George A. Romero might have passed away in 2017, but his work will continue. According to a new report from THR, Romero was working on a final zombie film before his passing several years ago, and now, his wife, Suzanne Romero, is looking for a filmmaker to tell the story.
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The report claims that Romero was working on a film titled “Twilight of the Dead” before he died in 2017. While there are no exact details about what the film would be about, the simple premise states, “The story is set in a decimated world. Life has all but disappeared. But there still may be hope for humanity.” Before his death, Romero was working with screenwriter Paolo Zelati on a treatment for the film. After the filmmaker passed, Zelati wanted to continue work on the final script for the potential film, with Joe Knetter and Robert L. Lucas along to help.
“I gave [Zelati] my full blessing as long as I could be there every step of the way for it to remain true to George’s vision,” said 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.”
For many, the final films of George Romero aren’t nearly the type of quality as his earlier, genre-defining features. And because of that, Zelati wanted to go back to “Land of the Dead,” the 2005 feature that was (at the time) supposed to be the end of the series that began with “Night of the Living Dead.”
“Everything started with my question to him: ‘Where do the zombies go at the end of “Land of the Dead?”'” says Zelati.
By starting with this question, the final two zombie films from Romero, “Diary of the Dead” and “Survival of the Dead,” seem to fall by the wayside. This is on purpose, according to Zelati, as the filmmaker was never happy with how those films turned out.
“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.”
“It is no secret that ‘Diary’ and ‘Survival’ were not the way he envisioned the series ending, and George knew it very well,” said Zelati. “‘Twilight of the Dead’ was his goodbye to the genre he created and wanted to go out with a powerful film.”
So, now the hunt is on for a filmmaker to bring the vision to the big screen. We’ll just have to wait and see who they’re able to snag for such a big assignment. It’s a big ask to have someone come in and finish the work of one of the most important directors in the horror genre.