Twilight of the Dead: George Romero's "lost" film will be made
Twilight of the Dead
In 1968, director George Romero gave a huge boost to the expansion of the zombie genre (find our article with the best zombie-themed TV series) with Night of the Living Dead, a low-budget film that literally wrote history. not only of the zombie genre, but of horror in general.The director then directed 5 other zombie films, including Dawn of the Living Dead (1978), of which Zack Snyder has directed a remake in 2014, Day of the Zombies (1985) and Land of the Living Dead (2005). If you want to freshen up your ideas on George Romero's filmography, you can buy copies of the films that are missing from your collection on Amazon.
What few people know, however, is that, before he died of lung cancer at the age of 77 in 2017, George Romero was working on Twilight of the Dead, the final chapter of his filmmaking career.
Now Suzanne Romero, the director's widow, has made several statements about Twilight of the Dead, sharing her own plans to bring it to the big screen, as The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reports.
Twilight of the Dead: the statements of George Romero's wife
In recent years, Suzanne Romero has been developing the story with 3 screenwriters and is ready to meet the directors. Broadly speaking, here's how Ms. Romero described the plot of George Romero's unfinished film:“The story is set in a decimated world. Life has almost disappeared. But there may still be hope for humanity ".
George Romero wrote a treatment (in technical jargon one of the phases between subject and script is defined) for Twilight of the Dead with Paolo Zelati. After the death of the famous horror director, Zelati asked Suzanne Romero for permission to continue working on his latest film, for which he also asked for the collaboration of screenwriters Joe Knetter and Robert L. Lucas. Here are Suzanne Romero's statements about it:
“I gave him my full blessing as long as I could be present every step of the way to stay true to George's vision. We received solid treatment and the start of the script. I can say 100% that George would have been incredibly happy to see him move on. He wanted this to be his final mark on the zombie genre. ”
The 2005 film The Land of the Living Dead introduced Big Daddy, an intelligent zombie leader, whose ultimate fate is one of the questions left open to end of the film. George Romero, however, wanted to answer this question.
The director has directed two other zombie films after The Land of the Living Dead: The Chronicles of the Living Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead - L'isola of the Survivors (2009), but did not consider them part of the shared story among his other films that began with Night of the Living Dead.
While the three writers were working on Twilight of the Dead, they also watched the videos in which George Romero proposed the treatment; Romero showed complete satisfaction in the videos, which prompted the new authors of the film to continue trying to remain faithful to him as much as possible.
Now, Suzanne Romero just has to find the right director to complete the saga of zombie by George Romero. Ms. Romero also runs the George A. Romero Foundation, whose goals are to preserve the legacy of the iconic and unforgettable director and at the same time seek to empower independent directors.
‘Twilight of the Dead,’ George A. Romero’s Final Zombie Movie, in the Works (Exclusive)
In 1968, filmmaker George A. Romero unleashed the zombie genre with Night of the Living Dead, a low-budget sensation that remains as relevant today as it was decades ago. The filmmaker went on to direct five more zombie features, including Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985) and Land of the Dead (2005). What few knew was that before he died of lung cancer at 77 in 2017, Romero was quietly developing Twilight of the Dead, a concluding chapter intended to be his final statement on the genre.
Now Suzanne Romero, widow of the filmmaker, is opening up about Twilight of the Dead and sharing her plans to take it to the screen. She has been developing the script with three screenwriters for the past few years and is ready to meet with directors on the project, which has this tantalizing logline: “The story is set in a decimated world. Life has all but disappeared. But there still may be hope for humanity.”
George A. Romero wrote a treatment for Twilight of the Dead with Paolo Zelati. After the director’s death, Zelati asked Suzanne Romero for permission to continue with the script. He brought on screenwriters Joe Knetter and Robert L. Lucas to help.
“I gave him my full blessing as long as I could be there every step of the way for it to remain true to George’s vision,” says Suzanne Romero. “We had a solid treatment and the beginning of the script. I can 100 percent say that George would be incredibly happy to see this continue. He wanted this to be his final stamp on the zombie genre.”
Romero’s 2005 film Land of the Dead introduced Big Daddy, an intelligent zombie leader, whose fate is left an open question at the end of the film. George A. Romero wanted an answer to what came next.
“Everything started with my question to him: ‘Where do the zombies go at the end of Land of the Dead?'” says Zelati.
George A. Romero directed two more zombie films after Land of the Dead — 2007’s Diary of the Dead and 2009’s Survival of the Dead — but he did not consider those as part of the same overarching story that began with Night of the Living Dead.
“It is no secret that Diary and Survival were not the way he envisioned the series ending, and George knew it very well,” notes Zelati. “Twilight of the Dead was his goodbye to the genre he created and wanted to go out with a powerful film.”
As the three screenwriters worked, they also watched videos of George A. Romero coming up with the treatment.
“I could see how happy George was, almost giddy,” recalls Knetter. “That made us focus even more on bringing this to life the way he would have wanted.”
Lucas, a lifelong Romero fan, says “developing the final piece of the puzzle in the dead universe” was a dream come true.
Suzanne Romero is now ready for meetings to find the right director to complete George A. Romero’s zombie saga.
“This is the film he wanted to make. And while someone else will carry the torch as the director, it is very much a George A. Romero film,” says Suzanne Romero.
Suzanne Romero also runs the George A. Romero Foundation, which seeks to preserve the filmmaker’s legacy and empower indie filmmakers. She is repped by Chris Roe Management.
