Just a few hours ago, Fangoria.com dropped a major bombshell. After a chat with producer Richard Rubenstein, the magazine website reported that Rubenstein--who is George Romero's former business partner and owns the rights to the second and third films in his Dead series--plans on making a sequel to the original Dawn of the Dead.Now, any fan of Romero's work knows that the sequel to Dawn of the Dead was made 23 years ago, and it's called Day of the Dead. Seems that Mr. Rubenstein is talking about a direct continuation of the events of Dawn--which I'm assuming means that it'll pick up on what happened to Fran and Peter after they escaped the Monroeville Mall. Which is something I would've been interested in--if Romero were doing it. As it stands, I'm sure this is bound to give Romero fits--just the latest injustice committed against him by his one-time collaborator. And as good as the Rubenstein-sanctioned Dawn of the Dead remake turned out to be, I just can't imagine much good coming out of this new project.
Oddly, Fangoria buried the news of the Dawn sequel under their scoop on Rubenstein's planned re-release of the original Dawn of the Dead using 3-D technology. That seems like the secondary news item to me, although it will be cool to see the flick on the big screen. I could do without the 3-D, though--yet another unauthorized bastardization of Romero's hard work. If you ask me, I think whoever came up with the lame-brained idea probably got it from this classic pic:
And while that will certainly make for one hell of a 3-D shot, it doesn't justify an entire movie by any means.
Fran and Petey, now too old to play their parts and being replaced....hmmm yeah, sounds like an awful idea.
ReplyDeleteIf only this were the 1980s and the news just broke....but as it stands now, you're right, it seems like a bad idea. Not to mention, I love the open ended endings to Romero's films. I hate conclusions and it's more fun to imagine what would have happened or at the very least blind oneself into thinking his characters live happy lives until the day they die.
But you're right to mention it would be incredibly unfair to Romero, if he is in fact not involved. Though to be fair, Diary wasn't exactly a masterpiece....
"Which is something I would've been interested in--if Romero were doing it."
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but did you SEE Diary of the Dead? Romero should be on probation for that one. Not allowed near a film for ten years. It was that bad.
I respectfully disagree, Glass, as you can see by my own Diary of the Dead review, which can be found by clicking on George Romero's name in the above post.
ReplyDeleteI think a direct sequel would've been very interesting had Romero himself attempted it in the 1980s, with the original actors.