casWe are just a week away from one of the most exciting movies of 2005 – George A Romero’s Land of the Dead. I envy the winners of our Pittsburgh premiere contest, who will be seeing the movie in the home of all cinematic zombies. But hey, we’re all winners when there’s a new Romero zombie film, and if this one does well, we could be winning again next year!

Be warned that the following paragraph may be considered to have spoilers. Having not seen the film yet, I couldn’t tell you if it does, but it seems plausible.

"[I]f this opens strong I might be in a situation where I have to do another one of these or will be asked to do another one of these right away," writer/director Romero said in a news conference. "In which case I’ve sort of left the characters, you know, the truck and those characters, [intact]. I’d want to almost make it chapter two of the same movie, if that happens, and just sort of finish the story… I have an idea of … how to go with it, and I would think of it in my mind as almost one film. If I had to do it like next year. Unless we get nuked or something and there’s something else to talk about."

That would be the first real sequel to a Dead film – the previous three have all taken place in presumably the same world, but there’s not been any overlap between them, besides the fact that they are all quite fucking awesome.

And so is this one, from what trusted friends tell me (I’ll know on Tuesday). And Universal is feeling pretty strong about it from what I understand, so this could be the start of a whole new cycle of Dead beauty.

In the meantime, if you’re having a hard time waiting for the film, check out this Land of the Dead shooting game. I don’t know why there hasn’t been an official Romero Dead video game, something in the FPS universe maybe, since the idea of headshotting these meat piles seems like so much fun. (There will be. City of the Dead ships next year. – Russ)