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Living Dead
Created by
George A. Romero
John A. Russo
Original workNight of the Living Dead (1968)
Print publications
Novel(s)List of novels
ComicsList of comics
Films and television
Film(s)List of films
Games
Video game(s)List of video games

Living Dead is a blanket term for the loosely connected horror franchise that originated from the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. The film, written by George A. Romero and John A. Russo, primarily focuses on a group of people gathering at a farmhouse to survive from an onslaught of zombies in rural Pennsylvania. It is known to have inspired the modern interpretation of zombies as reanimated human corpses that feast on the flesh and/or brains of the living.

Due to a copyright error during its release, Night of the Living Dead's status in the public domain has resulted in numerous works claiming to expand upon or spin off from the plot points and characters of the film, sometimes without the involvement of the original cast and crew members. They consist of various films, literature, and other forms of media that explore the outbreak and evolution of a zombie apocalypse and society's reaction to it. The two most notable are Romero's Dead series, consisting of five additional films, and the Return of the Living Dead series, which was loosely based on Russo's novel of the same name.

Films

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George A. Romero's Dead series

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Film Director Writer(s) Producer(s)
Night of the Living Dead (1968) George A. Romero George A. Romero & John A. Russo Karl Hardman & Russell Streiner
Dawn of the Dead (1978) George A. Romero Richard P. Rubinstein
Day of the Dead (1985)
Land of the Dead (2005) Mark Canton, Bernie Goldmann, & Peter Grunwald
Diary of the Dead (2007) Sam Englebardt, Peter Grunwald, Ara Katz, & Art Spigal
Survival of the Dead (2009) Paula Devonshire

Overview

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In the original Night of the Living Dead (1968), three groups of people take shelter at a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania as a result of a zombie outbreak beginning around them. They barricade the house and listen in on the radio and television and learn that reanimated human corpses are causing mass panic across the region. Several reports list local rescue centers offering refuge and safety. They subsequently make a plan to go to one of the centers, but an awry attempt at refueling a truck leads to an accidental explosion, attracting a horde of zombies. The group is then forced to stay in the farmhouse, wherein the zombies eventually break through the barricades. All die in the ensuing chaos, except Ben (Duane Jones), who manages to retreat to the cellar and lock himself inside. The next morning, Ben wakes up from the sound of gunshots. Assuming that rescue has arrived, he exits the cellar. However, the gunmen mistake him for a zombie and immediately shoot him in the head.

Dawn of the Dead (1978) picks up several weeks after the outbreak.[N 1] Despite the best efforts of the US government and local authorities to control the situation, social order is collapsing. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a group of four people successfully flies out of the panic-stricken city via helicopter and arrive at a suburban mall, where they take refuge. They board up the entrances and enjoy a hedonistic lifestyle with all the goods available to them. After several months, all emergency broadcast transmissions cease, and a member of the group begins to get anxious about their present situation. A gang of motorcyclists eventually arrive and wreak havoc at the mall, allowing the zombies to come in and forcing the group to leave with their helicopter. However, only two are able to make it out alive as they fly toward an uncertain future.

Day of the Dead (1985) follows months after the outbreak. In the Everglades region in southern Florida, zombies have finally outnumbered humans. A group of scientists and soldiers have taken shelter in an underground facility

In Land of the Dead (2004), three years has passed since the outbreak.

Development

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In the late 1960s, a group of commercial filmmakers, including George A. Romero, John A. Russo, and eight other associates,[N 2] aspired to produce a feature-length film and decided that a horror film would be the most viable option given their budget constraints.[1] Romero had previously written a three-part short story called Anubis, which he would later admit had been "ripped off from a Richard Matheson novel called I Am Legend."[2] The story follows a character through three stages of a phenomenon in which a revolutionary society — in this case, a mass of unknown attackers — replaces an existing social order.[3] In the first part, the beginning of the phenomenon occurs with operatives still outnumbering the revolutionaries; the second part was the midpoint, in which there is a balance as the operative society begins to collapse a couple months later; and the third part happens years later with the revolutionaries finally replacing the existing society.[4] The first part would serve as the basis of the first half of the screenplay of Night of the Living Dead (1968).[1]

Meanwhile, Russo conceived of a separate idea of aliens coming to Earth to feast on human flesh. When Romero was busy with a commercial client, Russo finished the screenplay over the course of three weeks, incorporating his flesh-eating concept as a trait of the attackers in the film. To finance the production, the filmmakers initially contributed some money out-of-pocket, but eventually obtained more funding from local investors and commercial clients after screening dailies of the film and selling stock in their production company.[5] The limited budget forced the filmmakers to get resourceful with their production and dictated the time schedule. It was filmed over nine months during periods between regular commercial assignments,[1] with several cast and crew members having to fill multiple roles. Shots of the cellar scenes were filmed in the basement of their production studio, while scenes of and in the farmhouse were filmed at a house near Monongahela River in Evans City, Pennsylvania.[6]

Although the concept of a sequel to Night of the Living Dead had existed in the form of the second part of Anubis, a concrete storyline did not emerge until 1974. In that year, Romero was invited to the Monroeville Mall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania by a friend, who gave him a tour of the building.[7] From this, Romero conceived the core idea of Dawn of the Dead (1978). An early, incomplete draft of Dawn reached Dario Argento, who was a fan of the first film and agreed to finance half of the $1.5 million budget, with the caveat that Argento would be able to retain the European rights to the film and recut it for European markets.[8] The other half was funded by local Pittsburghers and close contacts of Romero and the producer.[8] Romero was able to secure domestic distribution from United Film Distribution Company (UFDC), and as a result of the film's success, UFDC offered him a three-picture deal, with the condition that one of the films be the third installment of his Dead trilogy.[9] By that time, Romero, who accepted the deal, had already planned on a third part, hinting during an interview that "the zombies are a little more sympathetic. We see them organizing slightly now, and if there's ever a third film, that's what it will be about."[9]

In December 1982, Romero completed a draft of Day of the Dead (1985).[9] His idea was to make "the Gone with the Wind of zombie films."[10] After submitting a request for a $6.5 million budget, UFDC rejected it, finding it too risky to fund an unrated film with that large of a budget. Subsequent budget disputes eventually forced Romero to scale down the scope of his original idea significantly and change the script altogether. Although Romero initially envisioned the Dead films as a trilogy, he had planned a fourth installment in the 1990s.[11] However, because Day of the Dead failed to perform successfully at the box office, Romero had a difficult time finding financing.[11] In September 2001, Romero continued to shop around his script to different studios, but the September 11 attacks put a halt to his plans; he explained that "nobody wanted to touch anything that was hard-ass. Everyone wanted to do soft, fuzzy flicks, so we pulled it off the market."[12] Two years later, with the successes of 28 Days Later (2002) and Resident Evil (2002), the zombie subgenre had been revitalized, and Romero rewrote his script with post-9/11 and Iraq War undertones.[12] Initially, 20th Century Fox was in negotiations to produce it, but the project stalled in development.[13] Mark Canton then approached him and agreed to finance Land of the Dead (2005), while Universal Studios, spurred by the success of Dawn of the Dead (2004), handled the distribution.

"I just didn’t enjoy the process, it was just way too big. Once you have the stars and all the other stuff that comes with that – their own make-up people, the certain caterer and certain type of food they have to have – everything just mushrooms. It gets crazy, it gets way out of hand."
— George A. Romero on filming Land of the Dead[11]

Even before filming Land of the Dead, Romero had written a pilot for a potential Dead TV series,[13] which was inspired by "emerging media and citizen journalism" and was to be shot in found footage-style.[14][15] This formed the basis of what would become Diary of the Dead (2007). Romero's experience on Land of the Dead, which was his first partnership with a major film studio, was unfavorable.[11] Although he was able to work with a bigger budget than his previous films, he felt that it was hard to keep control of certain aspects of production. Seeking to return to independent, low-budget fare, Romero was able to get Diary of the Dead financed by Artfire Films,[16] and the film was granted a limited release by The Weinstein Company.

The unexpected success of Diary of the Dead prompted Artfire Films to urge Romero to make another Dead film.[17] Romero agreed, but countered back with the idea of making three additional films.[15] Inspired by Stephen King's Castle Rock setting, in which several of King's works take place in a shared universe,[18] Romero came up with three storylines that spun off from Diary.[17] The first was a Western-style film inspired by The Big Country (1958),[18] which became Survival of the Dead (2009). Romero desired to shoot the next two films back-to-back,[19] but Survival's underperformance led the original three-picture deal to scale down to two pictures.[20] The second film was to be a noir-style film,[20] but it never came into fruition. By October 2016, Romero explained that with the likes of The Walking Dead (2010–) and World War Z (2013), "I can't pitch a modest little zombie film, which is meant to be sociopolitical... It had to be a zombie film with just zombies wreaking havoc. That’s not what I’m about."[21]

Box office

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Return of the Living Dead series

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Film Director Writer(s) Producer(s)
The Return of the Living Dead (1985) Dan O'Bannon Screenplay: Dan O'Bannon
Story: Rudy Ricci, John A. Russo, & Russell Streiner 		Tom Fox & Graham Henderson
Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988) Ken Wiederhorn Ken Wiederhorn Eugene C. Cashman, Tom Fox, & William S. Gilmore
Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993) Brian Yuzna John Penney Gary Schmoeller & Brian Yuzna
Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis (2005) Ellory Elkayem William Butler & Aaron Strongoni Anatoly Fradis & Steve Scarduzio
Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave (2005)

Overview

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Development

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"George Romero and I have never fought over much of anything, and rumours or gossip to this effect are false... We read each other's scripts and I gave him the right to pursue financing for Dawn of the Dead and to call it a sequel and he gave me the right to pursue Return of the Living Dead without calling it a sequel."
— John A. Russo on his parting with Romero[22]

Following the success of Night of the Living Dead, the filmmakers regrouped to produce There's Always Vanilla (1971), but its troubled production and financial failure led to them parting ways.[23]

Box office

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Other films

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Other media

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Novels

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  • Night of the Living Dead - novelization of the film, by Russo
  • Return of the Living Dead - adapted from a screenplay by Russo, Streiner, Rudy Ricci
  • Return of the Living Dead - novelization of the film, by Russo
  • Nights of the Living Dead: An Anthology (2017) - anthology of stories set within the 48-hr time frame of Night of the Living Dead; edited by Jonathan Maberry and Romero
  • Dawn of the Dead - novelization of the film, by Romero and Susanna Sparrow
  • Book of the Dead and Still Dead, Mondo Zombie

Comic books and graphic novels

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The first comic release for the franchise was the 1991 FantaCo Enterprises adaptation of Night of the Living Dead, written by Tom Skulan and Eric Stanway. The six-issue series was fully authorized by Image Ten, Inc. and included additional scenes in the form of a prelude and epilogue. The series would later be collected in one volume and re-released with the backing of a Kickstarter campaign in 2018. FantaCo published another two series under the Night of the Living Dead moniker in 1993 and 1994. Subtitled London, the first was written by Clive Barker and Steve Niles and involves an American woman infecting a flight full of passengers en route to London. Twenty-five years later in 1993, a small group of survivors primarily composed of the royal family have taken shelter in Buckingham Palace. A personal struggle to continue the royal bloodline ensues, and the two-issue series ends with an intelligent and cunning zombie delivering his own undead baby from the pregnant Princess. The second was simply known as Night of the Living Dead and was written by Noel Hannan; it consisted of three issues with an additional issue zero. [2]

In 2004, Dead Dog Comics published a three-issue series titled Night of the Living Dead: Barbara's Zombie Chronicles. Written by Mark Kidwell, it follows how Barbara survived the events of Night and her pursuit to uncover the origins of the zombies in a secret government laboratory. Kidwell returned to write another three-issue series for Dead Dog Comics, titled Day of the Dead: The Rising of Bub, in 2006. However, Dead Dog Comics went under before the last two issues were published. Picking up after the events of Day of the Dead, a group of survivors seek shelter at the military base from the movie, but are unaware that it is overrun by a horde of zombies, including Bub. Also in 2004, IDW Publishing released a three-issue comic adaptation of Dawn of the Dead, written by Steve Niles, to coincide with the remake and a DVD release of the original film.

In 2005, Avatar Press began collaborating with John A. Russo to publish a series of titles in the Night of the Living Dead universe. The first was Escape of the Living Dead, a sequel picking up three years after Night and following a new outbreak of zombies that have escaped a secret medical facility in Pennsylvania. Co-written with Mike Wolfer, it consisted of the original five-issue series, a follow-up three-issue series subtitled Airborne, and two separate special issues; these issues were later collected in trade paperback in 2007. Russo then began writing under the Night of the Living Dead moniker: the single-issue Back from the Grave (2006) featuring an original story taking place before the events of the film; the single-issue Just a Girl (2006) following Karen after the events of the film; the three-issue The Beginning (2006-07) (co-written with Wolfer) covering the events that led up to the film; the single-issue Hunger (2007) detailing the story behind one of the zombies in the film; an Annual (2008) (co-written with Edison George) following the news anchorman from the film; the single-issue New York (2009) involving a zombie attack on the urban city; and the five-issue Night of the Living Dead (2010-11) (co-written with Wolfer) taking place in Washington D.C. at the height of anti-war protests as zombies flood the city. Mike Wolfer continued the Avatar series with a single-issue Holiday Special (2010), an Annual (2011), and the five-issue Death Valley (2011). In 2012 and 2013, Avatar Press published their final series under Night of the Living Dead, subtitled Aftermath. Written by David Hine, the twelve-issue series explores Las Vegas a decade after the initial outbreak; a new outbreak occurs in Vegas, forcing the government to quarantine the city as zombies overrun it.

In 2014, George A. Romero wrote his own self-contained follow-up to Night of the Living Dead. Titled Empire of the Dead

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

  • Night (1991) by Tom Skulan, Eric Stanway (6 issues, including Prelude and Aftermath) [9][10]
  • Night (2011) by John A. Russo and Mike Wolfer (5 issues) - set after the vents of Night in Washington DC
  • Night of the Living Dead: Death Valley (5 issues) by Mike Wolfer - 1 year later in California
  • Night of the Living Dead: Aftermath by David Hine (12 issues) - late 1970s, Vegas
  • Night of the Living Dead: New York by Russo - 1968, NY
  • Night of the Living Dead: Just a Girl by Russo - follows Karen after the movie
  • Night of the Living Dead: Holiday by Wolfer
  • Night of the Living Dead: 2008 Annual by Russo, set in a TV station
  • Night of the Living Dead: 2011 Annual by Wolfer
  • Night of the Living Dead: The Beginning by Russo (2006) (3 issues)
  • Ultimate Night of the Living Dead (2015) by DoubleTake [11][12]

Video games

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Notes

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  1. ^ According to Romero, "Night of the Living Dead, then Dawn of the Dead is a few weeks later, Day of the Dead months later and Land of the Dead is three years later. Each one spoke about a different decade and was stylistically different."[1]
  2. ^ The other eight are: Russell Streiner, Gary Streiner, Vince Survinski, Rudy Ricci, Richard Ricci, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, and Dave Clipper. These ten people, including Romero and Russo, formed Image Ten, Inc. to produce Night of the Living Dead, with the name of the company owing to these ten initial investors of the film.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Sellers & Smart 2016.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference DowneyInfinity was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Flippo, Chet (March 23, 1978). "When There's No Room in Hell: The Dead Will Walk the Earth". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on November 5, 2018. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  4. ^ Gagne 1987, p. 25.
  5. ^ Gagne 1987, p. 31.
  6. ^ Gagne 1987, p. 30.
  7. ^ Gagne 1987, p. 83.
  8. ^ a b Gagne 1987, p. 84-85.
  9. ^ a b c Karr 2014.
  10. ^ {{cite web|url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3444729/legacy-george-romeros-day-dead/%7Ctitle=The Legacy of George A. Romero's 'Day of the Dead|last=Paul|first=Zachary|work=[[Bloody Disgusting]|date=July 3, 2017|accessdate=November 5, 2018|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/73hBHHr13%7Carchivedate=November 5, 2018|url-status=live}}
  11. ^ a b c d Thrift, Matt (July 17, 2017). "Tales From the Darkside: An interview with George A Romero". Little White Lies (magazine). Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  12. ^ a b Rodriguez, Rene (July 16, 2017). "An interview with the Zombie King, George A. Romero". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  13. ^ a b Condit, Jon (October 2, 2004). "Romero, George (Land of the Dead) Interview I". Dread Central. Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  14. ^ McConnell, Mariana (February 14, 2008). "Interview: George A. Romero On Diary Of The Dead". CinemaBlend.com. Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  15. ^ a b Nemiroff, Perri (May 25, 2010). "Interview: Survival Of The Dead Writer-Director George A. Romero". CinemaBlend.com. Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  16. ^ McGavin, Patrick Z. (July 6, 2008). "Q&A: Filmmaker George A. Romero & actress Michelle Morgan". StopSmilingOnline. Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  17. ^ a b "Mr. Beaks Interviews George A. Romero!". Ain't It Cool News. May 26, 2010. Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  18. ^ a b Deusner, Stephen M. (May 19, 2010). "Director of the Dead: George Romero, 'Survival of the Dead'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  19. ^ Turek, Ryan (May 12, 2010). "Catching Up With George A. Romero". Comingsoon.net. Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  20. ^ a b Bibbiani, William (October 31, 2016). "To Save and Project George A. Romero Revisits 'Night of the Living Dead'". Mandatory.com. Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  21. ^ Kohn, Eric (October 27, 2016). "George Romero Says Nobody Will Finance His Next Zombie Movie and 'Night of the Living Dead' Wouldn't Get Made Today". IndieWire. Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference part 8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Gagne 1987, p. 45-46.

Bibliography

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