When George A. Romero passed away last year, he left behind a good number of movies for us to continue revisiting and enjoying… But over the decades, he had also worked on a whole lot of projects that never came to fruition. Of all the directors whose careers I have followed, Romero has the most unmade movies that I'm aware of. There was a ghost story (BEFORE I WAKE), UFO films (INVASION OF THE SPAGHETTI MONSTERS, SHOO BE DOO BE MOON), a vampire movie (THE ILL), a Marvel movie (MONGREL: THE LEGEND OF COPPERHEAD), zombie movies (the musical DIAMOND DEAD, a black & white zombie noir), a film scripted by the Wachowskis (CARNIVORE), a female-led Western (GUNPERSON), a whole lot of adaptations (Stephen King's Salem's Lot, The Stand, Pet Sematary, From a Buick 8, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Jay Bonansinga's The Black Mariah, Koji Suzuki's Solitary Isle, Nelson DeMille and Thomas Block's Mayday, the Resident Evil video game), some remakes (WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE MUMMY, Dario Argento's DEEP RED)… the list goes on and on.
Speaking with ComicBook.com, Romero's widow Suzanne Desrocher-Romero revealed that he left behind dozens of completed scripts for films that were never made, and she's hoping something can be done with them.
George has many scripts. We have very many scripts that he's written. And so, you just never know what's gonna pop up. … George was a prolific writer. He loved to write, and we have 40, 50 scripts that he's written, and a lot of it is very good. He had a lot to say, and he still does, because I'm gonna make sure that he does. It's my mission."
Of course, the scripts for some of the projects Romero worked on – the adaptations of material owned by someone else – may never see the light of day, but it would be very interesting to see his original material released into the world in some way.
One Romero project that Desrocher-Romero plans to get released is a completed film that I had no idea existed. The only unreleased Romero movie I knew of was the documentary-style monster movie JACARANDA JOE, which he started shooting in the mid-'90s but never finished. This one is something
he shot in 1973 that most people haven't seen. A handful of people have seen this film. We're gonna restore it, and we're gonna show it to Romero cinephiles. It's a scary movie, but it's not a horror movie, and it's about ageism. Anyway, he has a cameo in it, and it'll be fun. And we'll show the movie, or get it distributed. … A lot of people are like, 'Oh, my God, I can't wait to see it.' And I go, 'It's not a zombie movie now, remember.' And what's also terrific is that you see his footprint. You see how he shoots and the story. It's a unique find. I'm so happy I have it."
I have no idea what this movie is, but I am very eager to see it.
Desrocher-Romero also cofirmed that Dan Klaus is hard at work finishing the novel The Living Dead, which Romero had been writing at the time of his death.
They're not the only ones dedicated to bringing us more Romero. Matt Birman, the second unit director on his latest zombie films, is attached to direct ROAD OF THE DEAD, which Romero and Birman wrote together. Beyond ROAD, Birman has said there are four more completed Romero screenplays that he hopes to get made, two of them based on novels and two original stories. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like the quest to get ROAD OF THE DEAD made is going smoothly. Desrocher-Romero told ComicBook that ROAD is
in the works I think. I think it's sputtered a little bit, but we'll see what happens."
I really hope ROAD OF THE DEAD does end up getting made. As Romero himself described it, that project is
set in a sanctuary city where this fat cat runs a haven for rich folks, and one of the things that he does is stage drag races to entertain them. There’s a scientist there doing genetic experiments, trying to make the zombies stop eating us, and he has discovered that with a little tampering, they can recall certain memory skills that enable them to drive in these races. So it’s a demolition derby with zombies at the wheels, and of course the shit hits the fan in other ways. It’s really a romp; it’s great fun, with stunts galore.”
Romero is gone, but there could still be a whole lot of Romero to look forward to, if everything works out.