After the passing of horror titan George A. Romero this past weekend, Indiewire reached out to Matt Birman, Romero’s longtime collaborator to confirm that he was still attached to direct Road of the Dead. Birman, who served as second unit director on Romero’s last three movies as a director, is not only still hopeful that he’ll be able to get Road of the Dead off the ground but vows to finish four unproduced films.
“I will stop at nothing to get them made! For him and with him,” Birman explained. Just two weeks ago, Birman said that Romero was eager to begin work on the projects. “He said to me, ‘Let’s get this done so we can get on to the other stuff!’” Birman said, calling the screenplays “fantastic scripts.”
Romero wrote all four of the movies, adds the site, one of which Birman co-wrote. Two are based on novels, two are original stories; only one, a comedy, is a zombie project.
Birman is still heading to the Fantasia International Film Festival’s annual film co-production market where he still plans to present Road of the Dead to financiers at Frontières.
“Road of the Dead now becomes a legacy film,” Birman said. “We won’t only be making the film for him, it will also be with him. He will be by my side and in my ear for the rest of my career, I have no doubt.”
In making Road of the Dead, Birman is determined “to protect and maintain the legacy and integrity of both the artist and the man,” he said. “He was a no-bullshit, super honest, tell-it-like-it-is man and I will always continue in that tradition.”
