A continuation on Night of the Living Dead is currently being developed, with a screenwriter and director already attached. The original film, directed by horror master George A. Romero, came out in 1968 and became an instant classic. It follows a young woman who visits her mother’s grave with her brother, where they are attacked by an undead revenant, resulting in her brother’s death. She takes it to a nearby farm, where several survivors have gathered, trying to fend off the horde of zombies bent on devouring their flesh, while vehemently disagreeing over the exact details of how to do it.
Night of the Living Dead is an iconic film that changed the horror genre forever. Before it came out, the only zombies present in horror movies were the undead servants of the Haitian voodoo tradition, as seen in entries like 1943. I walked with a zombie. The idea that the undead have an insatiable appetite for human flesh and can pass on their zombieism was invented in Night of the Living Deada movie notably that doesn’t even use the word zombie, choosing to describe its titular living dead as “ghosts.”
Now, per DeadlineVillage Roadshow Pictures, Chris Romero, George’s company Sanibel Films, Origin Story, Vertigo and Westbrook Studios are all collaborating on a brand new Night of the Living Dead continued with a view to expanding further into a new franchise. They have attached Nikyatu Jusu, whose film Babysit won this year’s Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for directing. For the screenplay, they tapped LaToya Morgan, who counts episodes from The living Dead among her many TV credits.
Doesn’t Night Of The Living Dead already have a sequel?
The legacy and continuity of Night of the Living Dead is a bit complicated. Romero returned to the source of zombie movies throughout his career, first in 1978 with Dawn of the Dead. He followed up that project, which is also a well-regarded classic, with 1985’s Day of the Dead2005’s Land of the Dead2007’s Diary of the Deadand 2009’s Survival of the Dead. Although each film is connected by their socio-political themes and the “Deadtitle, there’s no real sense of continuity between individual entries, each telling a self-contained zombie apocalypse story.
It seems likely that will not be the case with this new one Night of the Living Dead project. Since the film is in the public domain, it has received many sequels, new fantasies, and remakes over the years, including Romero’s own 1990 film. Living Dead remake, directed by Dawn of the Dead makeup artist Tom Savini. However, this film, given a semblance of legitimacy by the presence of Romero’s own company, could be the first film of that number to offer a real sense of consistency and continuity with the original classic.
Source: Deadline
