From Pet Sematary to City of the Dead: 10 Awesome Things George Romero Almost Made
Considering the Resident Evil game series was heavily inspired by Romero’s brand of zombie films, it would seem only natural that he would be the go-to guy to direct the franchise’s first foray into the movies. And in fact, he initially was. Though Romero at first had no interest in making a zombie movie based on an idea that wasn’t his own, he eventually did write a script for the Resident Evil movie in 1999, at the request of Sony and Capcom. He was also attached to direct the film, but ultimately they decided to go in another direction, and Paul W.S. Anderson was brought on board.
In 1998, Romero actually did direct a 30-second live-action commercial for the Resident Evil 2 video game in Japan, which never aired outside of Japan. It was in fact that commercial that sold Capcom on the idea of him writing and directing the Resident Evil movie, and that 30 seconds unfortunately remains the closest Romero will likely ever come to the franchise. And yes, that is the late Brad Renfro in there, as Leon Kennedy.
If you want to read Romero’s Resident Evil script, it’s not hard to find. Google is your friend!
If you take a look at George Romero’s IMDb page, you’ll notice that the years between 1993 and 2000 seem to have mysteriously vanished from his filmography. But that’s hardly because Romero took a break from the film business, between The Dark Half and Bruiser.
After directing The Dark Half, Romero penned the scripts for many big budget Hollywood films that got stuck in ‘Development Hell’ and never made their way out. One of those projects was the film adaptation of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps book series, a film that was derailed when Scholastic and Fox had a falling out.
All these years later, a Goosebumps feature film is finally on the way, set for release October 2015.
During that same period of time, Romero also wrote a script for The Mummy, and it was given the green light by Universal Studios. A much smaller film than the one we ended up with in 1999, Romero’s script was much more akin to the original Boris Karloff film, which he once described as “creepier and way more romantic” than the mega-budget Stephen Sommers film.
Because he was stuck in a deal with MGM at the time, to direct a film called Before I Wake, Romero’s version of The Mummy was unable to be made by Universal. The sad irony is that Before I Wake also never got made, a project that killed two projects with one stone.
It was because of this drought between 1993 and 2000 that Romero decided he’d had enough with Hollywood and its fickle ways, and decided to return to making his own movies, on his own terms.
Originally announced in 2004, Diamond Dead was going to be a zombie-themed musical centering on an undead rock band, which was to be directed by Romero. Asia Argento, Ridley Scott and Rocky Horror composer Richard Hartley were also attached to the project, which Romero compared to Phantom of the Paradise, and a website containing the script and musical excerpts was at one point even launched to generate buzz for the film.
Diamond Dead has been one of those on-again, off-again films since it was announced in 2004, but Romero recently confirmed that it will likely never see the light of day. Insert sad face here.
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