Caption: George A. Romero, May 13, 2010, San Francisco, CA, Credit: Andrea Chase
Image by: Andrea Chase 
George A. Romero, May 13, 2010, San Francisco, CA 

SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD -- George A. Romero talks about his latest zombie flick.

From: Andrea Chase
Series: Behind the Scenes
Length: 09:33

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George A. Romero on SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD Read the full description.

Survivalromeroweb_small George A. Romero talks about his latest zombie adventure, SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, as well as musing on the future of the franchise and why his daughter, an aspiring filmmaker probably won't be taking over. He also discusses how and why the use of gore has changed in his film since 1968's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, why his zombies may be sentient, what he has and hasn't learned about filmmaking, and why the zombie extras have a better time pretending to consume viscera since that first film so long ago.

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Piece Description

George A. Romero talks about his latest zombie adventure, SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, as well as musing on the future of the franchise and why his daughter, an aspiring filmmaker probably won't be taking over. He also discusses how and why the use of gore has changed in his film since 1968's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, why his zombies may be sentient, what he has and hasn't learned about filmmaking, and why the zombie extras have a better time pretending to consume viscera since that first film so long ago.

Timing and Cues

00:00 Intro and first question

01:26 Metaphors and inspirations for SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD and its predecessor, DIARY OF THE DEAD; varying styles

04:48 Romero on whether or not his filmmaker daughter will take over franchise one day

05:06 Why the gore quotient in the DEAD films has become tamer, relatively speaking; disdain for torture porn

06:48 What the viscera on which the zombies feast is made out of today, what it was made of in the first film

07:24 What the effects viscera tastes like

07:31 Zombie sentience; why zombies might be better than we are

08:32 What Romero learned making his first narrative film, why he’s still learning

Intro and Outro

INTRO:

Andrea Chase talks with George Romero about SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, the latest installment of his zombie films, this one continuing the action of his last film, DIARY OF THE DEAD, by following one of the supporting characters from that film. Adding a soupcon of western tropes to the story, the film explores what happens during the zombie plague on a remote island where the threat of undeadness does nothing to heal a longstanding feud between two families, in fact, it exacerbates it. The film stars Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Devon Bostick, Richard Fitzpatrick, Athena Karkanis, Joris Jarskey and Steffano DeMatteo, among others.

A chance encounter with television’s Mr Roger’s tonsils may or may not have led to Romero’s leap into feature films of the horror persuasion, but since his first excursion with 1968’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, which was made part of the National Film Regmistry of the Library of Congress in 1999, he has explored many facets of that genre, while also taking a side-trip into modern jousting via motorcycles with 1981’s KNIGHTRIDERS and issues literal and metaphorical of losing face in 2000‘s BRUISER.

OUTRO:

You've been listening to Andrea Chase go BEHIND THE SCENES with George A. Romero and his film, SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD.