The Fantasia Film Festival’s annual film co-production Frontieres has announced the first slave of films headed to its ninth edition in Montreal. From July 20 to July 23 of this summer, several projects will be on display, including horror movie legend George Romero‘s Road of the Dead.
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Road of the Dead is Romero’s next entry to the popular zombie genre andthree consecutive directorial efforts, following Survival of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Land of the Dead. The project was written by Romero and Matt Birman, who will direct this time around after serving as second unit director for all three previous films.
Road of the Dead was originally pitched by Birman 10 years ago. Now, it becomes a film centered on an island where zombie prisoners race cars in a moder-day Coliseum for more privileged living humans to enjoy. According to Birman’s description, it is a combination of Road Warrior and Rollerball at a Nascar Race, borrowing a bunch of queues from Ben-Hur.
The rest of the announced slate includes titles High Dive, Kicking Blood, Nameless, A Nightmare Wakes, Protect Us From Our Hunger, The Resoration at Grayson Manor, Restore Point, The Stolen Child, and Zoo. More titles will be announced for the Fantasia Film Festival in early June.
Romero’s zombie film is likely to be one of the more anticipated films of the bunch, seeing as his work is often among the most revered in the genre. His Night of the Living Dead film is largely credited as the birth of zombie films in 1968, which spawned projects like Dawn of the Dead and The Crazies further down the line in his career. His most recent effort as a director was 2009’s Survival of the Dead, with 19 other credits in the director’s chair to his name.
(via IndieWire)
