Exclusive Telephone Interview with George Romero, as part of our special series of interviews 'The Dead Speak' 7.19.04

The godfather of zombies, George Romero is a man who has made his career creating new zombie fans while pleasing the old - but has actually done many types of characters in his films. He's worked with amazing people, on great projects, and is one of the men responsible for bringing horror to the heights it has achieved...

"It's what they want me to do. I'm sort of stuck in the genre"

Official Site | IMdB Page

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HorrorWench: Good Morning
George Romero: Hi
HW: Thank you very much for taking time out of your extremely busy schedule to talk with me...
George: Suddenly busy [laughs] very busy
HW: We're doing a special section called 'The Dead Speak' [George laughs] and are very happy to have your participation in this. If you don't have any questions we'll just jump right in...
George: Sure!

HW: Right off the bat let's go for the jugular
George: Okay
HW: The Dawn of the Dead remake that was released this spring. While you were not involved with it, do you feel it has had an impact on the zombie subgenre? Has this film resurrected zombie fans and helped secure both Diamond Dead and Land of the Dead.
George: I don't think it did that, because we've been in negotiations for this film [Land] for over two years with Fox it just didn't work out. The fact that it happened quickly was, Mark Canton has a new company called Atmosphere [Entertainment] and one of his partners is a guy named Bernie Goldmann, who is a Pittsburgher, and has been a fan of my first three [Dead] films. It's a new company and Mark was having lunch with my agent, and my agent said, 'oh man, we've been hung up at Fox for two years.' And Mark said, 'Let me see it.' They were sitting on the money and Bernie being a fan talked Mark into doing it, and they just quickly made a deal. I don't think this deal had anything to do with that resurrection of the Dawn of the Dead.
      That film went out and it did a great first week, and then it fell off somewhat rapidly. It did very well. But you know, 28 Days Later... the genre's been sort of coming back and people are going back to zombies, among other things. But I think mine are sort of [pause] their own thing [laughs].
HW: Very much...
George: So I don't know that it [Dawn remake] had any direct impact on this film [Land] getting made. Just the fact that the script was ready and there was one studio interested in it, and when that happens others just sort of jump on board.

HW: You said in a recent interview that the Dawn remake was better than you expected, but had lost its impact.
George: Hmm-mm. I thought it lost its underlying social satire. When we did the first one, those indoor shopping malls were new and they were easily the subject for satire. I don't think that's there anymore. When I said it was pretty good, I meant it was a pretty good action flick. And I've told Richard [Rubinstein] [laughs] and actually gone on record saying I don't like fast moving zombies...
HW: That was my next question [both laugh] What do you think about this new breed of zombies?
George: I don't get it!
HW: I don't get it either, and I would be shot if I didn't ask you how you felt about them... [he laughs]
George: Uh, yeah... no, I can't get there. Now in 28 Days they weren't dead, so ... [laughs] so I could buy it more there. But when they're dead they're supposed to be... you know in my first film one of the characters says, 'they're dead, they're all messed up.' And that's what they should be [laughs] But I've had them beginning to learn over the course of my three films.
HW: Yes, with Bub [domesticated zombie in Day of the Dead]
George: Yes, and in the new film they advance a little further. I've been trying to work on that sort of evolution - slowly. Bub didn't move quickly he just sort of.. I think it's much more frightening to have these lumbering things coming at you. I think that the rationale - people feel that if you're heavily armed you can mow them down. But the whole thing has always been just too many, or they take you by surprise somehow, or whatever.
HW: To me the thing that was always the scariest was that they could be someone you knew. In the original there were family members... to kill a family member would be just awful.
George: Yep, no fun [laughs] no fun at all.

HW: While we're on the subject of remakes. Day of the Dead: Contagium [being done by Taurus Entertainment direct to video] is being done as a sort of remake/homage to the Dead trilogy and hints at an origin for the zombie phenomena. Have you been consulted at all? [*edited note* Contagium is not necessarily going straight to video - the webmaster at the official site contacted me after we posted this and is sending a full press release of info, watch the News & Rumors section for more]
George: No, I didn't even know it was happening, not at all. Neither was Richard. Richard had sold the rights to the original to Taurus and sold off all the rights and doesn't have anything to do with it at all either, that I know of.

HW: How do you feel about this trend to remake your work rather than create something new?
George: Well, I can't get excited about it [both laugh] I think it's a little bit silly, but someone said [laughs] people always ask Stephen King how do you feel about these movie makers ruining your books and he says, 'well, they're not ruined - here they are on the shelf right behind me.' That's sort of the way I feel. I had a chance to do my take on the material and if somebody has the rights to do it, let them do it. It doesn't affect my stuff at all.
HW: You're much nicer than I am [George laughs] I consider it lazy on some level - there's got to be new ideas out there. You've got how many new ideas? Enough with the remaking!
George: [laughs] Well, yes.

HW: How do you feel about being paid homage to in such a way?
George: Well it doesn't affect me one way or another. First of all, calling it an homage is one thing - I don't know that that's really what it is.
HW: That's what they're calling it.
George: That's not why the deal was made, that's probably something that grew out of the resurgence of horror and because of 28 Days and such. There's an Australian film, I don't even know if it's released here yet, but I've heard it's pretty good. And there's Shawn of the Dead which is a spoof, if you've seen that.
HW: I haven't seen that one yet...it hasn't come here yet.
George: It's sensational - it's just great!
HW: Now I have to tell them to order it. I live in the middle of nowhere and I feel some responsibility to tell them what to order horror-wise.
George: [laughs] Oh, where do you live?
HW: Waaaay at the top of Wisconsin, on Lake Superior, in the middle of no where... low crime rate, good clean air, nothing to do.
George: Oh that's great - not the nothing to do part. I'm sure you can find something to do...
HW: I have! It's called Horror-Web [both laugh]

HW: Your zombie movies have been repeatedly dissected and labeled as "mediums for social messages," have you purposely tried to do that with all of your films?
George: As much as I can. The ones that King wrote I was following his menu, so there's not as much in those. Steve tends to write pure horror, the stuff I do - I like to put a little bit of an underbelly in there. And Monkey Shines was also taken from someone else's novel [Michael Stewart] but I did try, in adapting the novel, to put in some of that 'monster within' stuff.

HW: Why choose horror as the vehicle for morality tales?
George: It's what people call me up and want, you know. It's what they want me to do. I'm sort of stuck in the genre [Wench: "stuck" laughs] and it's perfect really. The very origins of horror, the first tales we told around the fire - cave people - were scary tales, tales of the unknown, with applications to real life. I think fantasy is a medium for metaphor. I think that's the way to use it. I'm not interested, you know you won't find me doing a movie about a guy in a hockey mask with a knife...
HW: Thank you!
George: [laughs] I think it's a form, and since I'm stuck in the genre I try to find ways to use it. To at least express some opinions or satirize things and have some fun.

HW: Now you say 'stuck in the genre.' Would you like to try other genres?
George: Yeah, of course!
HW: Which ones would you do?
George: I'd like to do a really a flat out straight action film of some kind. An action adventure stuff - I'd like to flex my muscles that way. And I'd like to do smaller, little personal films, but you know nobody [laughs] I don't get those calls.
HW: You've been very type cast...
George: Yep [laughs]
HW: And you've done so many different types of characters, not just zombies... It's just odd that you've been typecast as the 'king of the zombies'.
George: Well, those were the most popular. Actually, Creepshow made more money. That was the only film I ever did that was number one, and it was probably largely because of Stephen, but it was also a pretty fun flick.

HW: I loved that one! I have a question about that one - we'll jump ahead.
George: Okay
HW: Creepshow 1 & 2 were not as well received as you had hoped by critics, and you once said that the industry thinks anthologies just don't work. With comics making a come back in the genre, as well as finding their way to the screen, do you feel that anthology movies would be better received today?
George: You know I've been in a few meetings where people are saying, 'gee, maybe we should try to revisit that kind of format.' I'd love to see it.
HW: Oh, so they are thinking it?
George: Yeah, it's lost some of its tarnish I think. I don't know why it ever developed that tarnish. I think that the 'wisdom' [laughs] was that people thought audiences wanted a full form narrative with character exploration and everything else. The short form wasn't. They thought it was too TV number one, and that movie audiences wanted this whole 'meal'.
HW: So if they came to you with Creepshow 3 you'd be all over that?
George: Oh yah - yep.

HW: So you did Creepshow and Tales from the Darkside, is there a difference between anthologies on the big screen and the little screen?
George: Oh, I don't know [laughs]. I guess TV audiences are more used to, everything from soaps to weekly series, and are willing to accept the short form more readily. As far as execution there really isn't.

HW: Martin was the only time that you tackled vampires, a very popular subgenre, but Martin really wasn't a vampire - it was all in his head.
George: He was a mixed up kid - very mixed up kid. [laughs]

HW: Twisted even. [both laugh] Why did you never do a true vampire movie - Romero style?
George: Well, just last year I was developing Dracula, the real Stoker for ABC and it just fell apart. They went and did Steve's Kingdom Hospital. It's still alive, it's still there. We're still trying to get somebody to go for it. I loved doing it, I loved it - I wrote the script and I loved it. I was really going to try and do the Stoker and emphasis some of the wonderful things from the book that had never been used.
HW: And it's still at ABC?
George: Yeah, they paid for it so they own it - but it doesn't necessarily mean it will be made there. Somebody might pick it up, take it away.
HW: So you are still interested in doing a vampire. There's a lot of stuff in Stoker's that's never been touched on.
George: Never been used, or never been used as fully as it should - like the ship. The only one that ever made any real use out of the ship was the [Frank] Langella one [Dracula 1979] and even that gave it a short script. Such a wonderful... it's a classic sort of last man standing scenario as everyone's getting knocked off on that ship. Nobody's ever used that.

HW: Many horror sequels bring back previous survivors to fight the evil once again...
George: Yeah
HW: ...yet you have never done this in your Dead films.
George: No.
HW: Is there a reason for that?
George: Well you know, they were never... I never did anything with the period. I could have set them all in 1968 [laughs] and since they weren't connected in time... Well, in other words, I just used the period. I shot one in the 70's and the background was 70's - I shot one in the 80's and the background was the 80's - and this one this background will be 2000. So I don't feel that you can continue the same characters. The thing that continues is just the phenomena and I try to put a different spin on it that reflects the time when the film is made, rather than try to keep the same characters going, it just wouldn't make any sense unless they were all done in the same period.
HW: So you would never considered bringing back a character?
George: No, they're too far apart... well, I might. Actually at one point I thought about bringing back Peter from Dawn, but it would have to be 20 years later - and of course the actor would look right for it because he's 20 years older.
HW: Well and that's why I was thinking it - the actor would look right if you're doing it for the period.
George: Yeah, but I just decided no. It's a completely different ... I'd much rather reflect the times. What I try to do with all the films is reflect the decade they're made in. This one [Land] is sort of about ignoring the problem, kind of living with terrorism if you want to put it in that context. I actually did change it. I wrote the first draft of this before 9/11 and sent it out literally two days before 9/11 happened. And of course right then everyone wanted to make soft and fuzzy movies.
HW: Yeah, no one wanted to touch it - it was a taboo...
George: Yep, so then after another couple of years I've rewritten it and sort of reflect the post 9/11 paranoia. The real threat, which we ignore, sort of like living in an earthquake zone.
HW: It's called denial...
George: Yeh [laughs]

HW: And that is where I was going next... The Land of the Dead has been given the green light and is going to make many a happy zombie fan. Tell us about this fourth installment in the Dead series ... is this the end?
George: I hope not! Depends on whether I live [laughs]
HW: That was the answer I wanted! Thank you. [both laugh] That will be a well received answer.
George: [still laughing] Frankly, my only problem is - these days, if this is a hit, they're going to want to do another one right away and I've always preferred [pause]
HW: ...the decades...
George: Yeah, a different time, a different attitude. But who knows? Maybe before they want to make a sequel we'll get hit by a nuke or something and I'll have something to play with...
HW: We'll have something to deal with - yeah! [both laughing] Ok, are we really wishing bad things... [both broke down in laughter]
George: Hey, anything for show business!
HW: anything [more laughing - we thought this was really funny!]

HW: [composed again...] Now, the latest news on Land of the Dead is that set location will be either Pittsburgh or Winnepeg, Canada. Has anything there been decided yet and when will shooting begin?
George: Or South Africa - get that! They're looking at it, but nothing's been decided yet.
HW: I know you wrote it for Pittsburgh...
George: Pittsburgh, I have to say - for some odd reason - the city father's here, even though they close their eyes while watching my zombie films, have a certain kind of pride in them. I think that Night of the Living Dead was the first feature made in Pittsburgh by a Pittsburgher, and I've actually made 15 films here - either written, directed, or produced.
HW: You like to work in your hometown...
George: I've just always had the attitude that, 'hey - we can have the dance right here.' [laughs] Why go anywhere else? The last film I did I had to go to Toronto for economic reasons, but it wasn't an American film. It was a French company that financed a film I did called Bruiser, so I didn't feel like I was taking US bucks out of the country. Some of this [Land], Mark Canton's company, called Atmosphere, their partners in this is a French company called The Wild Bunch, which actually was part of Canal + at one time - Canal + financed Bruiser. But there's an American component and, as I say, one of the producers - Mark's partner - is a Pittsburgher and he'd like to bring it here. The city is really coming out, trying to come up with incentives and even the playing field and make Pittsburgh economically competitive with Canada. They're trying to make union deals and offering free locations and things like that. And it's been very gratifying - they're really going to bat to try and keep this film here. I hope, and I think it will be decided this week. At this point it will either be Pittsburgh or Winnepeg.
      However, they want to shoot in October, and that's a really tight preproduction schedule because this film is a lot bigger than any of the other ones. It needs a lot of planning. So if we don't make the October date, I think they'd be afraid of running into the holidays and they might want to start in January, in which case, it might have to be some place like South Africa.
HW: How do you feel about South Africa?
George: I've always wanted to see it! [laughs] I've never been and always wanted to. I actually have an elephant script that is just based on a life of research and study of elephants, the plight, the ivory trade - so this might give me some first hand exposure to fix up the script so that somebody might want to make it.
HW: Now what genre would the elephant script be?
George: Well it's a little bit scary in that there's a rogue elephant - so it has a little bit of that Jaws thing going
HW: Ghost and the Darkness style?
George: Yeah, but it's really sort of a ... hmmm... sort of... well, a love story about elephants
HW: A Romero Love Story?
George: Yeah. Romero loves elephants [laughs] big dumb things, I guess that's because I'm big.
HW: [both laugh] But you're a big teddy bear though...
George: Ah well, I like bears too
HW: Bears are fun - I live in the land of bears.
George: Really?
HW: Yeah, oh yeah - and my husband is actually a hunting guide for bears.
George: Wow! We have a lot of little black bears around here
HW: We have a lot of big black bears [laughs]
George: Ah ok. You know I'm working Stephen King again, on a thing called The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and that's about a bear basically when you cut through it. The kid is afraid of monsters and it turns out to be a bear. So I might get to work with bears and elephants - my favorite guys.
HW: There you go!

HW: Another element of Land of the Dead is the FX company. Is Tom Savini, who you have worked with on several occasions, being considered for any possible involvement with Land of the Dead? Or are the FX being done by KNB's Greg Nicotero?
George: I'd love to use him as an actor [Savini]. I don't have total control of that, but I think these guys would let me do it. And I'd also love to give him maybe a special zombie, if Greg would let Tom do one particular character or something that would be great, but I need to clear that with Greg.

HW: Because the producers are looking at major distribution you will most likely have to tame the Land of the Dead, in the editing room, to an R rating. Will you film it with a NC17 or unrated director's cut in mind for the video release?
George: Absolutely.

HW: Even though you've been quoted saying that "director's cuts are just a sales tool"?
George: Well, I uh.. [both laugh] I said that about the old films because there was no such thing. I only ever did one cut, and very often these video companies put out something that says 'new footage' and I never shot any new footage. I think with the old films that has been the case, there really has been no difference. I had one US cut, I had the original cut that we did to try and get a distributor for the film. When we got a US distributor I cut it down a few minutes, which was strictly for running time consideration.
HW: So it wasn't a rating cut?
George: No, no.
HW: So there was no true director's cut, but this one will have?
George: Yes, this one will. I'm going to make the film ... hard [laughs]
HW: And they're going to hate it! [MPAA]
George: [both laugh] Well, they're just not going to release it in the US - The MPAA will, they want it to be no stronger than an R for initial US release. But I think the fans will still show up and still dig it. We'll get as much in as we can, and what we have to cut out will be in the can and probably get released in countries like Japan and Germany where they're not as 'troubled' by that kind of thing, initially. So there might be Japanese videos available right away, then the US video release they'll put out a hard video release with whatever warning they're supposed to put on those. The whole banana.
      But I'm going to shoot one film and shoot it as hard as I can. There may be instances where I have to shoot an effect twice. Most of it, I think, can probably be cut aways, just cut out a little sooner, but there might be places where we have to shoot things twice - one a little softer, one a little harder.
HW: Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses had a lot of problems with the MPAA.
George: Yeah, he did.
HW: It was so silly. I remember reading, and the numbers are wrong, but that it's NC17 if you stab them 13 times but it's ok if you stab them 8 times - we'll let it go.
George: [laughs] I don't know who makes these rules. Give me a break. I also think that the majors get away with a lot more, like the opening scene in Scream where all her guts come dripping out of her, you know. My stuff is no worse than that.
HW: Well no, you had guts falling off the table in Day...
George: Well that was unrated. The UATC they were willing to release them unrated, they thought that would be the best approach.
HW: I only have that version [laughs] I don't even have the watered down one - though I hear there is one.
George: I didn't do it. I hear that too, but I'm not sure. I know on Dawn they tried to cut an R rated version of it and it didn't make any money. Seems like a waste. You just have to run all those new prints... silly.

HW: Aside from writing and directing, no ... let's ask this first. You are always listed as writer/director - which do you consider yourself? Is there a preference?
George: You know, really? Both. Though I do much more writing than directing, unfortunately that's what happens. It's probably 12 or 15 to 1. Projects that I've either been hired to write, or that I write on spec and then try to film. But my stuff, the stuff I create generally, is not instantly recognizable - by most Hollywood execs anyway - as something that they want to do. Because I try to keep some sort of an underbelly in it and they just want slasher stuff. [laughs]
HW: Do they even always 'catch' the underbelly? Or do they miss it?
George: Very often it gets missed and they just deal with the surface storylines. When I was pitching this [Land] initially, my pitch was 'well, it's about ignoring the problem.' Yeah, but what's the story? Who are the characters? I could put fifty stories on top of that, really, that's what I want to express. Life living with terrorism or ignoring it and trying to carry on with a normal lifestyle.
HW: Zombies is the 'obvious' problem, but you can turn it into whatever you want and the story is ignoring - if I ignore it will it go away?
George: Right, yes. That's the idea - we'll try to live around it. The way people step over the homeless on their way to the theater. [laughs]
HW: And it's something that happens everyday - people ignore problems.
George: Yep

HW: So aside from writing and directing, you have taken on many roles in filmmaking - including actor, cinematographer, producer, editor, and composer - quite literally dabbling in every aspect of the creative process.
George: I've never actually composed music, but I love editing music - using library stuff. I've never actually composed anything.
HW: Ugh - they've got you listed as composer [IMdB] ...
George: Well, [laughs] somebody's wrong
HW: Well, IMdB is wrong a lot - I have learned this...
George: ok [laughs]
HW: But the question is, have you done this over the years because you were genuinely interested in those areas, or was it an educational tool, to get a taste of what those around you do?
George: No, I came to all of those - we first had a commercial production company doing beer commercials and industrial films and so forth, and I was the guy - I was the first guy - that learned how to do it all. I was the shooter and the editor and the director and most of the guys around Pittsburgh eventually, after working on so much stuff - we probably shot more commercial footage than I ever have film footage [both laugh] - started to learn.
      Partly through our company and partly through Fred Rogers, you know, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. That was my first job - my first paying job! He had a thing called 'Picture Picture' and I used to shoot those films for him. I still say the scariest film I ever made was Mr. Roger's Gets a Tonsillectomy [both laugh]
HW: And the underlying social theme there? [still laughing]
George: Don't be afraid of doctors [laughs] Which of course is a lie!
HW: Do you have all of those early things you've done in some vault somewhere?
George: Nah, no I don't. The stuff I've saved is a lot of the commercial things, but I don't have any of the Rogers stuff because they never let that stuff out. But I have a lot of the old commercials and industrials that I did - they're at the Eastman House in Rochester. They have all of that, they've reconditioned it and they're keeping it together. Which is pretty flattering...

HW: You have many, many things on your plate.
George: Three really...
HW: I have more than that, hmmm...
George: Ok, well I'll tell you which ones are still on the plate
HW: Yes, one at a time - let's check the status and plans for these? [George laughs] Diamond Dead was put on hold for Land of the Dead, all reports are that you plan to return to Diamond when Land is complete?
George: I'd love to. That's going to depend though. The producer of that film, a guy named Andrew Gaty, he's got - it's amazing, stuff happens all at once. Right after we made this deal with Atmosphere, literally within a week, Andrew called and said I think I've got the money for Diamond Dead and I had to say oh wait a minute, we're already doing this deal for this other deal. So it will depend on whether the money sources will wait for me or go an make the movie with another director. In which case it might still use my script. But I'd love to do it, and I hope they wait for me.

HW: The ILL was put on hold for Diamond Dead...
George: No, The Ill was never real.
HW: Is it completely scrapped?
George: Nothing is ever completely scrapped, I could get a call today. But I haven't done anything on that project or had any serious interest in it for years, and somehow it survives all over the web, and I don't know why. Is it a catchy title??
HW: Because it's got your name attached to it...
George: Maybe. But anyway, that certainly isn't - it certainly ain't hot - but as I say, nothings ever really dead.

HW: The adaptation of Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, was set for a mid-2005 start date. Where is this project now?
George: That looks very good right now. That is a Canadian producer that's putting it together, and that looks terrific right now.
HW: So you could go from Land to that, rather than Land to Diamond?
George: It all depends on which deal locks up first, and whether the Diamond Dead people want to wait for me. It all goes through the agents and people work it out to some extent. I haven't been in this position for a long time where I have to worry, well which one do I do next? I'm always worried what am I going to do next, but not picking from a lot. Those three look very good, and I'd love to do them both. I have a real attachment to Tom Gordon because of Stephen and he's been great about letting me run with the ball on it. He let me adapt it, so I have a real attachment with that one.
HW: And you've work with him before... and it has bears.
George: It has bears, right [both laugh]

HW: Paramount is reportedly doing a remake of your 1973 The Crazies. Is Scott Kosar still set to write this?
George: I don't know - I didn't know that he was.
HW: And you are listed as executive-producing?
George: Yep, if it gets made. So often, these projects, they wind up doing ten scripts and then they don't make the movie. But if it gets made, yeah, that's the deal - I would be exec-producer - but they don't want my input [laughs] They just want my name attached to it. [laughs]
HW: ohhhhh, it's a George Romero Presents. I've learned that Wes Craven Presents means he didn't do anything, they just put his name with it.
George: Yeah I know. They're rewriting it, I don't know close it will be. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a terrorist attacks these days instead of a chemical spill. I'm sure they want to make it modern, so I really have no idea. I don't even know who they have in mind to write it - we're still in paperwork on it. My agents are putting together the deal.

HW: Are there any other projects hidden in the Romero vault?
George: Well, I told you about the elephant thing [laughs]
HW: Yes
George: And with the producer that's doing Tom Gordon, his name is Don Archbold, I rewrote a script for him called Aurora, Texas - which is a UFO - and we sort of have high hopes for that. But that's the only one that's really being talked about in a realistic way.
HW: Just writing not directing?
George: No I would direct that one as well
HW: And when do you plan on squeezing that one in [both laugh]
George: I don't know, but it's not real. Next will be either be Tom Gordon or Diamond Dead - and the hopefully the other one. And I have a spec script which is circulating now that is called Stranger, but those are scripts that are just out there and ready. Now if this movie goes out, or sometimes just because there's action - because I'm back on the radar - I might start getting deals on these other things.
HW: I don't think you were ever really off the radar were you?
George: Oh yes, yes. Hollywood, you know, they never knew what I was really all about, never really trusted me. The two studio films I did were for Orion and they were in trouble at the time, they didn't distribute them well, they never went anywhere, and you drop off the radar. Then I got involved in the Mummy. My script of the Mummy was actually green lit, but we were tied up at MGM on another project and we lost the Mummy.
HW: How different was yours?
George: Completely different. It was twelve million, it was much more reverential, it was much more like the original Karloff. Very different, no big effects, and it was ready to fly. Then we lost it because MGM wouldn't let us out of contract on a project called Before I Wake - which we worked on for years. Then I was attached to Goosebumps which fell apart when Scholastic and Fox started to shoot and snipe at each other. All of a sudden, when you don't do something for five or six years people say Romero who?
      So that's what happened, and I got so fed up with all the Hollywood. I was making a lot of money in those days writing and rewriting, but I wasn't making any movies. We had a two year deal at New Line, but they never made a movie with us. They gave us fancy offices and secretaries and never did anything. So that's what makes you fall off the radar. So I went and did Bruiser, sort of a non-Hollywood, one from the heart.

HW: Now Bruiser is more a revenge film, you're almost cheering him on as he's going around killing everyone that's done him wrong. [George laughs] That's not really any social underlying themes.
George: Oh but there is. Basically it's inspired by Columbine and everything else, disenfranchisement is what makes people angry. Just being left out. That's why the disgruntled guy from the post office goes in and shoots his boss. So it's really more about that. And it's more like Martin in a way, I don't believe the guy really lost his face.
HW: Well, and Martin really wasn't a vampire. He was just crazy.
George: Right. And so is this guy [both laugh]

HW: You like working with unknowns and new people, because they're fresh. They don't need to be retrained. But now working with the bigger companies, for Land say, are they going to require big names?
George: We can't afford big names. This movie will be somewhere between fifteen and twenty probably [million] so we really can't afford big names. But they may want some recognizability, I don't know.
HW: And are they going to require the big special effects? And how do you feel about the big special effects?
George: I want to avoid them whenever possible. I have one sequence where I'm going to need some CG and I need a lot more zombies than I could ever recruit, so we'll probably use CG to make the crowds bigger. You know makes it seem like we have five times what we actually have on the set.
HW: In general how do you feel about CG?
George: I think it's just been misused. Sometimes it becomes the reason to make the movie and then they forget to make the movie. I like it when it's enhancement. I used about 14 shots in Bruiser, but they were all used to enhance - have a bat fly through, or put beams on flashlights, stuff like that.
HW: So when it's used as an effect it's ok, but when it becomes a character it's gone too far?
George: When it's the reason for making the movie - it's not a good enough reason. [laughs]
HW: Oh hey, I'm right there with you! I think if you have to sit in the makeup chair for eight hours before you can shoot, you've done effects the right way. Anytime you can use people with latex or makeup or what have you, I think it just comes off better.
George: Yeah, or animatronic figures or that stuff. Greg loves that stuff and they're the best guys. I know we'll have some terrific effects. They'll mostly be practical. In order to be competitive, I'm talking to Greg about a few places where we can use CG to take half a zombies face off or something. But they did a bunch of that in Dawn, and he's got ways... he's dreaming up stuff so we can do things like that mechanically.
HW: Well, the first zombie you see in Day is missing his face from the nose down, and that wasn't CG - that was mechanical.
George: Right, that was a mechanical figure. And we're hoping to do some of that, as much of that as we can. I'd love to keep it classical, try to be amazing with on the set mechanical effects. But I'm sure there's places, like I say, that's going to be mostly crowd enhancement. And that one sequence that I just cannot do. I have a bridge collapsing and I can't.
HW: No, oh I don't think they'll let you do that [both laugh]
George: They won't let me. I've spoken with them about it, but they like their bridges.
HW: Yeah, the cost to put it back afterwards would be more than the CGI.
George: That seems to be the problem. Although they could use some new ones.
HW: Yeah I've heard that - I've been through there once and there are scary bridges... but I don't like bridges. I don't like heights and I really don't like heights over water - so bridges really bother me.
George: Oh - can you walk across the lake when it's frozen?
HW: No, no. I don't trust the ice - I don't care how thick it is. Every year someone goes through it with a truck or snowmobile because they thought it was thick enough.
George: Oh boy. We went to Mackinaw Island [Michigan] once, on just a little trip to see the place. They were telling us in the winter they take snow mobiles across the water to the mainland to buy groceries. I'd be a little scared.
HW: They do that a lot here. People live on the islands and in the winter people will just cruise on over in their truck for whatever.
George: oy...
HW: They have actually moved houses to the island...
George: over the ice?? I-yi-yi...

HW: In the many interviews you've done over the years - has there ever been anything you were not asked that you would like to tell the fans?
George: I don't think so [laughs] I mean no - I guess I've said everything that I feel I need to say about what I do. I haven't been asked much about the presidential campaign [both laugh]
HW: And how do you feel about that? [both laugh] How do you feel about people in Hollywood thinking they should get into politics?
George: Oh man, let them do what they want to do... I don't have an opinion.
HW: I love it when they talk to people outside of politics as experts...
George: Yeah. They may be more honest opinions, not an agenda. It's interesting that you sort of get a feel for where people stand or what their opinions are.
HW: I think it hurts some of them.
George: Maybe, yeah it might.
HW: Your die hard left or right, which ever direction, and when an actor comes out and says, 'I'm a blah' - it can hurt them.
George: I think it can
HW: But I've never heard of a director doing that...
George: Not since the black list days [laughs] Well actors have to, apparently, sell the tickets. People stop watching West Wing when they hear Martin Sheen say the wrong thing.
HW: But now you could put your name on a lot of things and it would still go, but you have a very loyal cult following.
George: Yeah, it's amazing.

HW: What do you think about that?
George: It's amazing. I've always been amazed by that. I've been all over the world and I find that there are people that know all my films - it's very gratifying. What's not to like [laughs] It's been tremendous. And I've been able to do it right here at home.
      It's actually been a terrific life. My partner's in New York. My agent's in L.A. I came to Pittsburgh. I grew up in the Bronx, I was the little Spanish kid getting beat up and I fled. I grew up in one of those metropolitan life developments where you see a couple feet of sky when you look up between the buildings? I came out here and saw some country and fresh air [laughs] I came here to go to school and fell in love and I've been here ever since.
HW: It's a really good backdrop
George: It is
HW: Especially for the darker themed movies. It has that industrial steel, grey sky, desolate look and it's a big city - it works really well for that.
George: It can be flashy too. Inspector Gadget was made here and it was all sunny. A lot of films are made here that people don't realize. Silence of the Lambs was shot here.
HW: And other things have come from there! Later this afternoon I'll be speaking with Lori Cardille, and her dad was Chilly Billy for ...
George: years. A long time.
HW: And a lot of people came to Hollywood through him.
George: Yep, oh yeah. Night of the Living Dead, he was just so helpful. He talked about it on the show every week, he got us the news helicopter, and he was in it and he brought his news photographer. He was a tremendous supporter. And it was just coincidental. I didn't meet Lori through him, I met her through some other people that I knew at CMU. It's six degrees of separation. She married a guy, who is the son of one of my earliest supporters. It's a small family. Unfortunately many people moved away. I think when the town unionized, a lot of the Hollywood flicks stopped coming in here, so many of the crew people I used to work with consistently wound up moving to L.A. or New York.

HW: Now Day was written in an era when Scream Queens were very popular - it was all about screaming and running. And her character, Sara, was about as far removed from that as you could get. Did you get a lot of comments on that?
George: I don't remember too much on that. I think the only comments that I took any note of were people saying, 'hey it's about time that we see a strong woman in one of these things.' But no, that's just always the way it was. I think I was probably apologizing for the character of Barbara in the first Night of the Living Dead [both laugh] She was the one that was always falling down and breaking her heels [George laughs] And I apologized too when I wrote the remake that Savini directed. I rewrote her and made her a bit stronger. I always wanted to do that, a strong female character.
HW: And she had to put up with more than just zombies. She had to put up with the pigs...
George: Yeah, creeps. They were terrible.
HW: And yet, it just kills me - [Joseph] Pilato's character [Captain Rhodes] is so rotten, and he is one of the best loved characters in that movie.
George: [laughs] Well, he's a riot. He's just so uptight you've just got to... you know.

HW: Now then, let's wrap up with Land of the Dead because that's what's up to bat. You are hoping to start shooting in October...
George: Yes, as I say, there's a lot of prep involved and who knows it might push a little bit, but we can't push very far. If it's Pittsburgh, and particularly if it's Winnipeg, then you run into breath vapor.
HW: Oh hey... they don't breath!
George: Well they probably do, at some level, but I don't think they'd be putting out those big clouds and I don't want to have to CG.
HW: Oh I hadn't even thought of that...
George: [laughs] Cameron had to put breath vapor on all those people for the Titanic, and we would have to CG it all off. [both laugh]
      But otherwise, I know that Atmosphere doesn't want to say too much about the story [for Land]. They've released a thumbnail about what it's about. It's about people ignoring the problem. I want to do it in Pittsburgh, it's where the whole thing belongs. And Pittsburgh would be an easy city to protect, because it's basically a little triangular peninsula.

HW: And everyone that lives there would love to be a zombie
George: Oh yeah, no problem getting zombies over here!
HW: Yeah they're already online saying, 'I hope it's in Pittsburgh, I want to be a zombie'
George: Well, everybody's welcome [laughs]
HW: Everybody's welcome - casting call for zombies. Wait, is there a casting call for zombies or do they just show up and get makeup?
George: They show up. By the time we get through shooting this we'll have thousands of applications. The problem is we can't afford to travel people in to do this, but it's amazing. When we did Dead, people were flying in on their own to be zombies. Dan Wilson, the cartoonist, came in and was a zombie, and we get these rock bands and people that bring their Winnebago's in just to be a zombie for a day. It's amazing - it's fun.

HW: Was your wife ever a zombie?
George: I don't know if she ever was, I don't think so. She was in the news room in Dawn of the Dead with me, but she was never ... *turns to wife* 'you were never a zombie, right?' Oh no, but there was a scene we cut out of Dawn where I was dressed like a Santa Claus and she was dressed like an elf, but we weren't zombies, we were raiders among the bikers.

HW: Well, I thank you very much for sneaking me in and congrats on so much work being right there, right now - hopefully you don't go insane because of all of it.
George: Oh I hope not. But I don't think so, I'm sort of itching to get going so I think I'll be fine.
HW: And we're all itching to see them...
George: Oh that's great, thank you. Thank you so much and I look forward to meeting you at Horrorfind.
HW: Thanks again and yes, we'll definately see you there!
George: Thank you. Bye.

Unlike the norm, we have edited out just a little of the chit chat. A big 'elephant sized' thank you to George, again, for squeezing us into his insane schedule... we'll see you at HorrorFind Weekend!

The rest of you can see George at Rue Morgue's Festival of Fear, HorrorFind Weekend Baltimore & Phoenix, and Flashback Weekend's Horror-rama Drive-In.

For appearances, contact:
Chris Roe, CR Management - 641.693.4502 - croe@lisco.com
...and thank you for letting us have first swing at George!!