Giant Freakin Robot

Last fall we wrote about how George Romero’s son was trying to crowdfund a new addition to the Living Dead canon. Dead old dad has added plenty over the years, from the original trilogy of Night of… Dawn of…, and Day of…, to the more modern installments, like Land of…, Diary of…, and Survival of…. His son, G. Cameron Romero, however, wants to create a prequel, and the project is successfully moving forward.

Simply called Origins, Cameron, who will direct, developed the story and wrote the screenplay with Darrin Reed and Bryce C. Campbell. If the idea of a prequel to Night of the Living Dead sounds like it will just be a bunch of people wandering around in the mid-1960s going about their daily business, you’re not alone, but apparently there’s more to it.

Wouldn’t a prequel to Night of the Living Dead just be the story of every day life in the late 1960s? There aren’t any zombies before that. I guess it could also be about the long, slow, drawn out, and painful death of Barbara and Johnny’s father, the one whose grave they’re visiting at the cemetery when the movie starts. That sounds like a stone cold bummer. Those were my immediate thoughts as I learned that George Romero’s son is trying to crowdfund a Dead origins movie.

G. Cameron Romero, son of the legendary director, has launched an Indiegogo campaign to kick up funds for his project. Scheduled for 30 days, they’re looking for $150,000 to cover preproduction costs, and you can check out the film’s website for details. Or you can look at their fundraising page for what they’re looking for, what the plan is, and, if you’re into that sort of thing, what kind of perks you can get for donating to the cause.

(arrives at this story late because I was too busy staring at that which this story is about)

Oh, hello there. I was just getting my mind blown out of my ass by these outstanding representations of some of the horror genre’s most recognizable locations, created entirely out of paper. The project/exhibit is called “Horrorgami,” and it is the work of kirigami artist Marc Hagan-Guirey through his Paper Dandy company. That’s the literal explanation. How I’d really like to describe this series is just to begin drooling and pointing while stamping my foot over and over. Perhaps it isn’t the most mature way to being talking about something, but then my maturity is flimsier than the paper used to create these incredible pieces.

Times are tough for zombie fans, who only have 999,999 forms of zombie fiction to spend their time with now that The Walking Dead has gone on its winter hiatus. But zombies don’t quit for the winter, so everyone can safely look forward to the upcoming Marvel Comics series Empire of the Dead from genre king George Romero. Though the comic will be out in a little over a month, they’ve already released a few of the presumably unfinished pages as a preview of things to come. And things are pretty gritty and dire, I warn you.

The year is…I have no idea, but it takes place quite a while after a widespread zombie outbreak has passed. New York City is forever changed, and Manhattan has been quarantined with all the survivors. But they’re certainly not safe, as the undead threat isn’t the only thing putting them at risk. There are also vampires. I’m not happy about it either, but if I’m going to read anyone deliver a zombies vs. humans vs. vampires story, it might as well come from a legend in the game.

With the box office success of World War Z, and the cult following the film Warm Bodies, it’s easy to see that Hollywood’s love affair with zombies continues to rise. These days you can find the undead in movies like these, and on TV with shows like AMC’s The Walking Dead, and A&E’s upcoming remake of The Returned. Even Broadcast networks are getting into the game with the likes of NBC’s Babylon Fields, ABC’s midseason replacement Resurrection, and the CW’s adaptation of iZombie. Zombies aren’t going anywhere, and they’re even rehashing old properties that have already been remade.

According to Deadline, Millennium Films is looking to remake George A. Romero’s 1985 horror film Day of the Dead. Lati Grobman and Christa Campbell, the pair behind Texas Chainsaw 3D, will produce the new zombie retread, with Mark Tonderai in the director’s chair. The British director broke out with his first film Hush in 2009. In 2012, he helmed House at the End of the Street starring Jennifer Lawrence. Before going Dead, he will also work on the movie Peste with Jason Blum.

While American Horror Story: Coven recently decided to remind people that zombies have a wide and varied history, horror cinema and television prefer to believe that George Romero‘s version of the undead is the biblical truth. A bulk of fiction would rather remember things as Night of the Living Dead intended for them to be learned. As it happens, Mr. Romero is not all that pleased with what is arguably the most popular iteration of the zom-genre he helped create, AMC’s The Walking Dead. And let me tell you something: his words ain’t exactly blasphemy, people.

Speaking with Big Issue, Romero claims we could have all watched some episodes that he scripted, had he been interested enough.