George A. Romero

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George A. Romero at the 66th Venice Film Festival 2009

George Andrew Romero (born February 4, 1940 in New York City , † July 16, 2017 in Toronto ) was an American film director , writer , film editor and actor .

Romero is considered to be the co-founder and one of the most important exponents of modern horror film . Many of his films have achieved cult status . Romero wrote the script himself for most of his films, so his work can largely be assigned to the author's film . It is typical of his films that they consciously reflect the social situation prevailing in the USA at the time they were made and have a political subtext that criticizes social and political grievances. Among his most famous films include Night of the Living Dead ( Night of the Living Dead ) and Zombie ( Dawn of the Dead ).

Life

Career

Romero began making films with a cine camera at the age of 14 . In 1958 he won a Future Scientists of America Award for a documentary on geology called Earthbottom , which he created as part of a high school project. He moved to Pittsburgh to study art , design, and theater studies at Carnegie Mellon University . After graduating and earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961, he worked as an assistant in a production for news reports. In the same year he founded the production company The Latent Image with some college friends , initially to shoot commercials and educational films .

His first horror film The Night of the Living Dead (1968) - still shot with a very low budget of 114,000 dollars - hit the nerve of the times with its subtle statement against racism and the Vietnam War and quickly became an insider tip. The controversial film was also included in the collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art . His two horror films, Crazies (1973) and Martin (1977), were also based on a subtle, socially critical message, but they did not become box office successes.

Only after such non- zombie films did success come back: with Zombie (Dawn of the Dead) from 1978, in which four people escape from hordes of zombies holed up in a shopping center. In many countries the film was confiscated because of its excessive depictions of violence ( protection of minors , censorship ). Romero's third zombie film Zombie 2 ( Day of the Dead ) from 1985 received a rather negative response from the critics. After he refused, as requested by the investors, to forego explicit depictions of violence in this film in order to achieve an " R-Rating ", he only received half of the originally agreed capital and had to make his script for this film clear simplify. He then had particular success as a producer of the fantasy fiction television series Tales from the Darkside .

In 1999 Romero shot a music video for the song Scream by the band Misfits , in which the members of the band turn into zombies. His only payment was to ask the band to appear in his 2000 film Bruiser and to contribute songs to its score . In 2004, he designed the plot of a six-part story called The Death of the Death for the Toe Tags comic series and wrote the lyrics for it.

A remake of Dawn of the Dead in early 2004 was a worldwide box office hit. This gave Romero the opportunity to add another film to his zombie series. For this reason, he interrupted the pre-production of Diamond Dead in 2004 to pursue the filming of the long-awaited fourth part of his zombie cycle, Land of the Dead , which was finally financed by Atmosphere Entertainment after many years of negotiations with various Hollywood studios . Romero completed another zombie film in 2007 called Diary of the Dead , which he in turn wrote and directed. After Land of the Dead was a production by a larger studio, this film is again an independent production.

Speaking of the torture porn genre , Romero said in 2008: “I don't get it. [...] They lack the metaphor . "

In 2009 Romero received an invitation to compete at the 66th Venice Film Festival for his sixth zombie film Survival of the Dead . In October 2011, he announced his interest in a film adaptation of Steven Schlozman's novel The Zombie Autopsies . In 2012 Romero dubbed the scientist Dr. Beau E. Vil in ACW Games Zombie game Zombie Squash .

In 2020, Romero's only novel, The Living Dead , was published posthumously , which the American author Daniel Kraus put together from the found manuscript as well as notes and letters, Romero's idea for a zombie series and a short story, which were left to him from Romero's estate added to a novel.

Private

George A. Romero grew up in the Bronx, New York, and attended a Catholic school there. While filming Land of the Dead , he met his partner Susan Wloszczyna, with whom he has lived in Toronto ever since . The couple had a daughter. Romero had been a Canadian citizen since 2009. George A. Romero died in July 2017 at the age of 77 as a result of a brief illness of lung cancer among his family.

Filmography

Romero, also to 1982 all films for which he has directed himself cut .

Direction and script

Director

  • 1971: There's Always Vanilla
  • 1974: The Winners (TV series, episode Willie Stargell: If I Didn't Play Baseball)
  • 1974: OJ Simpson: Juice on the Loose (documentary about OJ Simpson )

script

actor

Trivia

literature

Web links

Commons : George A. Romero  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tre'vell Anderson: George A. Romero, 'Night of the Living Dead' creator, dies at 77. In: Los Angeles Times . July 16, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Christian Buß: To the death of George A. Romero: The chef of the great food. In: Der Spiegel . July 17, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Georg Seeßlen: George A. Romero and his films , Kuk, 2010, p. 37
  4. ↑ a b Katrina Onstad: Horror Auteur Is Unfinished With the Undead. In: The New York Times . February 10, 2008, accessed on February 19, 2009 : “'I don't get the torture porn films,' Mr. Romero said. 'They're lacking metaphor'. "
  5. ↑ Steve Barton: George A. Romero Interested in Performing The Zombie Autopsies. In: Dread Central . October 19, 2011, accessed October 19, 2011 .
  6. ↑ Exclusive video: George A. Romero in “ZOMBIE SQUASH” ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fangoria.com
  7. ↑ Noel Murray: George Romero's final project unites all his zombie movies. In: polygon.com. August 3, 2020, accessed on August 5, 2020 .
  8. ^ Q&A: George A. Romero Director, Survival Of The Dead
  9. ↑ George A. Romero in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  10. ↑ Escalation DLC ( Memento of the original from October 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on bestofgamers.com @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bestofgamers.com
  11. ^ Romero (V). Retrieved February 10, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Romero, George A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Romero, George Andrew (full name); Romero, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director and writer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th February 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 2017
Place of death Toronto