George A. Romero
Born: February 4, 1940 - New York City, USA
George A. Romero is the son of a commercial artist and later attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania studying the arts. His main interests during his studies were art, theatre, design and film. Romero made short industrial films and commercials and made educational shorts for the hugely popular PBS series Mister Rogers' Neighbourhood. His breakthrough film, Night of the Living Dead (1968), was a pivotal film that eventually became a cult classic. It's black and white aesthetic, graphic violence and commentary on the modern family and societal breakdown mixed horror, satire and social commentary. Shot on a budget of $114,000 US it went on to gross $12 M US domestically, was acquired by MoMA in 1980 and the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1999. Romero tried branching away from zombies but met with little success with There's Always Vanilla (1972), Hungry Wives (1973) and The Crazies (1973) before returning to his beloved zombies in Dawn of the Dead (1978). Even though The Crazies did not succeed the first time around, the 2010 remake, where Romero was a co-writer and executive producer, met positive reviews from critics and was a box office success. After a few collaborations with Stephen King and periodically returning to his zombie roots, Romero contributed to several video games including Call of Duty: Black Ops, which is a first-person shooter game set in the 1960s during the Cold War and contains a zombie mode throughout the game.
"Romero's best work has always operated as a wake-up call to those dominated by a materialistic culture that promises life but actually delivers a living-dead philosophy. [...] Romero's zombies differ little from their living counterparts who are programmed into consumerist products of a decadent, late-capitalist civilization and need desperate re-awakening before they supplement the former's ranks. [...] Like all key artists, Romero never makes the message overtly didactic; but it exists within the text for those willing to discover it. His vision directly opposes those debased Hollywood values of the last twenty years. Rather than capitulate to market forces, Romero has decided to maintain his independence as an outsider by articulating an eloquent silence which is also oppositional in nature."
- (Williams, Tony. The Cinema of George A. Romero: Knight of the Living Dead. Wallflower Press: London: 2003; p.2-3.)
Visit Romero Fan Site: deadsource.com
INTERVIEWS
George A. Romero is the son of a commercial artist and later attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania studying the arts. His main interests during his studies were art, theatre, design and film. Romero made short industrial films and commercials and made educational shorts for the hugely popular PBS series Mister Rogers' Neighbourhood. His breakthrough film, Night of the Living Dead (1968), was a pivotal film that eventually became a cult classic. It's black and white aesthetic, graphic violence and commentary on the modern family and societal breakdown mixed horror, satire and social commentary. Shot on a budget of $114,000 US it went on to gross $12 M US domestically, was acquired by MoMA in 1980 and the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1999. Romero tried branching away from zombies but met with little success with There's Always Vanilla (1972), Hungry Wives (1973) and The Crazies (1973) before returning to his beloved zombies in Dawn of the Dead (1978). Even though The Crazies did not succeed the first time around, the 2010 remake, where Romero was a co-writer and executive producer, met positive reviews from critics and was a box office success. After a few collaborations with Stephen King and periodically returning to his zombie roots, Romero contributed to several video games including Call of Duty: Black Ops, which is a first-person shooter game set in the 1960s during the Cold War and contains a zombie mode throughout the game.
"Romero's best work has always operated as a wake-up call to those dominated by a materialistic culture that promises life but actually delivers a living-dead philosophy. [...] Romero's zombies differ little from their living counterparts who are programmed into consumerist products of a decadent, late-capitalist civilization and need desperate re-awakening before they supplement the former's ranks. [...] Like all key artists, Romero never makes the message overtly didactic; but it exists within the text for those willing to discover it. His vision directly opposes those debased Hollywood values of the last twenty years. Rather than capitulate to market forces, Romero has decided to maintain his independence as an outsider by articulating an eloquent silence which is also oppositional in nature."
- (Williams, Tony. The Cinema of George A. Romero: Knight of the Living Dead. Wallflower Press: London: 2003; p.2-3.)
Visit Romero Fan Site: deadsource.com
- Williams, Tony. ed, George A. Romero: interviews. University Press: Mississippi, 2011.
- Williams, Tony. The Cinema of George A. Romero: Knight of the Living Dead. Wallflower Press: London, 2003.
INTERVIEWS
- io9.com: Why George Romero rejected The Walking Dead to make The Zombie Autopsies (10.19.2011)
- Shock t'ill you drop.com: Catching Up with George A. Romero (05.12.2010)
- AOL: How George got his start