Here’s the great news – George Romero is making a fifth zombie movie! Here’s the less great news – it’s not really an extension of his Dead series, and it definitely is not the proposed sequel to Land of the Dead. Here’s the worst news – it’s being described as Night of the Living Dead meets Blair Witch.
The film, George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead, will be about college students who are shooting a horror movie in the woods when there’s a sudden zombie plague – seriously the kind of thing that can ruin your weekend. When the amateur filmmakers discover the zombies they turn their cameras on them in a cinema verite style.
Diary of the Dead will be independently financed, the first indie zombie film Romero has done since Day. He was feeling chafed in the studio system. "I was trying to convince Peter [Grunwald, his producing partner] we could just run off and do it ourselves," he said
I don’t know whether to be bummed or psyched. I love George Romero working, zombie film or no. I do especially love George Romero working on a zombie movie. But the Dead films had been slowly growing in scale (at least in terms of the effect the zombie plague was having on the world), something Romero could not do on an indie film budget in all likelihood (although I have to wonder why – it seems like the release paradigm has changed enough that there’s a ton of money to be made on DVD and pay-per-view for even a hardcore independently made Dead film). I don’t mind him making this film more personal, but I am deeply concerned about the Blair Witch associations. It’s so gimmicky. So put me down as excited, with reservations.
But here’s the positive spin – a successful low budget film helps George make Land of the Dead 2 or Canucks of the Dead or whatever the next one would be. I would like to see that.