George Romero is already working on a script for Diary of the Dead 2, according to an interview with Fangoria.
The sequel, Romero says, will examine how tribalism plays into deciding how to deal with the zombie population.
“I think what happens with media, with new media, and the Internet and all that, is that it creates more tribes instead of unifying. And that’s completely what this movie is about. It’s almost an old fashioned movie about tribalism.”
Given the way the media has separated the country into red and blue on just about every important issue, Romero’s Diary sequel may be his most timely film yet.
“It’s almost despite the fact that the dead are coming back to life that people are still in their own tribes and they have their own way of dealing with it and that’s really what it’s about. It’s about a conflict in terms of how do we deal with the dead. Do we kill them? Or, because it’s grandma, do we keep her around and feed her.”
Granted you don’t want the paperboy to go missing and have the entire neighborhood pointing fingers at the bridge-playing zombie chained up in the backyard, but my grandma has been a walking zombie for the last five years and she gets by just fine with a glass of warm water and a piece of plain toast.
Romero adds that Diary of the Dead has already managed to turn a profit despite an extremely limited theatrical exhibition. Being a low-budget independent film has also given Diary of the Dead a better chance at success than Universal’s Land of the Dead, which Romero says the studio considers too big of a failure to warrant a sequel.
While the brief marriage to Universal didn’t work out as planned, it appears as though it has played a role in Romero discovering the best way for him to make his Dead movies the way he wants and still turn a profit.
That’s good news for Romero fans because the director plans on utilizing his newly perfected business plan in making even more zombie films.
When asked if he will continue making Dead films, Romero gave the response zombie aficionados were waiting for.
“Well, I hope so, yeah,” Romero told Fangoria when asked if he wants to continue making zombie films.
“I mean, Diary was produced so inexpensively that it’s already well into profits.”
After all, somebody has to stick up for zombie purists, right?
“There are other zombies that move faster and that are, in my mind, not as thoughtful,” Romero says with a laugh. “But hey, I’ll do it as long as I’m able.”