George A. Romero kan nieuwe zombiefilm niet financieren

George A. Romero, een van de meest invloedrijke personen als het gaat om zombiefilms, blijkt zijn nieuwe idee niet te kunnen financieren. Dit vertelde hij in een gesprek met Indiewire. De filmmaker zegt zelf niet eens zoveel geld nodig te hebben:

”I did “Land of the Dead,” which was the biggest zombie film I had ever made. I don’t think it needed to be that big. That money went largely to the cast. They were great, but I don’t think that money needed to be spent. Dennis Hopper’s cigar budget cost more than the entire production of “Night of the Living Dead.” That’s the way it is.”

Aldus Romero. Wel geeft hij aan dat er veel concurrentie is, onder andere van de populaire serie The Walking Dead:

”Now, because of “World War Z” and “The Walking Dead,” I can’t pitch a modest little zombie film, which is meant to be sociopolitical. I used to be able to pitch them on the basis of the zombie action, and I could hide the message inside that. Now, you can’t. The moment you mention the word “zombie,” it’s got to be, “Hey, Brad Pitt paid $400 million to do that.”

Tevens vertelde hij over zijn nieuwe idee:

”I had a sequel. I was ready to shoot. In 2007, “Diary of the Dead” all of a sudden made money. I was blind-sighted by that. One of the producers said, “Let’s make another one quick.” I didn’t know what else I could talk about. “Diary of the Dead” talked about how social media is haunting us today. I didn’t have anything else to talk about. So I decided to go back to the original premise of misunderstanding and people not being able to see each other’s point of view. I said I’ll do this one as a western and the next one as a noir. So did the western, nobody liked it, and the other one fell away. Then, all of a sudden, here came “The Walking Dead.” So you couldn’t a zombie film that had any sort of substance. It had to be a zombie film with just zombies wreaking havoc. That’s not what I’m about.”

Ook werd gevraagd waarom hij geen gebruik maakt van crowdfunding. De regisseur zag dat niet zitten:

”Oh, boy. I don’t know. My son has been trying to raise money for a “Living Dead” prequel, which of course he can do, because “Night of the Living Dead” is in the public domain. But he never went to my partners, Russ Streiner and Jack Russo, to get their imprimatur. The whole thing seems a bit sleazy to me. I’m an old guy that is stuck with tradition and if none of the traditional people want to give me the money to make a movie, then maybe there’s a reason for that. It’s never going to go anywhere.”

George A. Romero wordt met zijn ”living dead” franchise als een van de grondleggers van het zombiegenre beschouwd.