George Romero changed film forever with Night of the Living Dead. And now he’ll be playing in that universe again with Road of the Dead. The new sequel was written by George Romero and Matt Birman, and will be directed by Birman as well.
Road of the Dead is set to take place six years after Land of the Dead, which took place in the later stages of Romero’s zombie outbreak.
Romero and Birman will be looking for funding at the Frontières co-production market later this month. While speaking with Rue Morgue about the project, he revealed a variety of new plot details.
“It’s set in a sanctuary city where this fat cat runs a haven for rich folks, and one of the things that he does is stage drag races to entertain them. There’s a scientist there doing genetic experiments, trying to make the zombies stop eating us, and he has discovered that with a little tampering, they can recall certain memory skills that enable them to drive in these races. So it’s a demolition derby with zombies at the wheels, and of course the shit hits the fan in other ways. It’s really a romp; it’s great fun, with stunts galore.”
He also explained that this film will have a much more comedic tone than his previous zombie films.
“This one is really almost a comedy, though it’s got scares and spooky moments and all that. It’s more about suspense than blood. While there is gore, it’s not overt; there are no big, operatic sequences where people get torn apart. There’s slapstick in it, but it’s mostly stunts; it’s quite different. One character dies, for example, in a tragic way, but was once in NASCAR and is able to come back and drive. It’s that kind of looney-tunes.”
He concludes by saying,
“It’s really THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS with zombies.”
Romero’s zombie franchise has hit a lot of bumps since Dawn of the Dead in 1978. Perhaps a new director is just what the franchise needs, and maybe this comedic tone for Road of the Dead will help rejuvenate the genre. Comedy may sound like a risky move, but it certainly worked for Return of the Living Dead and a variety of other zombie classics over the years.
Let’s just see where the road takes us, shall we?
“In the darkest days of the zombie apocalypse, the last safe place on earth is anything but, as a mad despot uses the spectacle of high octane carnage to keep control of his populous.”
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Source: Rue Morgue