George A. Romero essentially made the zombie genre what it is today. Initially starting with his original, low-budget 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, he created a plethora of tales that bridged blood and guts with topical themes. All his films were part of a series that were connected thematically, if not usually having any of the same characters. These films, in order of release, were Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead. Sadly, before his death in 2017, Romero was planning a "concluding chapter" titled Twilight of the Dead and had even written a film treatment with Paolo Zelati. That film never, pun intended, came to life. Until now that is.
It's been confirmed that his widow Suzanne Romero has been working with screenwriters Joe Knetter and Robert L. Lucason along with Zelati who kept working on the script after Romero's death with Suzanne's permission. The hope is to finally get the film made. The writing must be close to done or completely finished as reports say she is hoping to start meeting with directors for the project. The film is said to be “a concluding chapter intended to be his final statement on the genre,” and “set in a decimated world. Life has all but disappeared. But there still may be hope for humanity.”
The project is a direct sequel to Land of the Dead, which means it’ll be ignoring Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead (Considered two of the weaker installments of the series). In Land of the Dead, one of the zombies (nicknamed Big Daddy) evolved to become more intelligent than his undead collegues. Zelati spoke on the announcement, saying the ending of that film left him wondering, “Where do the zombies go at the end of Land of the Dead?” He then added:
“It is no secret that Diary and Survival were not the way he envisioned the series ending and George knew it very well. Twilight of the Dead was his goodbye to the genre he created and wanted to go out with a powerful film.”
Suzanne Romero also gave her own thoughts on finishing the film:
"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.”
And hopefully it will be a great final mark on the genre by Romero, even if it's from beyond the grave. Stay tuned!
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