The walking dead‘S Greg Nicotero and his Monster Agency Productions are teaming up with the producer Jimmy Miller make a film about the director Giorgio Romerois a classic from 1968 Night of the Living Dead. The film was made on a budget of $ 15,000 and launched the zombie genre as we know it.
Nicotero has a great track record of movies and TV shows that he has worked on over the years, and has actually worked with Romero on many of his films. She met Romero when he was only 15 years old. Nicotero explained that the idea for the film came after attending a memorial for the late Romero. While there he listened to Romero’s old friends exchanging stories about the making of his classic zombie movie. Nicotero said:
“They really didn’t have any experience. One of the actors was the makeup artist. It was this group that had shot a couple of commercials, sitting around saying, hey, we should make a movie. And someone in the group said, yes, ‘let’s make a horror movie. They always make money. ‘ I love the spirit of a group of people coming together and having no real idea what they were doing and groping their way around.
“They found this rickety old farm in Pennsylvania. One of the cool things for me is that when you watch the film, it has this film noir sense because of the way the lights are. A lot is that they didn’t have the money to afford a lot of lights. So they created a very unique style of lighting for many scenes, which played into the motif of what the night of the living dead is all about. Even when they hit distribution prints, they used low-cost film, so there was a lot of contrast. Everything that was black has turned black and everything that was white has truly become white. That added to this weird film noir vibe, what will come out of the darkness and take me? It was a perfect storm of events with a group that loved working together and rolled up their sleeves ”.
Nicotero also talked about Romero’s style and personality, saying, “He wore a cape to go out with friends, dressed as Zapata from Viva Zapata, and didn’t play with girls.”
The director ended up getting the rights necessary to make the film and they worked directly with Romero’s widow, Suzanne Des Rocher-Romero. They are currently looking for a writer to take over the project. As for the tone and style of the film, the plan is to be realized Ed Wood-films in style. He explained:
“What I want to do is a Ed Wood-style film showing this guy’s heart and character, with this background The magnificent seven version of a group that had no idea what they were doing, come together to do Night of the Living Dead. “
Nicotero will recreate scenes from the original film and shoot them in black and white, but the rest of the film will be in color and explains that “you have to be able to see things like how they melted the chocolate to act as blood.”
It is then explained how in the end Romero got messed up for a mistake made. I’ve never heard of this before, but Nicotero explained what happened, saying:
“Here’s the problem. They changed the title at the last minute. Originally the film was called The night of the meat eatersand at the last minute they changed the title to Night of the Living Dead, which they inadvertently excluded from copyright. Only after Night of the Living Dead it was released if they realized it wasn’t copyrighted which is why there were so many versions available on DVD. They went to court with the Walter Reade Organization, which ruled out copyright. So George’s first foray into the movie business was filled with copyright lawsuits, which they lost. I believe that if it had been copyrighted, George’s career would have gone in a completely different direction. But he was the slave of a clerical error that cost him millions and millions of dollars ».
Speaking of Romero’s talent, skills and motivation, Nicotero said he put “George in the same category as Tobe Hoperor Wes Craven, these young nonconformist renegade directors who were going against the tide. He added:
“Then they said, ‘You can’t show it, it’s too creepy.’ Or “you can’t show it, it’s insulting.” Meanwhile, with the time frame, and the US at war and social upheaval, it was like, you can’t tell me what I can show. I’ll show whatever the fuck I want to show. The result was Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Night of the Living Dead, The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, all these really raw and horrible horror movies. George was one of the first people to thwart the system. When people said you have to move to California, you have to be in Hollywood, he said, ‘No, I don’t. I have Hollywood right here. ‘ He was loyal to his crew, to his city, and went on to shoot all of his films in Pittsburgh. It was another way George said: I’ll do things the way I want. Jimmy and I wanted to celebrate him, and also our home in Pittsburgh, where he made his films. “
I am thrilled with this project! Night of the Living Dead is one of my favorite horror movies and it will be a lot of fun to watch a movie that explores the making of the zombie classic. There is no better person to do this than Greg Nicotero.
Source: Deadline
by Joey Paur
Source: Geek Tyrant
