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Director Being Sought For Final George A Romero Dead Movie, Twilight of the Dead

May 1, 2021 | Posted by Joseph Lee
George A Romero Twilight of the Dead

Prior to the passing of horror icon George A. Romero in 2017, the director completed work on what would have been the seventh and final movie in his Dead series, Twilight of the Dead. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a film using that script is in development and a director is being sought for the project.

Romero’s wife Suzanne has been shopping around the project hoping to get it made. She had been developing it for year with three other screenwriters and is now meeting with directors.

Romero began his series with Night of the Living Dead in 1968, which was a classic on its own, but he followed it up with two more classics: Dawn of the Dead in 1978 and Day of the Dead in 1985. The series continued with films that weren’t as critically revered, but still have their fans. The later entries included Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009). The final two, Diary and Survival, were not considered part of the main series by Romero. Twilight would pick up after the events of Land.

Romero had been working on Twilight quietly before his passing, which happened at the age of 77 due to lung cancer. He wrote the treatment with Paolo Zelati, who asked Suzanne for permission to continue writing. He then brought in Joe Knetter and Robert L. Lucas to finish the story. The three watched videos of Romero coming up with the treatment as they worked.

The synopsis for the project is: “The story is set in a decimated world. Life has all but disappeared. But there still may be hope for humanity.

Suzanne Romero said: “I gave him my full blessing as long as I could be there every step of the way for it to remain true to George’s vision. 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. This is the film he wanted to make. And while someone else will carry the torch as the director, it is very much a George A. Romero film.

Zelati added: “Everything started with my question to him: ‘Where do the zombies go at the end of Land of the Dead?’ 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.

Knetter said: “I could see how happy George was, almost giddy. That made us focus even more on bringing this to life the way he would have wanted.

Lucas said that “developing the final piece of the puzzle in the dead universe” was a dream come true.