The Walking Dead And George Romero Don’t Mix
George Romero who happens to be the legendary king of zombie movies and of the zombie scene, is not a big fan of The Walking Dead. According to Zap2it.com, he actually has never even seen an episode. He was also asked to direct and episode, and he also turned down that offer as well.
“Frank [Darabont] and [Greg] Nicotero were calling me and asking me to do one of these,” he says. “I don’t have any desire to do one because it’s not — my zombies live in sort of my universe and they’re political and they’re different from whatever that is.”
He continues: “I’m not trying to capitalize on a trend. When I want to write about something, I try to use zombies to do it because it’s easier than trying to write a piece about citizen journalism. It’s easier to put zombies in it and make fun of it.”
“I’m not really a fan of the fact that they’ve become as popular as they’ve become because I used to think that I had them in my pocket somewhere,” says Romero. “And now they’re sort of all over the place and I’m not thrilled.”
“Nothing,” says Romero. “I wanted some sort of a catastrophe — I wanted to write a story about how humans behave in the face of catastrophe and how they fail to recognize what’s going on. I’ve made six films, but they’re really all about the human characters and really political. They’re not slash-em-up zombie movies. Even though there’s gore in them, that’s not what they’re about. Whereas some of the video games are more first person shooter and have fun with killing these zombies.”
We explained to Romero, for the record, that “The Walking Dead” is well worth his time and has little to nothing in common with a slash-em-up zombie video game.
This is all happens to be funny, because he is hosting AMC’s “FearFest” that happens to start on the 16th of October. Now we hope that his ego is not getting in his way, or that he feels better than everyone else because a zombie show that started without him, happens to be exploding. George Romero, while being the king, is really acting like a baby.
Bielawski82
10/16/2011 @ 7:46 am
never watched an episode? thinks it’s a slasher show? wow… someone is bitter.
Robert Forrester
10/17/2011 @ 11:48 am
Walking Dead=walking cliche. Shows ripped off everything Romero did and other similar movies unashamedly–28 Days Later to name one (exact same start sequence of waking up in a hospital).Full of cliched character: redneck that beats wife, old, wise sage, and cliched plots–handcuffed to a roof, oh look, a hacksaw. Terrible
VoodooRed
11/14/2011 @ 3:59 am
That really shocks me. I would’ve thought he’d at the least give the show a view, but if he hasn’t even seen an episode, I have to wonder if he’s basing his views off the fact the story is based off a comic book. Which, by the way, is completely ridiculous and such a biases view point to take on the show. Even if you don’t care much for graphic novels, you shouldn’t ignore the key elements we see being used.
Romero says above that HIS movies expose things that are political and characters under extreem circumstances, how people behave in catastrophe. If he would’ve taken the time to watch an episode, he’d see how much the show centers around the characters and the development they go under in a world thrown on it’s head, are not so unlike themes seen in his own work. The show is NOT about mowing back zombies and gore, but about the people who truly have become the Walking Dead. Their struggle to survive, protect, adapt, and grasp hold of some shreds of sanity when the world has taken every rule our society had and tossing that shit out the window.
I’m a big Romero fan, and love to see the hidden meanings in his past movies as well the connections they make to political hidden agendas and values held by individuals as well as society and it’s norms. However, reading this, I found myself disappointed in someone I held in such high esteem.
Anonymous
12/18/2011 @ 10:24 pm
Old washed up has-beens always get jealous & bitter.
xXZombixXKiller
02/16/2012 @ 3:55 pm
Wow….just wow! -.-