Genre: Horror.
Studio:
Unknown.
Production Company:
Unknown.
Project Phase: Movies Rumored.
Who's In It:
Unknown.
Who's Making It:
George Romero (Director, Screenwriter, rumored).
Premise: This third sequel to Night of the Living Dead has had a couple ideas bandied about concerning it. They can be summed up as a continuation of the ideas from the original Day of the Dead script, or a zombie movie for the year 2000. (See Scoop Feedback, below.)
Release Date: 2001?
Comments: Not to be confused with the 1983 film Gates of Hell. And hey, George? It's time, buddy.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
May 30, 1997... This idea has been kicked around for as long as can be remembered. Fangoria magazine, when the slightly needless remake of Night of the Living Dead (sorry, Tom!) came out in 1990, had the comment that George would do the fourth installment in the Dead saga, he simply had to.
Several fan-written screenplays are floating around in the ether, but Romero has stated that if there is a fourth one, it will be from his pen.
Originally, the film Day of the Dead was supposed to be twice as long, ending with the "domesticated" zombie Bub leading a society of zombies rotting and tottering into the future, with the obvious end result that they would decay out of existence eventually. Very, very bleak. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh website (the city where Day of the Dead was filmed) mentions this zombie society as a rumored basis for the fourth film. However, The Page of the Dead states that the original Day script is awaiting production, because at the time of the filming various production problems kept it from happening. This version had a group of individuals (left over from the Day film) training zombies as soldiers to go and fight other zombies. They get to chow down on people who betray the group's mission.
Now the rumbling and speculation begins anew from the horse's mouth. In more than one interview, including one in the British mag Total Film, George Romero spewed out a concept for the movie. This idea would be based either in the present day or the not-too-distant future. The population of live humans has been drastically reduced (in the third movie, there were 400,000 zombies for every live person, making an estimated human population worldwide of 12,500.) The zombies are slower and extremely rotted, and the normal human society has gotten on with their lives, simply ignoring them, treating them like AIDS victims or homeless persons. George expressed doubt the film would ever get made due to the number of hands "in the Living Dead pie." "I'll never get sick of zombies," Romero stated, "I just get sick of producers."
Still, Harry Knowles over at Ain't It Cool calls upon Dimension Films to come to George's rescue for this project, which isn't such a bad idea...
[This page's original draft written and sent in by 'widgett', who really wants to be a zombie extra. Ya readin' this Tom?]
August 12, 1997... After reading our Twlight of the Dead page, John Betancourt wrote a letter off to CA with his dead experiences:
"The info thus far on the fan scripts is this. There is a reason why Romero doesn't look at a majority of the fan scripts. They suck. Tom Savini has read several that are utterly awful. Some of the ideas I have heard, turning the fims into a comedy series. An all out war. No plot, just humans vs. dead in a 100% bloodbath. Another idea, going back in time and having a film revolving around Bub and Dr. Logan from Day of the Dead. The film would have concentrated on the possibility of the two characters being related. As for now, it seems the main reason Romero has not written a 4th is because, he is starving for an idea. He has eluded to the 2000 thing, but the fact that he has no idea how to pull it together explains a lot. After all, the longest it has been between each films production has been 10 years. So far, it has taken 12 for Romero to think of a new idea. I myself have written a script for Dead 4 that combines elements Romero wants, and so far, those who I have discussed it with think it is a good script that has a shot. I plan to call John Russo to see if I can find Romero and possibly cowrite with him, so who knows? We shall see."
Hey, best of luck John. If you do manage to get hold of George, tell him the world needs a new zombie film. Really, we do - we gotta test out that V-chip somehow. [Sent in by John Betancourt.]
January 12, 1998... If you post it long enough, someone will come. That's our motto for this page, where our latest scooper, Jeremy, fills us in with the reason why we haven't seen a fourth Dead picture yet...
"Not so much a scoop as backstory.
"The reason the original Day of the Dead script wasn't filmed was money. Laurel head Richard Rubenstein would have given Romero the budget needed, but Romero would have to have delivered an R rated film. If Romero wanted the film to go out unrated or with the X, then the budget would be less.
"Needless to say, the movie was released uncut, but Romero refused to work for Laurel again.
"I remember this story from an interview Romero did with Fangoria around the time Monkey Shines was released.
"Oh, and one more thing: I had the honor of meeting Mr. Romero last year. I had a number of good questions, but I was so excited that the only one I could ask was about a fourth Dead flick. He said he'd love to (which has been mentioned already), but the rights were tied up with a bunch of producers and companies.
"Hope this helps somewhat." It does Jeremy. Now if we could just figure out how to get the rights released to Romero, we'd have half the battle won. [Scoop submitted by Jeremy.]
May 12, 1998... Some rumor control to help us sort out what's fact and fantasy has been graciously submitted by 'Jet Jaguar'. First, there's no plans for a Twilight of the Dead feature just now. Have you been hearing rumors about a Night of the Living Dead: Special Edition feature? Guess what -- it's not real. Romero was musing out loud about such an idea and next thing you know it became an actual press release at some point. It just ain't gonna happen.
What will happen is a project currently titled Red Eye: Flight of the Living Dead. Romero is currently developing a semi-satirical view of the zombie genre, that will 'sorta kinda' tie in with the Dead trilogy. We've got no details on this one right now since it's in the embryonic stage.
[Big thanks to our pal 'Jet Jaguar' for the help seperating the chaff from the zombie bits.]
May 19, 1998... At the World Horror convention this month in Phoenix, Berni Wrightson displayed a painting entitled 'Sunrise of the Dead'. "If I were George Romero," writes our scooper, "I'd buy it and scare up many investors with it... it looked exactly like a movie poster for Twilight of the Dead should look like...lurid, scary and oh, so cool!" [Contributed by 'Catblack'.]
July 11-21, 1998... According to our records, the website DVD Review was the first to break word about George Romero confirming plans to direct a brand-new Dead film -- but only after completing another unrelated (and also much-expected) zombie picture!
This is taken from the site's interview with Romero, posted last week:
"After all this technical talk, we then had the chance to meet with George A. Romero. The horror meister who brought us horror cult classics like Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead and Day Of The Dead, among others. It was very exciting to hear him talking about his plans for the next installment of the Dead series. Yes folks, you read this right. George Romero is currently working out the financing details to finally realize the next part in his zombie installment. This is no rumor any more. He is now actively pursuing the project. 'First I will do Resident Evil however', he says and once again lightning struck. Only last week, he signed the contract to write and direct the infamous and highly anticipated Resident Evil movie after months of uncertainty and negotiations."
That would place the date Romero signed the contract at about the start of July. 'DWP' said that Romero made the announcement at the July VSDA (DVD) Las Vegas convention. Speculating that the Resident Evil flick should be out by, at the latest, summer 2000, that makes the next installment of the Dead series at around 2001 at the earliest. (We're thinking it'll be more likely around late 2002.) In any case -- YES! FINALLY -- more living dead!! [Credit should first go to 'Jiven' for being the first to report the scoop. Additional thank yous to: 'DPW', 'JHunter', 'jraysen', Jamie, 'UberNeuman', D. Walt, 'Bub', 'dmorrell', 'prozac', 'cserb', 'melaugh', 'kch', 'Ben Grimm', 'AoD137', 'MikeA1129', 'slydr2000', David, and many anonymous letter writers.]
September 3, 1998... While attending DragonCon in Atlanta, CA correspondent 'Widgett' asked legendary makeup effects master Tom Savini if he was connected in any way to the rumored fourth Dead film. Savini told our man that he's heard the same rumors we all have, and really doesn't know anything else. Romero has not approached him about working on the fourth film. [Zombie journalism courtesy of 'Widgett'.]