Movies
Magnet Releasing Scores US Rights to George Romero’s ‘Survival of the Dead’!
The Wagner/Cuban Companies’ Magnet Releasing, genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, announced today that it has acquired US rights to George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead, the latest in the legendary and beloved series of zombie films which bowed at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals earlier this year. Romero, one of the most influential and respected horror auteurs of all time, has created a new, terrifying vision that combines viscerally gory undead action with biting social commentary and a return to the black humor and playfulness of his seminal film, Dawn of the Dead. Magnet will release the film as part of its Ultra VOD program this spring, debuting it on VOD platforms nationwide a month before its theatrical release.
Like its predecessors, GEORGE A. ROMERO’S SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD takes place in a desperate, nightmarish world where the dead walk the earth, relentlessly attacking the living. It is the story of Plum Island – a beautiful refuge whose isolation allows two powerful families to maintain a semblance of order in the wake of the zombie holocaust. But as the inhabitants slowly die off, the two clans become sharply divided: the O’Flynns believe that the undead must be destroyed without exception, while the Muldoons insist that afflicted loved ones be kept “alive” until a cure is found. The result is an escalating showdown with echoes of a classic Western stand-off that erupts in brutality and violence.
“George A. Romero is an undisputed cinematic legend, and we’re honored to be bringing another installment of this incredible series of films to horror fans,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. “SURVIVAL is smart, extremely fun and a worthy addition to the `Of the Dead’ franchise.”
Says Romero, “I’m a big admirer of the team at Magnolia. They’re creative and passionate, and I’m excited to put “Survival” in their hands.”
The deal was negotiated by Magnolia’s Senior Vice President Tom Quinn with Victoria Cook for Cinetic Media, on behalf of Art Spigel and Ara Katz of Artfire Films and Peter Grunwald of Romero-Grunwald Productions.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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