Often credited as the founding father of the zombie genre – itself one of the most enduring and time-honored genres in all of entertainment – George A. Romero is a name that evokes a tremendous amount of love and admiration when it comes to horror flicks that are at once terrifying, yet oddly satirical.
It all began with the release of Night of the Living Dead back in ’68, a micro-budget horror movie that proved to be hugely significant for both Romero and the zombie sub-genre, and its legacy is still being felt to this day. Indeed, the Living Dead have permeated popular culture to such an extent that it’d be quick to count the number of apocalyptic horror films that haven’t been influenced by Romero’s decorated body of work, rather than the ones that have.
And though he isn’t in the director’s chair this time around, George A. Romero is back later this year with the Mad Max-esque thriller, Road Of The Dead. Directed by Matt Birman, who considers his white-knuckle ride to be the grotesque spawn of Road Warrior and Rollerball, Road of the Dead takes place on a far-flung island where zombie prisoners race cars in a setting not dissimilar to the Coliseum (“are you not entertained?!”), all to appease a group of filthy rich humans.
Here’s the official logline:
In the darkest days of the zombie apocalypse, the last safe place on earth is anything but, as a mad despot uses the spectacle of high-octane carnage to keep control of his populous.
Bound for the annual Fantasia International Film Festival later this month (July 20th-July 23rd), Road Of The Dead will be hoping to attract buyers ahead of a planned release in late 2017/early 2018, and long-time Romero fans needn’t feel apprehensive about the 77-year-old’s decision to pass on the torch; after all, Birman has served as second unit director all throughout Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead.
Road of the Dead, meanwhile, is due to make a beeline for the zombie apocalypse sometime in 2017, and you can find the film’s official poster embedded below.
