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(sparkling music)
(heavy rain falling)
(thunder cracks loudly) (thunder rumbling)
(heavy rain falling)
(gentle music)
- [Narrator] A bizarre incident had occurred
near the end of the 20th century.
A German production company
called Constantin Film had purchased the rights
to a bestselling video game created by Capcom
with legendary director George A. Romero
hired to write and direct.
One year later, he was fired from the production.
The case was apparently closed
with the release of a feature film in 2002
directed by Paul W.S. Anderson,
but questions regarding Romero's unrealized film
and his removal were far from answered.
(eerie music)
(crows cawing distantly)
(eerie music)
(crows cawing) (footsteps on dead leaves)
(eerie music)
(footsteps on dead leaves) (eerie music)
(deep growling)
(eerie music)
(deep growling)
(eerie music) (footsteps on dead leaves)
(dog-like snarling) (heavy panting)
(footsteps on dead leaves) (crickets chirping)
(dog-like snarling) (heavy panting)
(eerie music)
(wind howling) (eerie music)
(dog-like snarling)
(footsteps approaching)
(key clicks in door)
(dog-like snarling)
(eerie music)
(creaky footsteps)
In 1968, Image Ten unleashed
a visceral experience upon the world
that shocked audiences everywhere.
(woman screaming)
- [Movie Narrator] "Night of the Living Dead."
The dead, who live on living flesh.
The dead, whose haunted souls hunt the living.
The living, whose bodies are the only food
for these ungodly creatures.
- George Andrew Romero was born in February of 1940
in Bronx in New York.
His father was a graphic designer
and he used to make posters for films
and for Broadway shows, banners and the like like that,
so when George was growing up,
he was really in a household that kind of celebrated film.
- He was one that took that love of film
and actually acted on it.
He didn't say, "I just wanna grow up and be a filmmaker."
He started making his films at an early age,
and the famous story of throwing the flaming dummy
off the building and getting arrested at a young age.
- George came to Pittsburgh
to attend what was then called Carnegie Tech.
It's now Carnegie Mellon University,
and he came here to be an art student.
Came, started taking his art classes,
and eventually kind of got rolled in
with some folks in the drama department,
started doing theater,
and eventually they kind of got swept up in
sort of emerging television.
(playful music)
Eventually they knew that sort of this crew
with Latent Image, which was sort of the company
that they had put together.
So you have George and Russ Streiner and Jack Russo
and a couple of the Ricci folks
kind of all together working to figure out
how they can kind of navigate this space.
And eventually the idea came to make a horror film,
that it'd be easier to get funding for, it'd be cheap,
they didn't need a lot of skills,
they kind of pull this off.
And they had a script that was adapted by Jack Russo.
He had written this "Night of Anubis."
It was the original title,
but it was this general story that we know as
"Night of the Living Dead."
(dramatic music) (glass shattering)
(woman screaming in fear)
- There was an aspect of it that was very surreal
and sort of dreamlike.
I remember when the character Ben is clubbing the zombies,
and the way he's hitting them
and the way the sound effects are kind of off sync a bit,
and it's just kind of strange.
It feels like you're watching it,
you're just slipping into some kind of nightmare.
- They really learned how to make a film together
sort of organically.
I think fans know that George did not go film school,
neither did any of the other folks in Latent Image.
They took their video production skills
that they had learned from television and applied it,
but they learned it sort of in a different way
and on their own.
- Some of the ways the characters speak are a little funny.
"They're coming to get you, Barbara."
It's kind of funny, but then it like,
it gives you a sucker punch and scares the shit outta you.
- And it's like, Roger Ebert's original review
of "Night of the Living Dead,"
he said, "These kids were dropped off in a matinee
thinking they're gonna see some spooky Vincent Price movie,"
and of course they're eating livers and stuff
and these kids were in shock!
- There's a pretty safe scene
where they're shouldn't be anything of menace.
But then all of a sudden this zombie comes out for no reason
and starts killing one of the characters who you've just met
and you're like, "Wow. What's going on now?"
I wound up going to Scream Theater
and watching "Night of the Living Dead,"
and you know, the dead are alive to eat the living!
The weird thing is they made references
to all these other places
that my family would camp in when we'd go to Pittsburgh!
So it was utterly terrifying!
- I love that. I can't tell if "Night of the Living Dead"
is an old or a modern film.
It just kind of splits two eras down the middle.
- I'm 14 years old
and they're having a convention in Monroeville,
and I see George Romero,
director of "Night of the Living Dead" is gonna be there.
And I was like, "All right, I wanna go meet this psychopath
that would make a movie
that would give somebody nightmares like this."
Met George, got an autograph from George,
realized George was one of the nicest people on the planet.
And then me, this 14-year-old, cornered George Romero,
literally cornered him in the hotel
and was asking him question after question after question.
And finally he just writes on a piece of paper,
"247 Fort Pitt Boulevard," the address,
and goes "Here, write me."
Then it was just, we became pen pals
and I still have those letters.
- I just remember the immediacy
of the sequences with the zombies
and how it felt like you were under
a constant sense of terror and foreboding.
- There were no R-rated movies
before "Night of the Living Dead,"
and "Night of the Living Dead," of course, has no rating.
- [Narrator speaking]
- That really made a big impact
because at the time it was released, of course,
on the news, you're seeing worse stuff in that every day,
people being burned with flame throwers
and you all the Vietnam with the napalm
and the skin falling off and shit.
And so suddenly the horror movies were not that horrific
because what you saw on the news
was a lot more frightening.
(zombie groaning)
(intense dramatic music) (loud thud)
(gunshot firing)
(zombies groaning) (woman screaming)
(intense music)
(woman's screams echoing)
- I think George really took things
to the next level on that.
One of the most memorable scenes
is when the truck is burning
and there's flames flying everywhere
and somebody's taking a piece of flesh and gnawing.
We hadn't seen anything like that on camera.
- [Narrator] After "Night of the Living Dead,"
the definition of zombie would change.
No longer inspired by misconstrued Haitian folklore,
the zombie would now be your neighbors, your friends,
your family, the reanimated corpses
of the recently dead, seeking flesh.
- Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up.
- [Narrator] And while slow moving,
could only be stopped by destroying the brain,
- [Interviewee] Beat 'em or burn 'em.
- Of course, it famously set the rules for zombie film.
How zombies work, how the brain is the zombie,
you shoot the brain, you kill it.
And that's been the common trope ever since.
- They didn't try to go back to New York City,
they didn't try to go to LA, they didn't go to Chicago,
they did it here in Pittsburgh.
The fact that we still have a film industry here
is because of the work they did.
- This is probably the most inspiring
independent film of all time.
- [Narrator] For Romero, attempts to branch out
into other genres were met with less enthusiastic results.
So in 1973, he returned to horror with "The Crazies"
about a chemical weapon unleashed upon the population
of Evan City, Pennsylvania,
turning them into violent psychopaths.
And "Martin."
- My name is Martin.
I'm 84 years
- The 1977 Classic about a serial killer
that believed he was a vampire.
But it was his next film that cemented George Romero
in the minds of audiences worldwide.
- [Movie Narrator] "Dawn of the Dead."
- Meet me on the roof at nine o'clock.
We're getting out. - But I don't believe it.
- We've gotta get out in the chopper.
- [Narrator] The film followed four survivors
of the zombie apocalypse
that barricade themselves within a shopping mall
as the world around them falls apart.
- [Movie Narrator] "Night of the Living Dead" has ended.
(person screaming)
"Dawn of the Dead" is here.
- [Narrator] Filmed at the Monroeville Mall near Pittsburgh,
the 1978 film became an instant hit
and the mall itself became a monument
for Romero fans to visit in the decades to follow.
- The movie opened up and they knew right away
that they were sitting on a big hit film.
"Dawn of the Dead" really turned Romero's career around
and it was a massive hit.
It was released unrated
because they were afraid they were gonna get an X-rating
because of the violence in it.
- In 1977, when Tom Savini asked me to do a role
in "Dawn of the Dead," we did the makeup, head castings,
and when I got onto the set at the little
Harold Brown Airport, the Monroeville Airport,
that's when I first got to see and meet George.
And he was in the middle of directing,
but I could tell just by the way he moved,
and sometimes you go by your first impression,
and that first impression I think was pretty solid
in terms of he was very gregarious, he was very friendly,
he was very open and receptive, and at the same time,
he knew exactly what he wanted to do.
If somebody had a slightly better idea,
well, let's hear it, maybe we can bring that in.
- [Narrator speaking]
- Tom was behind the boxes ready to pump the blood
as somebody was ready to yank
the top piece of my head off.
The apparatus that is, not my actual head.
And that timing was pretty precise.
We did everything in one take.
George was smiling, he looked at it.
He said, "This was just great."
- I discovered George Romero through my brother Taso,
who was going to Carnegie Mellon University with Tom Savini,
who was just at the time becoming
sort of known as the special effects guy
because he had done a film of George called "Martin,"
and then Taso worked with him on "Dawn of the Dead."
They both did a lot of stunts and acrobatics
and stage combat at CMU.
And so they became the stuntmen on "Dawn of the Dead"
in addition to Tom doing all the makeup effects.
And so Taso plays several zombies and also gets killed,
but as a kid, this is really like impressive shit!
Like, you know, your brother's in a movie!
He's on the magic side of the screen now, you know?
I grew up as steeped in that,
so that was my Holy Trinity was Taso, Tom, and George.
- I got to meet George again at a place in Pittsburgh
called the Pittsburgh Mattress Factory.
They showed "Night."
Afterwards, there was questions, and George just...
George was George.
He would come through the front door.
There was no special treatments,
there was no anything like that.
And I'm just like...
I can't remember.
My mother's standing behind me and she goes,
"He makes movies too."
She just told George Romero that I make movies.
And so with just stupidity, I went, "Oh!"
And smashed my face into this brick wall by accident.
And after he checked on me, he goes, "What I want you to do
is write down all your questions, come down to the office,
and spend an afternoon with me."
I had my list of questions.
We sat down in Georgia Romero's office
and spent the afternoon, and he answered all my questions.
And when it was done, he goes, "I'm making this movie
about these knights that ride motorcycles.
I would love you for you to be my apprentice."
Yes! Absolutely!
And so did he inspire me?
Oh, hell yes, he inspired me.
- [Narrator] Romero returned again for a third,
and at that time, final entry in this "Living Dead" series
with the 1985 film "Day of the Dead."
- On my 21st birthday, I got into the different scene
and we ended up killing Rhodes.
I remember George looked at me and I go,
"It's my 21st birthday."
And he's like, "Why are you here?"
And I'm like, "Where else would I wanna be?
This is the greatest birthday ever!"
Because I'd hung out with Tom Savini and all them,
they trusted me with some stuff
so they put a blood pump on my back,
had it running down my arm, and I had Joe Pilato's legs.
And so I pumped blood while we were dragging it
and then the intestines that were unrefrigerated
because someone had pulled out a plug.
- Choke on 'em!
Choke on 'em!
- They were just, the smell is exactly what everyone says.
I mean, it was awful.
- Hold it! Don't shoot!
- You're crazy!
- [Narrator] Romero's films frequently placed
the zombie concept into a larger context
within the narrative.
"Night of The Living Dead" was a story
about a group of strangers surviving the night
in a farmhouse, assaulted by ravenous ghouls.
But beneath the surface boiled social commentary
on the Civil Rights movement
and the treatment of African Americans in American society.
- You can be the boss down there, I'm boss up here.
- You bastards!
- Having this strong Black character
who then is just killed by the vigilante hunters at the end.
- All right, Vince, hit him in the head,
right between the eyes.
(loud gunshot) (sudden thud)
- [Ben] It was part of that zeitgeist to understand.
- Good shot.
Okay, he's dead. Let's go get him.
That's another one for the fire.
- There's this sort of racial commentary
that was going through
in reflection of the turmoil of the '60s.
- [Narrator] "Dawn of the Dead" focused on over consumerism,
greed, and America's fascination with materialism.
- We're in, now the hell are we gonna get back?
- Who the hell cares!
Let's go shopping first!
(both laughing)
- [Narrator] Later films would challenge sexism.
- Let him go, goddamn it!
Or I'll cut you in half.
- [Narrator] Class warfare, the War On Terror.
- We don't negotiate with terrorists.
- [Narrator] Tribalism.
- [Character Voiceover] All we were looking for was a place
where there was no them.
(loud gunshot) (glass shatters)
- [Narrator] And detached voyeurism
while witnessing acts of violence.
- We become immune too. Inoculated.
- [Narrator] These core concepts made George Romero's films
feel raw, relatable, and real,
that we could be these characters
in that very same predicament.
- I think George touched on
a lot of universal themes with his movies,
and I think that's why so many people
were able to relate to them.
Because it was the every man.
I mean, you would see the military
and you would see other people
that we weren't used to seeing in our everyday lives,
but he really focused on real people
caught in real situations.
- I think that is his biggest social critique,
was that he just didn't have a lot of faith
that humans could put aside their differences
and work together when they really, really needed to.
- [Narrator] All zombie media
after "Night of the Living Dead"
owed a debt of gratitude toward the work
of Image Ten and George Romero.
And without George Romero, there would not be...
- [Game Narrator] "Resident Evil."
- [Narrator] In 1996, Japanese game developer Capcom
unleashed a new horror experience on the world.
(glass shattering) (dog snarling)
"Biohazard."
One week later, the game released in the United States
as "Resident Evil," a bestselling title
for the Sony PlayStation
that launched Capcom to new levels of success.
For over 25 years, "Resident Evil"
has been a sales juggernaut
with over 140 million total games sold across the franchise.
Part of that success came from an immersive experience
where players felt like protagonists in a horror film.
Not surprisingly, its inspirations were deeply influenced
by horror cinema.
In 1993, a senior Producer at Capcom, Tokuro Fujiwara,
desired to remake a video game
he directed four years earlier
for the Nintendo Famicom, "Sweet Home."
[Narrator speaking]
(characters speaking Japanese)
Based on the 1989 Japanese horror film of the same name,
Fujiwara crafted a survival role playing game
with the player controlling
the five characters from the movie,
each with their own unique abilities.
The player was tasked with exploring the spooky manor
to solve various puzzles, all while trying to survive
against a menagerie of monsters and traps
that could permanently kill the characters
for the remainder of the game.
Fujiwara believed a new game
based on the gameplay of "Sweet Home,"
but utilizing new hardware could entice an audience.
"Biohazard" was intended to be a remake of "Sweet Home,"
but because "Sweet Home" was based on
a Japanese movie property, Capcom did not have the ability
to use that license for their new game,
so they decided to go with something original instead.
And in terms of the development of the original "Biohazard,"
it started sometime around 1993
when it became increasingly clear that 3D video games
would become a technical and a creative possibility.
The original creator of the "Sweet Home" video game,
Tokuro Fujiwara, was a Producer at Capcom at that point.
So at Capcom, Producers often have the greatest ability
to get projects green lit.
Even after "Sweet Home,"
even though they were able to create it and release it,
it didn't do very well for Capcom
and it was never even released outside of Japan,
which was another reason why it didn't really garner
the sales numbers or the awareness
that Fujiwara was hoping for.
But with the next game, "Biohazard,"
they were trying to aim for something
a little more worldwide in its approach.
They wanted it to be accessible
and something that would showcase
this new upcoming era of 3D gaming.
- [Narrator] He found a young employee named Shinji Mikami,
whose recent games "Goof Troop" and "Aladdin"
were well received, and asked him to lead development.
[Narrator speaking]
(Kenichi speaking Japanese)
- I think the most iconic thing about "Resident Evil"
is pressing start and you hear that, "Resident Evil".
It just puts you in the game.
And walking into that mansion and just the sound design
and the creepiness factor, going and exploring each room.
And the great thing about the old PlayStations
is when you had to walk up to the door
and you go through it,
you didn't know what was gonna be on the other side!
It would sometimes be a surprise,
and that's what I loved about the game.
- It was the first time I experienced that level of gore
in video games, and it definitely helped ramp up the horror.
- [Movie Narrator] Bizarre murder cases have recently
occurred in Raccoon City.
There are outlandish reports of families
being attacked by a group of about 10 people.
Victims were apparently eaten.
- [Narrator] This cinematic inspiration
book ended the gaming experience
through live action sequences
filmed to look like they were pulled
straight from a horror film.
- It was quite a long time ago,
but I do have a fairly strong recollection
of the day where we were shooting the outdoor scenes.
It was kind of outside of the center of Tokyo
near the Tama River.
It was a hot night, there was lots of mosquitoes
and they were using smoke machines.
There were some really cool props
of the dogs and the hand that's holding the gun.
And I recall running around in the grass,
they would then just give us some direction, like,
"Look this way. Shoot your gun."
There wasn't a rehearsal, it was all just kind of done
by the seat of our pants.
But it was a lot of fun, the crew were fun
and I think we all just,
we didn't really know what we were getting into
until we got there and we got into it.
- No! Don't go!
- [Narrator] It was almost like "Resident Evil"
was a video game based on a horror film,
albeit one that didn't actually exist.
The gameplay consisted of action sequences
with emphasis on exploration, puzzle solving,
and resource management,
all while combating the horrific enemies
within its environment.
The player chose between two characters;
Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine,
members of an elite police task force,
The Special Tactics and Rescue Service, or S.T.A.R.S,
as they investigated gruesome murders
in the mountains outside Raccoon City.
(Kenichi speaking Japanese)
Trapped in a sinister mansion infested with zombies,
giant spiders, and other nightmarish creatures,
the two uncovered that the mansion harbored
an underground laboratory with illegal viral experiments
conducted by the pharmaceutical company
Umbrella Incorporated.
(Kenichi speaking Japanese)
In the end, Chris and Jill discovered that their leader
Captain Wesker to be a traitor,
battled the ultimate weapon Tyrant,
and narrowly escaped before the mansion exploded.
- The game that I was in
was pretty cutting edge for its time.
I think it was really neat
that they had the live action cut scenes in it.
It wasn't just a shoot 'em up game,
you had to solve puzzles.
It kind of ushered in a whole new kind of video game.
- It's a weapon.
It's really powerful, especially against living things.
Better take it with you.
- In 2007, I would meet Shinji Mikami for the first time
and he would tell me that the voice acting was done in Japan
and recorded intentionally in a way
such that Japanese people could understand,
even this level of simple English.
- This house is dangerous, there are terrible demons.
Ouch!
- The idea was to make it palatable for Japanese people
rather than international audiences,
which I thought was a fascinating
and ultimately an understandable decision.
- I see. Well, it's not your fault.
This place is crazy!
- All of us, I think we just didn't really know.
All we knew is that it was a video game,
something that we didn't know much about.
I didn't even know until 20-some years later
that I was part of "Resident Evil,"
because they called it "Biohazard."
- [Narrator] "Resident Evil" sold over 2.7 million copies
worldwide after it was released on March 22nd, 1996.
An expanded version of the game,
"Resident Evil: The Director's Cut"
sold an additional 2 million copies.
- It was just so different for games
that I played at the time
that it was the most immersive way to experience horror.
It was a brand new way to experience horror other than film.
- It was a an immersive experience
that I was not used to with video games.
And the thing that I noticed the most about "Resident Evil"
is just how fucking creepy they were.
The sound effects and the fact you couldn't see
all the way down the halls, and "What the hell was that?"
Your mind would start playing tricks on you.
(Kenichi speaking Japanese)
- Most people at Capcom at the time
thought that the company was done for,
heading into the second half of the '90s.
And when "Biohazard" came out
and surpassed anybody's sales expectations,
I think that that revitalized Capcom's business
and gave them another hit to kind of move forward with.
According to Yoshiki Okamoto,
one of of Capcom's other Producers,
that was one of the first million selling titles
on the original PlayStation.
- [Narrator] "Resident Evil" was an explosive sleeper hit
and Capcom now had one clear goal:
Create a franchise.
- That's a testament to Shinji Mikami
and all the people at Capcom that developed it.
- [Narrator] While a sequel entered development,
Capcom sought interest in their newest hit video game
to be brought to the big screen.
- They got started on the sequel very quickly in early 1996,
but once the original "Biohazard"
was obviously going to be a a great success,
they assembled the team to go make the next one.
(clock ticking) (loud whirring)
(heavy breathing)
(pen sliding over paper) (heavy breathing)
(pen snaps)
- [Narrator] In January, 1997, Variety reported
a German film production company, Constantin Film,
purchased the film rights to "Resident Evil"
with Alan B. McElroy, at that time known for
"Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers,"
hired to write the screenplay.
[Narrator speaking]
By the mid '90s,
Constantin Film was known in the United States
primarily for producing "The NeverEnding Story" in 1984,
and for an unreleased adaptation
of the "Fantastic Four" in 1993.
Made for $2 million, "Fantastic Four" was produced
in conjunction with Roger Corman's New World Pictures.
Constantin Film, having had the rights
to the property for several years,
were on the verge of having the rights
revert back to Marvel Comics
if a film wasn't put into production by December 31st, 1992.
Principal photography commenced
three days before the deadline.
Recounted by the film's actors and even Stan Lee himself,
the film was never intended for release.
Critics point to the film
as an embarrassing example of greed,
but the truth was that Constantin Films
stood to lose on their initial investment,
an investment that later paid off when 20th Century Fox
produced their own "Fantastic Four" film
and paid Constantin as part of the deal.
Alan McElroy delivered his first draft in May, 1997.
The script changed major elements of the game.
The characters were no longer an elite police unit.
Instead, a ragtag group of military veterans
each with personal problems
exploited by Albert Wesker to recruit them.
Absent was the iconic mansion of the game.
Instead, the action took place
within a top secret laboratory built within a mountainside.
As McElroy submitted his first draft,
Capcom confirmed their partnership
with Constantin Film through interviews
during the Electronic Entertainment Expo event.
Capcom showcased upcoming titles,
including the highly anticipated "Resident Evil 2."
The movie was expected to film shortly
with a release near the end of 1998.
But for Capcom, a sequel to "Resident Evil"
that surpassed the original
was the primary focus for the company.
Capcom earned nearly $200 million
in sales from the original,
and the new director, Hideki Kamiya,
felt intense pressure for the sequel
to live up to its predecessor.
[Narrator speaking]
The original build was scrapped entirely
after the team couldn't match the quality expected
not only by Capcom Executives,
but also their own expectations.
Now rebuilt from the ground up
with a script written by Noboru Sugimura,
"Resident Evil 2" was delayed to January, 1998.
With increased hype surrounding the game,
Capcom planned and ambitious marketing campaign
unheard of for a video game at that time
and committed $1.5 million on a live action commercial
to advertise the upcoming sequel.
There was only one man they had in mind to direct.
- That was kind of a big deal 'cause it was the first time
George had opened a lens on anything,
especially something involving zombies for years.
And so that was big news. It made the cover of "Fangoria."
- We do have some materials that relate
directly to the commercial for "Biohazard 2,"
as it was known in Japan,
what he was hired to direct commercial for,
"Resident Evil 2" in the United States.
And it's some of the storyboards for this commercial,
some of the character designs,
and some of the kind of artwork
that would've been used to inspire this.
A lot of information for him really
about who the characters are,
what the storyline of this was
so that he could kind of effectively make this commercial.
He himself was not a gamer
so he was not familiar with these games,
so some of this was to give him this background info.
- [Narrator] Shot over several nights
in downtown Los Angeles at the Lincoln Heights Jail,
an empty and often used filming location
for movies, TV, and music videos,
the building was dressed to resemble
the Raccoon Police Department,
a location from the upcoming "Resident Evil 2."
- I wound up as a zombie in a George Romero commercial.
I'm still marveling about that.
I mean, as a horror nerd,
that's one of the great moments of your life.
I was sent in for a commercial
and the request was there'd be heavy prosthetics makeup.
- [Narrator] Not only was legendary director,
George A. Romero, directing,
but the production was filled with top level talent
both in front and behind the camera.
- I said, "Geez, I feel like I'm in a George Romero movie."
And the makeup artist says to me,
"Didn't you see George standing out there?"
The amazing thing is the production,
the call sheet listed the director as I. Kambara,
and that was a Japanese artist, Tai Kambara,
and Tai Kambara had just passed away.
And George Romero had always skirted the unions.
He always stayed away from the DGA and everything.
So what they did is George Romero had a pseudonym
to direct this commercial.
We're at Lincoln Heights Jail.
I remember when I pulled up to Lincoln Heights,
it said Raccoon City Police Department
and there was a zombie leaning on the sign
smoking a cigarette, which was kind of the weird
introduction to the world.
They didn't call it "Resident Evil,"
they called it by the Japanese title,
which was "Project Biohazard 2."
When Romero came towards us,
Romero was in flip flops, wearing an open collar shirt
and baggy shorts.
He was, he was not dressed for October,
the September/October California weather.
He was dressed like he was going to the beach in June
and I remember his assistant was fretting,
"George, can I get you a coat?"
And he goes, "Nah, I'm good! I love it, I love it."
He goes, "If feels like-"
I think he said, "It feels like August in Pittsburgh."
He just looked so comfortable.
He pointed out to several people he had his lucky scarf on.
- [Narrator] Brad Renfro played Leon Kennedy,
one of two protagonists in "Resident Evil 2."
Brad had a massive following in Japan with teenagers,
but his restrictive agreement barred the commercial
from being played outside Japan.
Adrienne Frantz played Claire Redfield,
sister of the original games, Chris Redfield,
and the other protagonist for the game.
Peter Deming was the director of photography,
a cinematographer on iconic films,
"Evil Dead II" for Sam Raimi,
"Lost Highway" for David Lynch.
And "Scream 2" for Wes Craven.
The makeup effects were accomplished
by veteran special effects artist, Screaming Mad George,
with prior work on films, "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3,"
"Predator," and "Bride of the Re-Animator."
- It was incredibly fulfilling to work
with a professional like Screaming Mad George,
and he was such a great artist,
And just to see the day to day work progression
and the way it developed
and to see how people brainstormed ideas,
I could tell he really wanted to give it a different take
on the traditional zombie movie.
So as you can see down here,
there's a lot of the original prosthetics.
And then this is a shoulder piece
that was for an exposed shoulder.
So a nice meaty looking piece.
It would be right here and then it would be revealed
up from underneath clothes,
maybe the shoulder would be torn away.
George really wanted to take it to a different level,
especially since George Romero, I understood at the time,
was talking to him about possibly
having him work on the movie.
- [Narrator] The heavy levels of blood and gore
that Screaming Mad George was known for
were explicitly prohibited for the expected release format.
Even still, the zombies had their own unique appearance
despite the restrictions.
Dried blood, torn clothing and patchy skin
were still visually impressive,
invoking the work of Tom Savini
and Greg Nicotero's work on "Day of the Dead."
- I'm sitting in the makeup chair
and they couldn't show blood.
They were using black as a dried blood.
And I said, "Hey, this is a zombie thing.
Why don't we have blood?"
The Japanese company that was doing it
was a little leery about blood.
They didn't want to emphasize red blood in the commercial,
so everything was fairly dark.
It was more like we've been in the grave a while.
That's why the blood would pool in our fingers
and our fingers are black.
- [Narrator] The scale of the commercial led the production
to film a "Making Of" feature.
Japanese press were brought to the LA set
to interview the cast and crew.
Perhaps due to Brad Renfro's contract restrictions,
non-Japanese journalists were prohibited from the set
except for a sole Canadian-born journalist working in Japan.
Norman England was granted complete access to the production
and Romero was more than pleased
to share his excitement with the journalist
about working on a project
within the genre he had helped create.
- Capcom flew me over to Hollywood
to be involved with this shoot,
and it was really fantastic experience for me
because I was not a part of the film world at the time.
I was very fascinated by the film world.
I was there for all their meetings.
We go over to Screaming Mad George, big makeup artist.
He worked on Carpenter movies, whatever,
so many Brian Yuzna films.
They made two spots.
They made a 15 second spot and a 30 second spot
I was told was a million and a half dollars.
And I asked George that on the set,
I said, "Tell me about this budget."
And he goes, "Well, it's the most money I've ever had
on a second per second basis."
- Every makeup artist in town came by to kiss the ring
'cause George Romero was there.
So it was a who's who of Hollywood
special effects and makeup artist.
Matt Rose, who did "Hellboy"
brought 30 "Dawn of the Dead" from every different country
posters for George Romero to sign.
The KNB guys were there to see George.
As someone who knows every one of these makeup artists,
it was just really exciting to watch them come one by one
to pay tribute to the king.
- We were done with the commercial.
George got his reel from Japan.
He screened it for quite a few employees
on different occasions,
and at one time he brought out the commercial reel
and we watched the short cut.
There was a 15 second, there was like a 30 second,
and there was this two minute long trailer.
And then he said to us all,
"Would you like to see the long version of it?"
And we were like, "Oh wow, there's a longer version
than the two minutes?"
And he was like, "Sure, watch this."
And we watched this basically a short film
directed by George Romero of "Resident Evil,"
and I really believe that was George Romero's
and Screaming Mad George's calling card
to show that they could do the feature film.
- [Narrator] The "Biohazard 2" commercial
released in Japanese theaters and on television
with the "Making of Biohazard 2" commercial
available to rent on VHS in Japan as well
all ahead of the game's release in January, 1998.
(helicopter whirring overhead)
- You could tell he had misgivings
about doing a zombie project for someone else.
I heard him say once at least to the DP
and two or three times just observing to himself out loud,
he goes, when he was directing the zombies,
he goes, "I really feel like I'm ripping myself off here."
And everybody on the crew kept saying,
"George is gonna direct the movie version."
And I remember three or four hours into it I thought,
"No, he's not."
You could see he was starting to have misgivings.
He would set up a shot and go,
"Boy, this really feels familiar to me."
- [Narrator] As part of its North American campaign.
Capcom USA added a special contest for American fans;
a chance to win an appearance in the upcoming film.
- In my opinion, it absolutely encapsulated
what "Resident Evil" was at the time,
and it just made me want a live action
"Resident Evil" movie so bad.
- [Narrator] While considered a gamble,
Capcom's marketing campaign proved highly successful.
"Resident Evil 2" released to record breaking sales,
selling almost 400,000 copies
and earning more than $19 million within 72 hours.
The game had broken the record
held by previous best selling video games,
"Final Fantasy VII" and "Super Mario 64,"
and would go on to sell over 6 million copies worldwide.
- "Biohazard 2" right out of the gate
outsold the original game,
which was a tremendous feat at the time.
In Japan, it sold over a million copies in its initial week,
which at that time I believe only two franchises
in Japanese gaming had ever done those kinds of numbers
right outta the gate,
and they were "Final Fantasy" and "Dragon Quest."
- [Narrator] The "Resident Evil" franchise was born.
And with hype surrounding the series at a fever pitch,
getting the film into production was now the priority,
and Capcom had their hopes in the Godfather of the Dead
to make that a reality.
When Alan McElroy was hired to adapt the game,
"Resident Evil" was only nine months old.
Through the writing process, a sequel had been released
and rumors circulated that Capcom now had
multiple sequels in development.
This didn't bode well for the executives
at Constantin Film,
who quickly soured on McElroy's screenplay.
Capcom had the answer:
Hire George Romero.
Word of Romero's commercial leaked across the early internet
and rumors persisted he was hired to direct the film.
"Fangoria" reached out to George Romero for clarification,
but he would only comment that he was interested.
The comment ignited the fans and rumors continued.
Constantin Film announced that Bernd Eichinger
would serve as Producer on the film.
Eichinger, a renowned German Producer
and co-owner of Constantin Film,
had recent success with "Smilla's Sense of Snow" in 1997.
In June, 1998, PSM leaked details
from a revised draft by Alan McElroy
dated January 22nd, 1998.
This would be the only time information from the script
was made available to the public.
While excited to share the leaks,
unknown to the magazine or its readers,
McElroy's scripts had already been rejected.
[Rombie speaking]
- [Narrator] In July, 1998,
George Romero ended speculation
in an exclusive interview with DVD Review.
During the Video Software Dealers Expo,
Romero confirmed he had signed an agreement
only the week prior to write and direct
the "Resident Evil" film.
(low growling)
The truth is, Romero had taken months to negotiate a deal
and make a decision.
At some point prior to July, 1998,
the decision was made to drop Alan McElroy
and Romero took over writing duties.
- Back in the late '90s and early 2000s.
HomepageOfTheDead.com was the absolute best
message board for anything George Romero.
That's where I spent a lot of my time
and I remember reading a lot of posts that,
"Hey, George is making 'Resident Evil'."
And I'm like, "Okay, I'm down for that."
The rumor mill at the time on that internet,
it wasn't very rampant.
You got one or two bits of information
and you kind of hung on that for a while.
In a way, that, "Oh, George tackling
one of my favorite video games?
How could this not be a win-win?
How is this not going to be a blockbuster?"
- [Narrator speaking]
- Coming off of the excitement I had
of the "Resident Evil 2" live action trailer,
at that time, there was nothing more I wanted
than a live action "Resident Evil" movie.
When it was first announced, I was so excited.
- [Narrator speaking]
- And the Capcom people themselves,
I mean, they were very, very happy
to have George on the film.
And they didn't hide the fact that "Biohazard" the games
were inspired directly by George Romero's films.
If they didn't exist, there would be no "Biohazard."
- [Narrator speaking]
During online chat sessions, Romero divulged to fans
that certain elements from the game were planned to change
and explained his process for writing the screenplay.
- But it really does sort of follow.
It's much more like horror and action script
than I think than we see in the film
that was originally released.
- [Narrator speaking]
In a six week period,
Romero, along with his Producer, Peter Grunwald,
had written an initial 10 page treatment
and three drafts of the script
dated September 29th, October 5th, and October 7th.
- And so we see the treatment
and then we have sort of three scripts.
They're very congested in their timeframe.
So he wrote this treatment in August of '98
with a full script in September of '98, September 29th,
and then we see October 5th and October 7th
is the revision drafts.
- [Narrator] Throughout the writing period,
the story remained unchanged,
though a variety of minor alterations and edits occurred.
- The variances between the scripts is pretty scant.
There are not a whole lot of editing.
Here's an example of the minor edit
from the October 5th to the October 7th draft,
where even just something simple
where there's just a change in dialogue
to say from a Scud to Stinger.
So I do think that October 7th one
really is the final one that got handed over.
Even the October 5th one just has minor edits,
mostly about dialogue and some grammar
that were cleaned up for the October 7th one.
And so that feels like the most polished one
that was handed off.
The other big piece of it that was edited
out of that last final one is it's the only version
in which there is no note in the end
for a title card of, "Coming soon, Resident Evil 2."
It just, the screen goes black.
The treatment and all of the other two versions
promote and advertise that there will be a "Resident Evil 2"
kind of right off the bat, that we're gonna get a franchise.
- [Narrator] George contacted friend
and special effects artist, Greg Nicotero
if his company KNB FX could provide
these special effects for the film.
Of concern was the game's climactic boss monster,
the Tyrant.
Nicotero contacted legendary horror artist,
Bernie Wrightson, known for his work on "Swamp Thing,"
"Cycle of the Werewolf," and the comic book adaptation
of George Romero's "Creepshow"
and commissioned him to sketch designs.
- My dad's collaboration with George Romero
essentially began with a call that came from Stephen King,
whom I believe he had already
had a working relationship for then
on "Cycle of the Werewolf."
Stephen was a fan of my dad's
and obviously my dad a fan of his.
He got the call about this project explaining like,
"George Romero and I are basically doing
our rendition of an EC Comic horror anthology.
Would you be interested in doing
the actual comic book tie-in that goes with the movie?"
So of course he was interested.
This would've been about '98 or '99,
he got his first phone call from the guys at KNB FX
for this untitled Kevin Williamson project
that Robert Rodriguez was gonna direct,
which ended up becoming "The Faculty."
From my understanding, Greg Nicotero read the script
and read this giant sea creature alien
that they had to build for it and thought to himself,
"We need a Bernie Wrightson creature for this project."
And so they contacted him out of the blue,
approached him about this project.
He was still living in New York state at this point
and yeah, was basically doing his illustrations
and sending them via fax.
At this point, he had already been planning,
at least in his mind, the idea of transitioning away
from doing predominantly comic book artwork
and trying to get more creature
and character design work for film.
So after "The Faculty," he was prompted
to basically move from New York state to Los Angeles
to further his prospects working in film.
Contacted Greg about any follow-up projects,
and that's how he got involved with "Resident Evil."
He's like, "Yeah, George Romero is gonna be
directing this adaptation of this video game."
Is he familiar with it?
Not really, but he knows what to to go off of.
And so that's how he came about
doing the character design for the Tyrant,
which to my understanding is the only character
that he was designing.
- [Narrator] After multiple revisions,
Romero submitted his first draft.
Now he would wait for Constantin Film's approval.
The February, 1999 issue of "Electronic Gaming Monthly"
published an extensive four page interview
with George Romero, though the actual interview within
had been conducted months earlier.
While the interview left fans excited for the film,
the EGM article marks the final time
George Romero remained positive about "Resident Evil."
In May, 1999, Gamespot interviewed
senior Capcom producer, Yoshiki Okamoto.
[Narrator speaking]
And with that statement, all hell broke loose.
Rumors circulated.
PSX.IGN threw gasoline on the fire
with an unverified story from an unknown source
that in retrospect sounded more like a smear campaign
against the director.
[Narrator speaking]
- I was very aware and actually I'd been contacted
by George's assistant.
"We're planning to come to Japan
and George really wants to meet up with you,"
and I was very happy about that.
And then suddenly the plug was pulled on this
and it was very disheartening that they would do that.
- [Narrator] George Romero moved on
to prep his next film "Bruiser,"
but any chance fans had to ask
about the "Resident Evil" movie,
George was just as confused.
[Narrator speaking]
Between May and September, 1999,
Constantin Film had either failed to inform Romero
he had been fired,
or were retaining him until his replacement was secured.
Websites, news articles, and fan speculation
continued to spread rumors
that Romero was indeed still attached to direct
and confusion continued.
[Narrator speaking]
The months gave way to rumors
of new writers and directors attached to the film,
but still no official statement for Romero's termination
and no update on the film itself.
Would there even be a movie?
After more than a year of speculation and rumors,
Variety reported that Constantine Film
had found its new writer and director of "Mortal Kombat,"
"Event Horizon," and "Soldier," Paul W.S. Anderson
had signed with Constantine Film
to write and direct the "Resident Evil" movie.
- [Narrator] The plot synopsis caused revolt
among fans of the series.
[Narrator speaking]
- [Narrator] Anderson previously pursued the film rights
after playing the video games, but discovered
Constantin had already purchased them years prior.
Not to be dissuaded, Anderson wrote an original treatment,
dubbed "The Undead."
If Constantin Film passed on it,
he planned to shop the project to other studios
as an original zombie film.
Unknown to the public or Paul Anderson,
years of development on the "Resident Evil" movie
had taken its toll.
The rights were set to expire
and Constantin Film prepared to abandon the project.
Anderson pitched "The Undead"
and asked French producer Samuel Hadida
to pay for the renewal of the rights.
Eichinger loved the concept
and hired Anderson to write and direct.
[Narrator speaking]
After the announcement,
a leaked casting call revealed most of the plot
through its character descriptions,
confirming the script would indeed be an original story.
Fans became confused and irritated
at the idea of a film based on "Resident Evil,"
lacking few connections to the actual games.
- [Rombie speaking]
- [Narrator speaking]
- [Rombie speaking]
- [Narrator] Following Anderson's announcement,
a review of George Romero's screenplay
appeared on the website, Ain't It Cool News.
- [Rombie speaking]
- The characters themselves
are actually the characters from the game.
So we see Jill and Chris as being the main characters,
we have Wesker as the sort of main villain,
none of which find their way into the Anderson film.
And it does feel a little bit more like a game.
- [Rombie speaking]
- The social commentary in it is the sort of,
both the military group
and of course the Umbrella corporation
are not to be trusted,
that they created a bio warfare thing
that was immediately gonna be used for ill.
(dramatic music) (loud gunfire)
(low growl) (loud explosion)
That there was no capacity for them
to have made these experiments
and have done something that could be used
in any positive way.
And in particular when the military got their hands on it,
that it would absolutely be used
for its worst possible way in weapons and warfare.
And so I think that directly comes from the game
to an extent, but I think as also part of Romero kind of,
if we kind of go back and look at some of the commentary
that we see in "Day of the Dead,"
is this sort of critique of over militarization,
this sort of melding between the military and politics
and corporations sort of have this sort of fascist theology
that we see kind of emergent, and I think that he sees
that this is another story to tell that;
that ultimately when a new weapon is going to be developed,
we can't really trust it not to be used for maximum harm,
that it wouldn't be used in a way that's defensive,
but it would be used in a way that's offensive
and would immediately get out of control.
I think that some of the other ways that things were changed
about whether characters were in the military or not
I think were done to dramatic effect
to kind of compel the story a little bit more.
It gave an interaction between Chris and Jill
that's very different.
They're lovers, they don't know entirely how much
they can trust about one another,
so it kind of leads to this dramatic interaction
between the two of them as it moves forward.
But I think really it's just that Wesker is that sort of,
embodies all of this critique, that he's lying to everybody,
he's leading them all on a false mission
just so he can monetize
and ultimately exploit these these weapons.
And I think that that kind of goes, again,
that people just aren't going to be able to get along
with one another when needed.
Rather, they're gonna just further the apocalypse.
- [Rombie speaking]
[Rombie speaking]
- It has a lot more in common with the game
than the Anderson film does.
I think there's also a lot more Easter eggs in this probably
that are better for fans of the game,
like the zombie sharks.
There's a couple of scenes where the character's like,
"Oh, I can't open that door."
And the person's like, "Well, I have the green key.
You just have the blue one, so I can get through this."
Which feels very much like video games
where you have to wander around
and go find the different colored keys or items or whatever
to open different passages through the game.
- [Rombie speaking]
George Romero was a pioneer in his field,
not just in horror movies, but in horror pop culture.
Having him involved in the series so early on
I think would've had the potential for him
to leave a blueprint that could have been
a massive presence in video game to movie adaptations.
- I think that a lot of times he wrote these sort of
longer treatments to kind of get out of his head
the story he wanted to tell,
particularly with an original idea.
Just get all this out
and then maybe start to fit it into a script form,
start to think about how it can be dramatized,
how you can kind of fit it into scenes
and sort of do this so it's not told in the prose style.
And many of his first drafts are a little rough.
They're good and usually just need sort of that work
because I think it is just sort of,
he has an idea and he needs to get it out.
I think "Resident Evil,"
there's very little substantive edits between the drafts.
It's some dialogue that's fairly minor,
it is changing around a couple of scenes
or sort of the progression of how something happens
as they go between maybe one level of the lab to another.
The only real significant differences
is kind of about some of the foreshadowing,
about the BOW bio weapons and the Tyrant.
The first draft has some allusions to it
that kind of foreshadow or give away what these things are,
and then those are sort of omitted later
to sort propel that there's more suspense,
you don't really know what's going on,
you're following the story
and getting the info revealed to you
as the characters are also having that information
revealed to them.
I mean, I think you would be surprised to find any filmmaker
that writes one draft of something
and then they're done with it
- [Narrator] A year later,
website Resident Evil: A New Blood transcribed the entirety
of George Romero's October 7th draft
after months of circulation within private groups.
Fan reactions remained divided.
- I remember reading it in a PDF format,
scrolling all the pages,
sitting on the computer screen, reading it.
And I kept thinking, "This would be an amazing movie. Why?
We love the video game. We love George.
George is the master of the zombies.
How did we not get this?"
And ultimately, I think it's one of the biggest
missed opportunities in the last 20, 30 years of movies
that we didn't get a George Romero "Resident Evil" movie.
- [Narrator] After more than five years
since its announcement,
"Resident Evil" starring Milla Jovovich
and Michelle Rodriguez
released in theaters on March 12th, 2002,
earning more than $100 million worldwide
off an estimated $30 million budget.
Critical and fan reception remained mixed however,
and with each new sequel, the same question would be asked:
Would George Romero's vision for the film
have been better than the film we ultimately received?
- I went to the theater the day it released.
I could not wait to see it.
And I remember the excitement I had
kept me going through that film,
but I just remember there was scenes where I was like,
"Where's more zombies? Where's this from the games?
Where's that from the games?"
And I was young and I didn't understand at the time
that they were trying to do a retelling of it.
And I think for the most part, they did
a well job with the first "Resident Evil" movie,
but there was a part of me that just
was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see
a lot of the things that we'd seen in the games.
A lot of the creatures that we'd seen in the games.
And I was excited, I enjoyed it,
but I was a little disappointed.
- [Narrator speaking]
Romero further explained
that while he seemed to connect with Producer Robert Kulzer,
his frustrations were with Bernd Eichinger.
[Narrator speaking]
but I don't think they knew what it was.
- It is an extremely gory script,
an extremely violent script.
And Romero is noted, fair and unfairly,
for having that kind of throughout his work.
I think because of the way some of the gore was employed
in "Dawn of the Dead" or "Day of the Dead,"
it doesn't feel very gory, it feels campy almost.
But there's so much more going on.
There's a lot of great zombie gore.
He had great special effects teams of course
with Savini and Nicotero that we see this stuff,
but this film just feels so much more gory,
so much more violent, and so much more angry.
And I don't know if it's because he felt
that was the source material,
I don't know if it was just sort of
where he was at in his head in the '90s
and at this time that he was writing that,
that this is sort of what came out.
- [Narrator speaking]
but not a big event movie."
From Constantin's perspective,
the extreme violence and gore in Romero's script
left Producers struggling how to market a film
they envisioned as an event film for a wider audience.
- I think this was another reason maybe
that we didn't see this come to fruition
was that the '90s were fairly conservative in a lot of ways,
and I think this would've been a film
that would've been rated NC-17 or R,
and we already had a few NC-17 films come out in the '90s
that were absolute bombs at the box office
'cause not enough people could go see them.
Horror fans love to go see an R film
'cause we know it's gonna be really gory,
but the studios wanted kids to come in
and they wanted that demographic of 13 to 18 buying tickets.
- [Narrator speaking]
(person screaming) (zombie groaning)
(gunshot fires) (loud screaming)
(flesh ripping) (pained screaming)
(person groans) (blood splattering)
(loud gunfire) (flesh ripping)
(person groans)
- It probably wasn't gonna be right for that time period.
It was not going to be able to be widely released
in theaters with the level of gore
that was gonna be required for it.
- [Narrator] If Eichinger stance
wasn't made explicitly clear, he further elaborated
when he was interviewed by German digital magazine,
Spiegel Online, when the movie released.
[Narrator speaking]
- It's a mean-spirited market
that is mostly controlled by people
still that have no affection or affinity
for not only this genre, but for movies in general.
They think that when they give you their million
that they're buying you.
- I guess you could say it was so upsetting
that you have the godfather of the zombie horror genre,
the person who inspired the "Resident Evil" series
lined up to make a movie who has already proven himself
countless times with his films,
with the "Resident Evil 2" trailer,
this guy knew "Resident Evil."
So when I found out he wrote the script
and it never came to be, it was very upsetting.
(somber music)
- No!
- I feel like if anybody was going to do
the "Resident Evil" Series justice,
it would've been George Romero.
Again, he's the godfather of the zombie horror genre.
- Romero's kind of famously had bad luck,
I hate to say it.
He's been unlucky in a lot of ways.
He's very independently minded.
He doesn't like to deal with nonsense.
He has a very low tolerance for nonsense.
And in Hollywood has got a very huge,
thick layer of nonsense.
So the most successful directors in Hollywood
are the one that can manage that,
and George just was not that type of person.
He would not sell his soul just to get a film done.
- He understood how zombies should behave.
He understood storytelling.
He understood all of the fear and terror
and tension that "Resident Evil" is known for.
So no better guy to do it than George A. Romero.
- So we have a treatment, a September,
and two October drafts in the archive.
Whether anything else was ever written
is a little hard to say,
but one thing that the archive does very well
is document his creative history.
There are huge gaps in production histories,
but his writing is very well documented
And so I think that we can say that this is what he wrote,
that there aren't missing drafts and missing versions.
So I do think that we can confidently say
that he really worked on this for a little over a month.
- [Narrator] Bernd Eichinger personal campaign
against extreme violence and gore
conflicted with George Romero's passion
to match the tone of the video game.
This creative dispute resulted in George's dismissal.
Perhaps the biggest crime of all,
the "Resident Evil" film resulted in a renaissance
of the zombie horror genre
with hundreds of new zombie movies released,
while the Godfather of the Dead himself
became less relevant as the new millennium wore on.
(contemplative music)
Is it no wonder his later films failed to garner attention
when the industry was already
oversaturated with zombie media?
Romero would return to the series he created
with his long and development sequel
"Land of the Dead" in 2005.
Romero directed two more entries,
"Diary of the Dead" in 2007
and "Survival of the Dead" in 2009.
[Narrator speaking]
- He was later in life a little bitter
about the course that his career had taken.
But personal note, I mean, I really respect his life choices
and the way he really stuck to his guns.
- [Narrator] By then, Capcom already felt
zombies were a tired trope
and sought to reinvigorate the series
with new horrific creatures to keep players returning.
"Resident Evil 4" released in 2005 to overwhelming praise
with sales exceeding 12 million copies worldwide.
The series shifted focus to action horror gameplay
until returning entirely to horror
with the release of "Resident Evil 7" in 2017
and "Village: Resident Evil 8" in 2021.
Combined, the two games sold over 19 million copies.
Capcom also remade older entries in its series
with updated gameplay for modern audiences.
In the past decade, "Resident Evil" games averaged
10 million copies sold per release.
Capcom's survival horror franchise had never been stronger.
Constantin Films released six films
with Paul W.S. Anderson,
with combined box office earnings over $1 billion worldwide.
Constantin rebooted the film series
with "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City"
directed by Johannes Roberts released in 2021
to underwhelming reviews and box office.
In Netflix's series simply called "Resident Evil"
released the following year
received far better with critics and audiences,
Netflix canceled a TV series a month later.
Rumors persist of a new film in development.
- The movies are always going to be unique
in that they're based on the video game
that was inherently based on movies, or a genre of movies.
And there's always going to be a logistical challenge
and a creative challenge to replicate the kind of impact
that movies and TV series aspire to have,
but without any of the cliches or the the shortcomings
or the differences for that matter
that video games bring to the table.
So I don't think there has been a perfect
rendition of "Biohazard" on movie theaters or TV screens,
but I'm enthusiastic that if they can find the right talent
and they can see more recent examples
of successful video game movies,
also more recent just horror movies in general,
I think if they can focus on that
we can definitely see a good
"Biohazard" live action interpretation in our lifetime.
- [Narrator] As the 21st Century wore on
and hundreds of zombie films consumed by audiences,
one fact became absolutely clear;
every single one were indebted to the work
of Image Ten and George A. Romero.
- What do you think about these offshoots
or tributes or ripoffs of the Dead movies,
specifically "Return of the Living Dead,"
and of course now "The Walking Dead?"
(audience chuckles)
- In four words, it pisses me off.
(audience laughing)
(audience applauding)
- And I'm sure it seemed like an easy idea at the time,
but it changed the world.
"Walking Dead," I mean, there's zombie emojis
on your phone now!
Why? George, Jack, Russ.
Those three guys.
- [Narrator] In 2009, Spike TV's Scream Awards
honored George Romero with the Mastermind Award
given by director Quentin Tarantino.
During his speech, Tarantino stated that the A
in George A. Romero stood for...
- A (beep) genius!
(audience cheering)
- He was someone that every time you would tell him,
"Your movies changed my life,"
you could hear the man just blush and just-
And he would say, "Oh, I don't know about that."
- [Narrator] Despite his age, Romero remained productive
with attempts to adapt the novel
"The Zombie Autopsies" to film,
a seventh entry of his "Living Dead" series
called "Road of the Dead,"
and began work on a novel set in his universe
called "The Living Dead."
Romero would never finish these projects.
- When I saw George, this was in March of 2017, as I recall,
maybe April, somewhere in the spring.
And I walked up to his table,
and when I saw him, a part of my brain kind of panicked
because he would look very frail.
Very gaunt, very frail.
And that was, I'd never seen him quite like that.
And it was just-
But that part, it was like,
it's like the guys from that movie "Inside Out,"
one guy noticed it and the other guys told him
to shut the hell up.
"No, don't even look.
Don't even think about that."
So I noticed it, but I went,
"Nope, not gonna think about this.
Nope, not gonna think about this."
But he was still just as warm and engaging as ever.
And we went out to dinner later that night
with his wife Suz, and we were just shooting the shit
about the news and politics or whatever,
hardly talked about movies at all.
And then we drove him back over across the street
to his hotel, and he got out and I said,
"George, I'll see you around.
I'll see you at the next one."
And he just turned and he went, "All right."
And that was the last time I saw him.
- I grabbed my phone and I was scrolling through Twitter
and I saw a tweet from a friend of mine
that had said he had heard that George passed.
And I kind of stopped because in this day and age,
you see that stuff.
And I kept scrolling and I saw another one.
And at this point I started to get worried.
So I picked up the phone and I texted his manager,
and I just remember putting, "Is it true?"
And he replied, "Yeah,"
- I get a phone call from a friend,
and she goes, "Did you hear yet?"
And I was like, "No, what are you talking about?"
She goes, "George Romero's dead."
And I went, "Nah."
And...
(George choking up)
Yeah, so then I looked it up
and I saw this article and that article,
and George was dead.
And I sat on my bed and I sobbed.
I fucking sobbed.
- When I heard that George Romero passed away,
there was a profound sadness
because it seemed like a lot of the joy, the camaraderie,
and the unity that he brought to the filmmaking community,
and all of the actors and crew,
everybody involved in his films had felt together.
And it just felt like there was going to be a loss.
And maybe that would just kind of...
I hoped not, but I kind of thought maybe it would diminish.
- [Narrator] On July 16th, 2017,
George Andrew Romero passed away in his sleep
after a battle with lung cancer.
His wife Suz Romero and his daughter Tina were by his side
all while listening to the score
of one of his favorite films, "The Quiet Man."
The outpouring of grief and loss was worldwide,
not just from friends, family,
and people that worked with George,
but also from the wider film community.
- When Variety talked about his passing,
I knew my circle of people knew who George Romero was.
I knew the horror fans knew who George Romero was.
I knew Fangoria, he was a god in Fangoria, right?
But the outside world, the real filmmakers,
the Academy Awards and stuff?
Variety knows who George Romero is,
and a big piece on George and how he was so great
and talented and amazing, you know?
And it's just like, "Holy hell. He wasn't just George."
He was George fucking Romero.
- [Narrator] Three months after his passing,
George Romero was added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
His widow, Suz, accepted the star on his behalf
with guest speakers Edgar Wright, Greg Nicotero,
and Malcolm McDowell present.
- You wake up the next day and you start thinking like,
"Okay, he's not here. What do we do?"
'Cause George was always here,
George was always gonna give an interview
or he was gonna be at the next show
and we were gonna talk to him about what he was working on.
And we didn't have him anymore.
- [Narrator] Suz Romero founded
the George A. Romero Foundation the following year,
citing a responsibility
to not only preserve George's legacy,
but also celebrate pioneers in the film industry
and inspire a new generation of filmmakers.
- The way she tells it is sort of on,
as he was beginning to fade, towards the end of his life,
she said to him, "How do you feel?
How do you feel about your legacy
and the films that you've made, this body of work?"
And he said, "Eh, nobody gives a shit."
She said, "What are you talking about?
You have millions of people that love you and your moves."
He says, "Yeah, but..."
I guess he didn't really feel validated as a filmmaker.
Suzanne was determined after he passed to prove him wrong.
She said, "I'm just gonna show you
that you are in fact a worthy filmmaker
worthy of being remembered."
Of course, he made his mark on movie history,
but he never felt validated as a real filmmaker,
even though the stories were coming out that he had now,
he and Scorsese had been renting
the same print of "Tales of Hoffmann."
Some kid from Brooklyn rented it out!
And the kid from Brooklyn says,
"Who the hell's got this now?"
Some kid from the Bronx rented it.
Never met, but they were renting
the same movie from this archive.
- And I think they do a lot of great work
of trying to help figure out how to inspire
the next generation of filmmakers.
- [Narrator] As an initiative to preserve George's work,
the George A. Romero Archives was created
at the Hillman Library within the University of Pittsburgh.
- The Romero Archive is quite large,
a little over a hundred boxes of material,
and most of this is paper.
So when you think about boxes of paper,
that's a lot of material.
It's really a testament of his creative history.
He did struggle, and that he did wasn't always successful.
And I don't think that that's a critique.
I think that that's instructive.
That he is considered one of the greatest
horror filmmakers of all time,
he's had this mass of influence.
He's always hailed among these biggest directors,
most important directors in horror,
and yet he didn't get everything he ever wanted made.
And I think that's good for aspiring writers and filmmakers
to understand and to see,
that just because you wrote something
and you sent it off and it got rejected,
doesn't mean you're not going to be successful.
You'll just have to keep trying.
- [Narrator] And hosted at the Monroeville Mall
where "Dawn of the Dead" was filmed nearly 50 years ago,
Living Dead Weekend honors the work
and legacy of zombie cinema,
primarily the films of George Romero.
Each year, thousands travel to the mall
to meet the cast and crew of his films,
partake in guest panels, and tour filming locations.
On July 4th, 2021,
the Monroeville Mall held a special ceremony
in what was once the Clock Tower Court
and renamed it Romero Court
with a bust crafted by Christian Stavrakis.
George A. Romero's legacy continues to live on
through a foundation that honors his legacy,
through millions of fans that celebrate his work,
and through those that still love and miss him.
- George's films literally changed
the face of horror as we know it.
- Romero is a legend.
We miss him.
What he did for zombies, for horror,
and for film in general, he'll never be forgotten.
- There's so much more that he wanted to tell us.
There's so many more stories
that he was so creative and so prolific.
We can have this understanding of him now,
and it's a shame that in some ways
we couldn't have understood this while he was still alive.
- I really wish I had had the chance to work with him.
- He was a great loss to the filmmaking community
and to the world in general.
- The "Resident Evil" series exists because of him.
My love for this series,
all the friends I've made is all because of him.
- I would not be the man I am
if it wasn't for George Romero.
- I ran over and got him to sign an autograph
for my brother Tom.
I remember he wrote, "To Tom:
When there's no more room in hell,
I'll see you in Pittsburgh."
(Pat laughs)
- I don't know where my life would be right now
if it wasn't for George Romero.
- It sparked a lot of people's love of him
to be turned back up,
and we have so much stuff going on in George's world now,
I wish he was here to see it.
- What he did was bring all of those people
from all of those films into one big family,
and all of the fans all around that
are all part of that group too.
So that is his legacy.
It's not just the films that he made that are on a shelf
or being watched at a particular time.
It's that interconnection between all the people
that he touched in his life.
- I just wanna thank everybody again.
It's great to be here, and thanks particularly to the fans.
I mean, I love you guys.
Thank you!
(audience cheering) (loud applause)
(eerie music)
(wind howls) (eerie music)
It's fabulous.
I love making the movies,
and it's great that there's a game,
which is like a flashback to that genre.
I can feel maybe a little bit
like I had some influence on it.
I feel very flattered.
(spooky music)