Romero In General...

[capncnut]

I see so many half-assed posts about how Diary Of The Dead is the bomb. Don't get me wrong, Diary and Land were okay but I'm almost 100% sure that most here wont even begin to hold the two up next to Night or Dawn Of The Dead. What's the point? My point is one that has been held up as a topic many times before and I wont deny it. I feel it's high time GAR made a non-zomb movie for once and concentrated on something that actually kicks ass as opposed to sucks ass. The last non-zomb movie he made was Bruiser (which was okay) but damn, the over-abundance of these half-assed zomb flicks since Day are seriously pissing me off. I think he needs to get his ass back to Pittsburgh and make something that really cooks. Be it, horror, drama or comedy - I don't care - get some of those old GAR era actors back like Amplas and really craft a story that hits the spot as opposed to 'generic' stuff that we've been used to for the last seven years. Apparently he was supposed to be making Solitary Isle, what the f**k happened to that? He said during an interview last year that he was interested in making a legitimate Creepshow follow-up, what the f**k happened to that? All I hear is on the web news is Diary 2 and some zomb comedy. To be honest, I couldn't give a s**t about that, I just want the GAR that rocked my world way back when to come back! Feel free to throw rocks at me!

[bassman]

I see what you're saying. I've heard/read many times that Romero has had many different kinds of projects in the works, but none make it to the screen. This is only my viewpoint, but I think that he probably has a hard time getting work outside of the dead films beause he's considered the "Godfather of the zombies". In all honesty, he's become typecast. He's Romero and that's what he's famous for. He's stuck with it... I obviously have no idea about the ins and outs of the man's career, but I have a feeling that he's not given the money to make a film unless it's a "Dead" film. I have been wanting a non-zombie film from Romero for years, but it's like asking a 1980's Cronenberg to make a non sci-fi film about acountants, you know? I love Romero's work. It's made a huge impact on my life(obviously...I'm here), but the man deserves a playground. To be honest, the man probably doesn't have much longer. I'm waiting for his defining moment. I hope we can all see Romero's Citizen Kane before he passes on.

[AnxietyDilemma]

I wouldn't get your hopes up, I heard rumors that "Diamond Dead" got the green light again. Not sure how accurate this is.

[Danny]

i love his work, but you only get one life to live and its such a shame if he just sticks to one subgenre or movies, id love to see him do something nonzombie for once.

[SymphonicX]

Bruiser was horrible, just a travesty of crap. Unhelped by the ****ty marketing and packaging that it got. The last good non-zed movie he did was The Dark Half, that was a well crafted little movie...brilliant. I miss the family we are all used to, John Amplas, Savini, Christine Romero/Forest, David Early, Scott Reineger, Ken Foree, Richard and Don Rubinstein, Taso Stavrakis, all those dudes and more....they really helped Romero make himself into a formiddable filmmaker but since those connections have expired he hasn't managed to make anything with nearly as much heart...

[bd2999]

Yeah, I think he has been invovled in many movie projects that have never made it past the planning stage. Heck, it took forever for him to even get funding for another zombie movie like in Land as you will recall. Its just rough for him to get a project green light when it does not involve zombies. Its a shame because most of his movies overall are good movies and have a good message. And although I would not hold Land or Diary to Night or Dawn and compare I will say that as a legendary horror director Romero has good quality throughout his movies and that many other directors in the same grouping usually never make to many good movies again. Wes Craven and John Carpenter for example. Not that they only are one hit wonders but they have a good movie or so and then the majority oftheir stuff becomes not so good.

[axlish]

For some reason every production meeting that Romero has ever had has made its way to the net and imdb. I've made it a practice to not even think about a Romero project until it is actually greenlit. Go back to Pittsburgh?: Yes Work with some previous actors: To an extent, sure. But lets not go overboard like Rob Zombie. Abandon Zombies: No, but yes on mixing in a zombie film on every third project. Lets see what else this guy has to offer in his older age.

[capncnut]

I wouldn't get your hopes up, I heard rumors that "Diamond Dead" got the green light again. Not sure how accurate this is. According to cinematical.com, he's already prepping for Diamond Dead. If you're any kind of horror afficionado, you've probably either heard about or even read the script for George Romero's Diamond Dead - it's one of those projects that's been around for so long no one even talks about it anymore. The film is a horror-comedy about a rock band called Diamond Dead whose members are all zombies and whose hot babe manager tries to use her media wiles to take them to the top despite their rather unappealing habits, like eating brains and stuff. It takes swipes at the media, Christian fundamentalists who hate the band, and various other Romero-style targets. In a forthcoming interview with Suicide Girls, Romero surprises by excitedly announcing to me that in the last week, Diamond Dead has raced back to the forefront of his upcoming projects slate. "I got a phone call two days ago, before I came here, from the producer saying 'We're back!'" he says, noting that he was more surprised than anyone because he worked for years on the project and "it looked dead." Since the financing has apparently just kicked in as this is going to press, no further details are available. Romero also notes that he's very eager to get going on a sequel to his new film, Diary of the Dead, saying "I wish I could have gone further with it. If there is a possibility of a sequel, I'd actually love to do it, cause there's a hell of a lot more. I'd love to go further with that theme." At the same time, fans of Romero's previous and much larger film, 2005's Land of the Dead, should most certainly not expect a sequel to that any time soon. Romero expressed guarded admiration for that film, but called his experience with big-budget filmmaking "grueling" and said "it was just too hard." He also feels that Land "lost touch with its roots" and he has no idea how a sequel could even happen, if he were inclined to make one. I miss the family we are all used to, John Amplas, Savini, Christine Romero/Forest, David Early, Scott Reineger, Ken Foree, Richard and Don Rubinstein, Taso Stavrakis, all those dudes and more... I think it could be cool if Romero dropped a few cameos here and there...

[Redman6565]

I agree with the comments about GAR not getting money to do other stuff because he's famous for the dead series. That sucks but it's reality. It would be great to see alot of the folks like Savini come back and work with GAR as well. Another thing I think that is hurting him is that GAR has gotten alittle preachy in his last two zombie flicks. I think this is turning off a lot of his hard core fan base. I will still buy his next dead dvd even though he's beating us over the head with his social take. When you view Night, Dawn, and Day they have GAR's social take on the world but damn they were all fun movies. They were all three about zombies first. That's why we are here. GAR needs to get back to that. It doesn't bother me if GAR dies doing nothing but dead movies. I only hope he gets back to basics and makes them fun again.

[AcesandEights]

Well, with Land being a film I fairly enjoyed (though I cringed at times)--as I've said before--warts and all, and with Diary being very sub par in most of its aspects, I have been left wondering if GAR has much left in the tank offer. That may sound harsh, and I'm more than open to him doing new things or staying with zombies, but even when he talks about, say for example, some of his comedic ideas in interviews, as of late, it all sounds a bit ham fisted. I'm wondering if he can still pull anything off that I'd find to my liking. None of the above is to say I think Romero's 'lost it', just that things, tastes and interests change on both the part of the content creator and the viewer.

[Redman6565]

I don't think GAR has lost it either. I wonder how close GAR follows what's going on at Avatar Press. They put out a Night series written by John Russo which has GAR's name on the covers. Russo is also writting a series entitled 'Escape of the Living Dead'. There is some good stuff for GAR to work from here. Much better than the story for 'Diary'. From what I gather on the Avatar sight Russo is one of the main writers of Night. He's doing some cool stuff.

[capncnut]

Russo is also writting a series entitled 'Escape of the Living Dead'. This worries me immesely as Russo's solo track record has been nothing but dogs**t. Let's hope it doesn't follow his Night 30 series to closely...

[TheGovernor]

I agree with the comments about GAR not getting money to do other stuff because he's famous for the dead series. That sucks but it's reality. It would be great to see alot of the folks like Savini come back and work with GAR as well. Another thing I think that is hurting him is that GAR has gotten alittle preachy in his last two zombie flicks. I think this is turning off a lot of his hard core fan base. I will still buy his next dead dvd even though he's beating us over the head with his social take. I mentioned this to him when I saw him in Chicago a few weeks ago. I just said in a light hearted way to stop getting preachy with politics in his movies. He laughed and said "Sorry man. I way out there on the left!" Other people mentioned about him moving back to Pittsburgh and getting together with the old crew. Fango had an audio interview with him recently posted on their website. He basically disses Pittsburgh and the old Romero family by saying Toronto is more dedicated to the arts and he now has a "new family" up there who he's making movies with because they're so dedicated. He also made a remark that the only family atmosphere he had on a Pittsburgh shoot was Night and it was never the same after. I took it as a slap in the face to the people he worked with for so many years.

[jim102016]

I mentioned this to him when I saw him in Chicago a few weeks ago. I just said in a light hearted way to stop getting preachy with politics in his movies. He laughed and said "Sorry man. I way out there on the left!" Other people mentioned about him moving back to Pittsburgh and getting together with the old crew. Fango had an audio interview with him recently posted on their website. He basically disses Pittsburgh and the old Romero family by saying Toronto is more dedicated to the arts and he now has a "new family" up there who he's making movies with because they're so dedicated. He also made a remark that the only family atmosphere he had on a Pittsburgh shoot was Night and it was never the same after. I took it as a slap in the face to the people he worked with for so many years. So, GAR has (allegedly) **** on his roots? Looking at his last few films, it adds up.

[DubiousComforts]

This has been posted on Motor City Nightmares web site: "On July 11th we got the word from Mr. George A. Romero that he unfortunately had to leave for Europe this week to begin work on another film project and will not be in attendance. This is the only reason he'd ever miss a show." He also made a remark that the only family atmosphere he had on a Pittsburgh shoot was Night and it was never the same after. I took it as a slap in the face to the people he worked with for so many years. Then you took it the wrong way. Everyone involved with NIGHT will tell you the exact same thing. The Latent Image split up soon after that film. If you're longing so badly for the good ol' days, then someone simply needs to pony up enough cash to allow Romero to shoot on film and edit the finished product himself without an interference. I won't be holding my breath. What was the last film Romero actually edited--Knightriders?