Land of the Dead is definitely a guilty pleasure movie of mine. Not great, but I like a lot of the characters and can watch it any time again.

If anything, I would love to see a proper remake of Day of the Dead based on the original screenplay that Romero never made due to budgetary decisions. I've read the 108 page 2nd draft and this film would have been like Raiders of the Lost Ark with Zombies. The script was much bigger in scope than the filmed version. It contained non-stop action, gore and better fleshed-out characters. The tone of it's social commentary was up there with Paul Verhoven's Robocop. It had a proper ending for the trilogy. I hope his original script gets made one day. In the proper hands, it would work today.

The original running zombies were from Return of the Living Dead back in 1985

I heard that his wife is actively trying to get his last script ‘Twilight Of The Dead’ made into a movie, whether it will actually happen is another thing entirely though.

The only time driving zombies worked for me was in the book The Rising and It’s sequel City of the Dead. And the only reason it even worked in the first place is that the zombies were reanimated corpses inhabited by demons set free from a void. The demons have their hosts memories and skills so if the host knew how to drive a car… so do they… and they’d run down survivors so that more of their brethren could be free from the void. Great books. 8/10. Highly recommended.

" I saw one of those things sittin' in a car in D. C. tryin' to drive down Independence Avenue. It didn't make me wanna be its friend. " - Fisher from Day of the Dead

Romero should have done an anthology type of movie of how people in other countries were dealing with zombie apocalypse. It could have been tied together with the different groups communicating through Ham radio. Maybe even talking to astronauts trapped on the International Space Station.

Land of the Dead was great saw it in theater absolutely loved it. Day of the Dead my absolute favorite zombie movie ever I wish he could have gotten to make that movie exactly the way he wanted and it was like 4 hours long.

The dialogue in Romero’s films is a lynchpin of his fandom. His social commentary comes through the characters via dialogue. The dialogue sounds human. It’s what makes his characters so memorable. Given he doesn’t do comedy quite as well as dramatic dialogue.

Savini's character in original DOTD was named Blades, BTW. Sorry to be that guy...

I think you're 100% correct. The last few entries Romero made were bad. Road Of The Dead would've been a bust too.

Zombies driving cars and racing each other, glad this was never made. Land of the Dead wasn’t that bad but still a noticeable drop off from the first three films. Though I think it’s still way better than Diary and Survival. Honestly I would have liked Savini to take on the series. I actually prefer Savini’s Night of the Living Dead remake to the original.

Please do a video on George Romero’s script for the Resident Evil movie that never got made.

"There's such a fine line between stupid and clever." -This is Spinal Tap

Wow Tom Savini I had the opportunity to meet him while living in Pittsburgh. All those movies are classic

Sometimes, dead is better.

I had no idea about this. Romero (may he rest in peace), was a genius, but not a poet. A poet would know when-to-stop. Excellent video however. Thankyou! And btw, yep. I'm a big Diaries fan, but my favourite will always be 'Day'.

You're treating it as merely a derivative work. If Romero had a hand in script and dialogue, it deserves to be made and honored.

I had heard of the possibility of this movie but I knew nothing about it. Thank you for this contact, I am now so very glad this movie was never made.

Do you remember that 80's movie "Maximum Overdrive"? That movie terrified me as a kid! I couldn't imagine zombies driving around wreaking havoc on 4 wheels. But, if anyone could make that idea work, it would be Romero.

I actually like the idea of zombies training to drive cars for entertainment of the wealthy. I mean problem with the script is that you could totally tell that they did understand the entire ending of land of the dead because the whole point is that big daddy and his zombie group see the surviving humans but still continue to go on their different direction. It's to show that both the humans and the zombies have at least organized to a point where the zombies got what they wanted. The surviving humans got what they wanted. There's no need for conflict. They're going to go there separate ways. The fact that Big Daddy would be still pursuing them defeats the whole ending of the land of the dead movie. It's my numbingly stupid.

Based solely on what you told me of it, I'd say "Sometimes (a) dead (project) is better." It sounds awful as a George A. Romero film. As a run of the mill zombie flick, I'd give it a watch. But under the Romero umbrella? No thank you. He'd already made a couple of subpar films. Land I love almost as much as the trilogy. Diary was okay. Survival was a snore. His estate did the exact right thing. Road would've blown BECAUSE of the Romero name on it.

I like to think that Big Daddy is really Bobby Rhodes' character from Demons.

ROW MARE OH

This sounds interesting I'd be up for it! George Romero reinvented the zombie genre & I love that!

The driving zombies from Return of the Living Dead 2 were sick and I'm about it.

This sounds like a mix of Birman's idea and the undeveloped script of Day Of The Dead. That movie Romero called Dead Reckoning. His original idea of DOTD was that script, which is included with the Anchor Bay special edition DVD set. It features most of the same characters of Day, but they have domesticated some of the zombies and are using them to wage battles against outlaw gangs roaming the countryside. There's even a car chase scene running through a mass of snarling zombies. The budget was estimated to be around 20 to 35 million in 1980 dollars, and even with the success of Dawn of The Dead, he couldn't get the funding so he scaled his Dead Reckoning script back to what became Day of the Dead.

On this category you are the Best Narrator my G! Awesome work!!!!! Keeep It Up!! My Bro that Tom savini following big daddy!! Ufff one can only dream!!!! AND no youre no being harsh. You just want someone to do the right thing and that alright! The living dead its what we need!

And apparently Romero's son is working on another movie, "Twilight of the Dead", I think... who knows if that project will ever materialize

Am I the only person who doesn't see 28 Days Later as a zombie movie? They are not undead, they don't eat brains, and it's clearly caused by a man made disease. It's a virus outbreak movie. I agree zombies should not run though.

Dead reckoning in land of the dead was the silliest idea ever.

Romero did write Empire of the Dead, a graphic novel miniseries that depicts vampires ruling over both the living and the zombies in New York. I always felt like vampires were a logical extension of Romero's zombies regenerating, and it builds on the themes Day and Land had set up.

Nope you'll absolutely right , if the director is retreading water it's not worth it

George Romero proved Quentin Tarantino's thesis about aging great directors making bad last films correct. His last 3 zombie films sucked ass.

Amazing how two letters make such a huge difference Zombie Drag Race vs Zombie drag racers

Actually, Romero's dialogue, while always lean, is often quite sharp and pointed. You can tell Romero dialogue when you hear it, and it is always worth investing viewer time.

Driving is a complex task, I think it's a step too far to believe zombies can drive, however I would have watched it

I enjoyed Land Of The Dead but paper money still existing made absolutely no sense. When I saw Dennis Hopper with two big briefcases of money I was like"You're kidding me Right"

The dialogue in Romero's movies especially Night, Dawn and Day of the dead is fantastic 👌 so you are way off the mark there. no disrespect meant I enjoyed the vid, I just completely disagree with you on that aspect. The Living Dead novel, mixed feelings about that, I love Romero but you could tell Krause wrote most of it. in all honesty I'd love a sequel to Dawn with Ken Foree. but only if the script was right.

Controversial, but GARomero peaked at Day of the Dead. He gave us such a rich and groundbreaking trilogy that would influence so many others which few would even touch upon on.

He basically wanted to Death Race just more literal? Race of the Dead: Fate of the Furious Road

I never liked smart zombies except for day of the dead, something about the that smart horde just felt right. But I love a more aggressive and relentless horde then smart. they will find a way in, it’s just a matter of time

I love Romero, but i wish he had made some other types of movies. He tried to make a Marvel Comics script called Copperhead. He wanted to make a Tarzan movie. His approach to action is underrated. He wanted to make The Stand. A western, a sci-fi opera, and The Mummy.

Romiro who now??

A spin off focusing on Bub would srsly be one of the coolest sequels in zombie history.

Road sounds like it would have been an unmitigated disaster.

I've been imagining a zombie pumping gas for too long now. Thanks lol

Zombie Mad Max sounds terrible. It gave me an idea that maybe they could make a movie called Path of the Death and go into the zombies slow change in a world that's finally rid of humanity. Would they all rot away like 28 days later or would they manage to persist on their own :) Thanks for talking about the book. I didn't even know about it :D

Thank You Mr. Romero.

R.i.p George Romero

Where to watch

The "Blonde Lady" was called "Pretty boy" at least once in the movie, a couple times in the script or deleted scenes. Yeah, not sure what they were going with that. Also, it seems like they lost the thread about the ending of Land: Big Daddy was leading his horde to do their own thing, and they had no reason to follow Dead Reckoning anymore, as they were no longer a threat to his "people". We've all seen some shockingly bad zombie films, and Road does have an interesting hook, but you're going to have to redefine zombies, even past the slow evolving zombies. Here's an idea: rather than zombies driving, it's the recently infected. Make up some mumbo-jumbo about as you turn, you become more aggressive and your decision making becomes skewed, or maybe high amounts of Adrenalin keep the virus at bay, so the recently infected become action-junkies to stay human a bit longer, and the race is supposed to win supplies to keep their families safe. The race course is full of racers that turned, and traps. And it's all a metaphor for how the Rich use the middle class to improve their condition, so George's ghost will be happy.

The Road of the Dead that we end up getting is a flash game by Sickdeathfiend.

Awesome video man. VEry obscure. Quality content. Buuuut.... "Row-mee-row"? Dude, it's "Row-mare-row"

Land and Diary contained some good ideas - but the scripts lacked focus and films ended up concentrated on spectacle. Was that the studio leaning or George not having good people around him willing to say 'no' and feed into the creative process.

Hard pass on this being a movie 🎬 🎞 🎥

Better to "try but fail", rather than to "not even try". "Zombie drag racing" does indeed sound crazy, and yet also kind of "bad ass" [and zombies driving cars has already occurred in at least one or two zombie films]. I personally enjoy a movie that is a "glorious failure", a movie that ultimately fails in overall execution, but where there is a palpable high level of energy and enthusiasm by everyone involved. At the end of the day, if a movie turns out bad, well that's just another title to forget; on the other hand, you may end up with a "guilty pleasure", a movie that is arguably crap and yet which we still love to watch because it's just so much fun. Zombie drag racers, start your engines. Fresh meat ahead! RIP George Romero.

I'm surprised at the almost universal view that Romero's last few movies were not good. I think they were all excellent and unique in their own way.

When it come's to the running zombie how come return of the living dead doesn't get talked about.

Great 😉

In the original Day of the Dead one of scientists did mention he remembers seeing a zombie try to run him over with the car

Survival was out of steam and budget..i love George A Romero!!and land was awesome

The title seems to have been used for the Z movie - Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead ( Worth watching )

"The Fast and the Festering" "Oozin' USA" "There's no surviving when the dead are driving" "Highway to Hell"

It seems like the last few movies Romero made were done on shoestring budgets. He was an amazing director, and with the right backing, he could have made far better films.

"I saw one of those things trying to drive down independence avenue...it didn't make me want to be it's friend." Dr. fisher, Day of the Dead.

They might as well let the undead race cars cause Romero had one riding a horse 😳 I enjoyed Land of the Dead cause George had a decent budget to work with 🎃

😎interesting

Bruh,, I thought this was about the game "Road of the Dead" and "Road of the Dead 2"

Wait it’s been George Aye Rimeero this whole time? We had no idea..

whats the film in 0:04 ?

Road of the dead would have been great... it would have been as visually interesting as day and story concepted as land... i hope road gets made... i also hope these movies get made aswel... 1. Twilight of the dead 2. Origins of the dead 3. Death island (tom savini)

Surprised they didn't call it dead end 😅 Would have made for great title.

I really Iiked Land of the Dead. I saw it in the theater.

All the movies that George Romero made after the Dawn of the Dead, were anti-humanist. that is to say, he basically made the zombies the good guys and the human into the bad guys. P.S One of the things that was missed in the Night of the Living dead was that the bald white guy was projected as the idiot, while the black guy was supposenly the smart one. In the end the bald guy was right to fortify the cellar and hold out till help arrived.

The concept for this not made film would probably work better as a video game.

Romiro? I know Romero.

"Yeah, they're dead, they're All messed up."

I actually agree that zombies driving would make sense. Many horror films deal with the "outbreak" stage of events. They want to see people dying gory deaths, rising as zombies, and zombies eating people in a cycle. The Human characters are just fodder to be killed. George Romero making the first one actually made characters much more significant with lots of commentary, but there are still characters just to be zombie-chow. Most of the characters in the Walking Dead TV series are original characters that are just there to increase the pool of zombie victims. George Romero's films from Night-Dawn-Day-Land were all about the progression of zombies becoming more human as humans became more beastlike. There was a movie called Redcon-1 where it showed zombies quickly regaining memories to the point where zombie soldiers are driving military vehicles, capturing people, and not eating them. Another film that flipped the script was Daybreakers. In that film a Vampire Apocalypse happened so the world, or at least the large city where the film takes place Vampires have replaced humans. Vampires have homes, go to work, drink coffee with blood, and have polarized sun-proof glass on buildings, vehicles, and eye equipment. The one issue of "Evolving Zombies" is that people dont think Zombies should be able to. Its "Common Knowledge" that zombies are rotting corpses, despite most films really using virus infected mutants rather than undead., Undead Zombies would be like the end of 28 Days Later when all the zombies have rotted to the point where the cant move.

The re make of Dawn of the Dead is the best zombie movie ever made and maybe one of the best horrors of all time, in my view.😁

I needed more 2 fitting titles to those sagas 1) Morning of the dead and finally 2) Evening of the dead.

I want to see his resident evil script get made

As someone who grew up as a kid in the 80's absolutely loving Romero's original trilogy how I wish he stopped there, everything he did after Land,Diary,etc is just straight garbage

Land and Diary were absolute garbage so we probably didn't miss much. I wish he would've partnered with Capcom and did the Resident Evil series instead.

His early Movies are epic..the later, not so much.

You sound so much like The Cosmonaut Variety Hour

Blades is the zombie name played by Tom Savini. Machete is different movie that stars Danny Trejo.

Unless Romero was planning on making a comedy, I'd say it was probably a good thing that this movie was never made.

Hope somehow, they get to go through with it

If George A Romero didn't make the movies the way he did I don't think I would have watched any of them. They were perfect t he way he did them. I've seen other zombie movies and a few of them were just like the way he did them.

I liked diary of the dead and the one after. Should’ve done another one showing what a zombie outbreak would like like in modern day America

What do you call a zombie drag Racer? A Paul Walker... 😂😂

You believe it should have stopped at day of the dead..you are my brother.

They already used this concept in both wyrmwood movies

Well Diary Of the Dead did take one minor side charater and turned him into the main in Survival Of The Dead.

very close.

i understand Land of the Dead is very divisive but, in many ways it’s the perfect way to bookend the Original Trilogy (This sounds really bad to continue where Land left off doesn’t seem to fit seeing how that film ends) i’m glad the film never happened Romero’s Legacy doesn’t get nearly enough credit on the pop culture scale without Fulci, Romero, & O’Bannon there would be no Walking Dead, Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil etc. these 3 men changed what Zombies could and would become

Road of the Dead sounds dire. There are a lot of great zombie stories out there that deserve to be made in to movies. One of my favourites is Joe R Lansdale's "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks".It's got a great sardonic,surreal vibe that's a great homage to Romero.

Bub should have been the only exception to a "smart zombie"

Simon Baker would make a good Professor in a Gilligan’s Island reboot.