While this is not an unexpected turn of events, iconic director and writer of zombie movies George Romero revealed that he was asked to direct a few episodes of AMC‘s The Walking Dead but turned it down. In fact, while he had other reasons, he turned it down in favor of shooting The Zombie Autopsies. Even though this undead match-up would have been one for the ages, it’s understandable why the Godfather of Zombies wouldn’t be interested in The Walking Dead — his zombies are all his own.
In an interview with io9, Romero said that the thing that everyone was really hoping would happen would not. However, he’s still a fan of the show, at least in its comic form:
“I love the books, I haven’t seen any of the episodes. Listen I love Frank [Darabont], I know he’s done a good job. I love the books, I never watched any of the episodes because… my zombies are sort of my own. I didn’t want to be part of it. Producers called and said, ‘do you want to direct some of these,’ and I said no. Because I just didn’t think it was me.”
Mostly, it’s hard to imagine Romero being limited to the smaller scope of a TV show. This is generally where Darabont ran into problems before he was let go as the showrunner. But this looks like a very respectful case of “Thanks, but no thanks.” In the meantime, we can get excited for Romero to focus his energies on returning to the big screen to direct more of the zombie mayhem to which he is accustomed. He described his zombies and the people who have to deal with them, and how in the world this could have gotten so huge:
My zombies are purely a disaster. They are a natural disaster. God has changed the rules, and somehow this thing is happening. My stories are about the humans who deal with it stupidly, and that’s what I use them for. I use them to sort of make fun of what’s going on in a number of societal events. And that’s it, I don’t use them to just create gore. Even though I use gore, that’s not what my films are about, they’re much more political. That’s it. This whole zombie revolution, it’s unbelievable.
It’s unbelievable, and there just isn’t enough Romero to go around!
(io9 via MTV Splash Page)
