Twilight of the Dead, intended to be a “concluding chapter” in George A. Romero‘s zombie series, is in the works four years after Romero’s death. Romero was reportedly developing the film when he passed away in 2017, and now his widow Suzanne Romero is working to get the film made. Suzanne Romero has been working with screenwriters on the script and is now hoping to start meeting with directors for the project, which continues and concludes the saga Romero started back in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead.
During his life, George A. Romero made six films in his Dead series – 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. Quality varies (everyone at least agrees that the first three are the best), but the series remains iconic and influential. And now, in true Dead fashion, it looks like the saga will continue even after the demise of its creator. Per THR, Romero was quietly working on yet another Dead film titled Twilight of the Dead when he died in 2017.
Since then, Romero’s wife Suzanne Romero has been working with screenwriters to get the film made, and now she’s ready to start meeting with filmmakers. 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.”
George A. Romero wrote a treatment for Twilight of the Dead with Paolo Zelati. After Romero’s death, Zelati asked Suzanne if he could continue with the script. Suzanne agreed, and Zelati then worked with writers Joe Knetter and Robert L. Lucas. 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.
To be fair, continuity was never this franchise’s strong point, and Diary of the Dead is technically a reboot of Night of the Living Dead, so it makes sense to ignore it and Surivval if Twilight is meant to be connected to the original series. In Land of the Dead, one of the zombies – nicknamed Big Daddy – evolved to the point of being much more intelligent than his lumbering undead brethren, and that left Zelati wondering: “Where do the zombies go at the end of Land of the Dead?” Zelati 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 added: “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 pretty exciting news overall, but at the same time, it’s a little bittersweet. While I love the idea of a proper ending to Romero’s Dead series, it’s unfortunate that he isn’t around to end it himself.
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