based movie set after Land. I will even utter the blasphemy and say that I wouldn't mind seeing what happened to Riley's crew & Dead Reckoning as they headed for Canada. If I didn't go that route I'd like to see a social-commentary-free offering. Based around a group of friends who react in a relatively intelligent manner to the dead rising, and who decide to do something, ANYTHING besides holing up somewhere and slowly losing a battle of attrition with the ever-renewed waves of the living dead. Oddly enough, I thought that RE: Extinction had a decent opening premise. An armed convoy, traveling from place to place as they try to scavenge the necessities and stay a step ahead of the dead gathering. (It was all the Umbrella stuff that wrecked that movie, heh) Bottom line though: I'd like to see GAR try to make a movie that doesn't involve simply using the undead as a vehicle to jam repetitions of the current social comment down the audience's throats'. It would serve everyone's interests if he concentrated on plot, characterization and piecing together the story instead.

[Debbieangel]

If I had Romero's ear: no pun intended lol First off I would get him to come back to the Pittsburgh area to make his zombie films. I would probably do a combination of Night and people on the road, that way from all the discussions I have seen would be played out. Is it safer to stay put or go on the road. The characters I would delve more into their personalities like he did in Night and have less characters to follow. Unless there were the expendable ones that always get killed off. Example: Star Trek each week if u saw someone in a red uniform you knew they were expendable and were gonna die. Only I wouldnt quite make obvious. I also would put a nice spin to the movie and I would not make the ending so dismal and hopeless. The confrontations in the movie well, of course you have to have that or you wouldnt be a good movie, but I would have the people get along better near the end of the movie working together and make the zombies the biggest threat and not each other. It sounds idealic but that is what I would do if I had GAR's ear.

[MagicMoonMonkey]

I would like Romero to do a NotLD - UK set during the same time as the original, and in black and white. Failing that, a Romero dead flick set in todays UK I would also like to see Romero and Savini do a proper remake of Dawn much in the same vain as Night 90. I would also like to ask Romero if there exists an alternate death scene for Kauffman that sits better than the Cholo/Kauffman explosion poo that was played out before my disbelieving eyes. I really wanted him to have a brutal death in the carpark in the same isolated manner the Torrez and Rickles experienced in Day of the Dead. Land was just too 'main character friendly' for my liking. Too many 'good guys' survived.

[shootemindehead]

I would definitely implore him to continue his original saga. The "Diary of the Dead" sideline is pointless IMO. They don't have to be epics or grand in scale. I would also tell him to keep the equipment to a 1980's standard, so no mobile phones, Laptops, modern Army helmets or Steyr machine guns, thank you very much. Walkie Talkies, M-16's, Uzis, Huey's etc will do fine and electronic equipment should be sorta crap, because it hasn't been maintained or even developed. While I liked "land of the Dead", one of the things that annoyed the crap out of me, was the modern looking equipment used by the characters. I nearly choked every time Kauffmann and Reilly talked to each other on the mobiles.

[AcesandEights]

I would encourage him to get involved in lobbying in some fashion for the serialized, cable production of the Walking Dead. You figure he could lend weight to the project by his name alone and possibly try and get a producer credit and possibly direct some of, if not a chunk of, the episodes. Also, by hooking up with an established product with an already...solid...storyline, he could possibly sidestep some of the problems he's had with his more recent outings. Plus, doing so would free him up to do other, varied projects, should he actually want to at this point, while still maintaining one foot firmly in the genre he's famous for.

[rightwing401]

I would ask him to explore an avenue that he never really focused on in any of his living dead films, focus on who the zombies once were. Maybe some survivors finding memoirs, letters, or photos of people the zombies used to be that they just killed. After all, they were living people at some time, each with their own dreams and who had people that loved them. I truly believe what Barbra said in night 90'. "They're us. We're them and they're us." Translation. We're the monsters, and they're the victims.

[Thorn]

That is a great question Debbie, thank you for putting it out there. Hmmm. I would let him know about this site and the fiction section. Show him the people he has inspired. He may well be aware of it, or sites like it but it would be nice to give it a plug. After that as far as movies go I would love to see him return to the original series of films much like the rest of you have said, and I would like to see him continue the storyline. I personally would not mind seeing him continue with where he left off with Riley and Dead Reckoning. That is a story I would like to see in more detail. While I know this breaks from tradition, if he opts not to do it I have always thought a wagon train idea bearing similarities and parallels to the old TV Western would work very well in a "dead world". So you have your convey as he's been mentioned here, they move from place to place trying to stay in front of the perusing horde. Along the way meeting strangers, saving them from their own little battles where they are fortified or on the run. The cast would have to be much smaller than Land, but larger than Dawn. You would be gaining and losing people however so you could keep the numbers steady. In the end perhaps they decide to settle down and fortify and this "reaching out" for "home" and "normalcy" would be the end of them as in their wake not only did they kick up dust along the trail they also stirred up a massive army of the undead ending in a fierce action sequence that is in direct contrast to the rest of the film which is dotted with action but mainly focuses on character development telling the story of the survivors in flashback, as well as the "real time". Of course in the end it will appear as if the survivors stand off the undead, after suffering major losses. But just when it appears over the main character who moves to high ground to survey the scene sees a sea of undead swarming down onto the survivors of the last stand. I LOVE the idea of seeing more about some of the dead. Maybe in flashback, maybe because one of the survivors is obsessed with learning their stories and rifles through their pockets for personal effects. I am not sure how best to pull this off but it is a great idea.

[J0hnnyReb]

I would tell him to stop trying to make a point with every film he makes now ad just try to make a scary movie, ya know, get back to the basics.

[Wooley]

As others have said, stop trying to beat us about the head with some current social commentary. It's irritating when it's done well, and just sucks when done poorly. I don't pay to see movies so I can listen to you preach at me. I'd like to see a zombie version of Alas Babylon, a '50s novel set in a small Florida town after a East-West nuclear exchange and how the town copes with a loss of commerce, infrastructure, and a break down in law and order. I'd like to see intelligent characters too, and a military adviser whose input is used-seriously, what the f is up with spewing full auto from the hip when you know only an aimed shot to the head will bring them down? You know damn well ammo doesn't grow on trees by this point in the game, homeslice. A little bounding overwatch, some slicing the pie while clearing rooms and some fireteam or squad tactics would make a much more enjoyable movie, I think, along with some realistic fortifications-that electric fence in Land sucked balls, and not having anyway to monitor what was going on topside was lame in Day-how do you know if they've pushed over the fence? When you go topside and find a few hundred deaders wandering around? Fail. A glimpse into how people are surviving beyond looting stores and boarding up windows would be good too-victory gardens, citizen's militias operating with the remnants of the armed forces and law enforcement, like South African Boers at the turn of the century, lines of trenches around the town, stuff like that.

[krakenslayer]

I would tell him to stop trying to make a point with every film he makes now ad just try to make a scary movie, ya know, get back to the basics. As others have said, stop trying to beat us about the head with some current social commentary. It's irritating when it's done well, and just sucks when done poorly. I don't pay to see movies so I can listen to you preach at me. Yeah, what we all want to see is another mindless zombie gutfest, right? To be fair, people on here who complain about social commentary have picked the wrong director to like. His films are not about the painstaking representation of real life outcomes, they're cinematic comic books with an agenda. That's just what he does, that's his trademark! If that changed, the films wouldn't be Romero. If you don't like social commentary, you should be following Zach Snyder instead of Romero.

[Edison Carter]

I would put it on the necklace with the rest of them Seriously,good question though he should make a post dawn pre day prequel. More shtf less pansy commentary,make it well lit with ordinary camera work. No shaky cam,or handy cam,....linger on the characters and scenery lovingly. No 1,000 + editing cuts for every half hour on film. Do it from a military perspective focusing on the decision not to nuke all the big cities and its inevitable consequences. The breakdown in command and control between gov't troops. The slow creeping isolation as less and less reports make it back to hq. The retreat from all the major metropolitan areas. Begging pleading civilians. And finally the dispersal of the special science cum military units,...as DC or the Camp David secondary government base falls or goes out in with a bang ala the imagery of WWZ "battle of yonkers" of a merciless unthinkable ghoulish grey hammer.