...ah, yes!!! Where to begin???
Let's start with Romero's 1968 production of "Night of the Living Dead", the one that started it all; of course, 22 years later, director Tom Savini took a variation of Romero's original script, added a few ironic quirks to his film, and Presto!!!...we had a very respectable remake of "Night of the Living Dead".
...slightly tainting the reputation of the classic original film, director/producer/writer John Russo (co-writer of the original "Night..."), in 1998, produced a recut of Romero's "Night...", splicing in newly-filmed gore-drenched footage, basically attempting to fill in the story blanks merely hinted at in the original film, and re-casting Bill Hinzman, who played the graveyard zombie; least to say, the fans of the original were angrily up in arms, and the film failed miserably.
..fortunately, very few people caught the 1991 limited video release of the newly (and comically) over-dubbed version of Romero's classic, entitled "Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the 'Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh-Eating, Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2, in Shocking 2-D."
...around the same time, a colorized version of Romero's classic film was unceremoniously released; this proved to be as cinematically sacraligious as colorizing the original "Frankenstein" or "Casablanca"!!!
...but let's get back to the original timeline.....in 1978, Romero was back, with vengeance, with his continuing apocalyptic vision, in the form of "Dawn of the Dead"; 26 years later, and without Romero's blessing, a new generation of filmmakers took on the task of one-uping Romero, with the remake of "Dawn...". Although an interesting contemporary twist on the original, it failed somewhat, primarily on a raw, viceral level, and barely touched on the satirical commentary keenly expressed in the original.
...flash forward to 1985, and Romero's continuation of his zombie saga, with "Day of the Dead"; 1985 was virtually the 'year of the living dead', with accompanying releases of "Re-Animator", "Return of the Living Dead" (scripted by John Russo) and "Fright Night".
Once again, John Russo attempted to one-up Romero, with a sleazy, ultra-low-budget contemporary take on the original "Night...", with 1988's "Flesheater" (aka "Revenge of the Living Zombies"; Russo even went as far as once again casting the original "Night..." cemetery zombie, Bill Hinzman, in a role virtually identical to the original. Again, Russo failed miserably to capture the spirit of the original, and ended up with one of the worst zombie films in cinematic history
...in 2005, in attemping to cash in, and ride Romero's coattails, some young reckless filmmakers vainly produced an in-name-only sequel to "Day of the Dead", entitled "Day of the Dead: Contagion", once again proving that there's nothing like the real thing...from Romero!!!
Finally, in 2005, after being snubbed by the Hollywood cookie-cutter factory, due to not wanting to accomodate his ideas for "Resident Evil", Romero once again assumed the director's mantle, in yet another chapter in his 'living dead' saga. That film was "Land of the Dead"
...so what's in the future??? Reportedly, at the request of the 'suits' over at Universal, Romero is hard at work, scribbling a scripted follow-up to :"Land..." ("a continuation of the "Land...:" story, not a sequel", as noted in a Romero interview).
In addition, the folks responsible for the dismal "Day of the Dead: Contagion", who have since garnished some reputation, some money, and a respectable cast (including Ving Rhames, from the "Dawn..." remake), are about to release a remake of '85's "Day of the Dead".
...rumor control has it (and supposedly, there is a trailer on YouTube), the creators of the remake of "Dawn of the Dead", have unceremoniously announced a pending sequel to the film; unconfirmed, at this point, though...
...and that's all there is to tell...at least for the time being!!!
2007-05-06 21:49:58
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answer #1
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answered by Fright Film Fan 7
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