New George Romero Zombie Film Among Horror Projects Coming to Fantasia Market This Summer
Frontières, the Fantasia International Film Festival‘s annual film co-production market, has announced its first wave of projects for the ninth edition, which takes place from July 20 to July 23 in Montreal. Among the projects that will participate in the co-production market is the zombie film “George A. Romero Presents: Road of the Dead.” The project was written by Romero and Matt Birman, who is attached to direct.
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“Road of the Dead” is the next zombie film following Romero’s last three movies as a director: “Survival of the Dead,” “Diary of the Dead” and “Land of the Dead.” Birman served as second unit director on all three movies, and has worked as a stunt coordinator and stuntman for more than three decades.
“Road of the Dead” originated as an original pitch from Birman roughly 10 years ago. The story is set on an island where zombie prisoners race cars in a modern-day Coliseum for the entertainment of wealthy humans. Birman describes the project as “Road Warrior” meets “Rollerball” at a Nascar race, with significant inspiration from “Ben-Hur.”
Frontières connects North America with Europe in an environment specifically focused on genre film co-production and financing, and has a partnership with the Cannes Film Festival’s market, the Marché du Film. Below is the full is of titles announced in the first wave of projects that will be participating at Frontières. The full project line-up will be announced in early June.
“George A. Romero Presents: Road of the Dead” (Canada)
Director: Matt Birman
Writers: George A. Romero, Matt Birman,
Producers: George A. Romero (New Romero Productions), Matt Manjourides, Justin Martell (Not the Funeral Home) Matt Birman (Pig Dreams)
“High Dive” (Germany/UK/Hungary)
Director: Ádám Császi
Writers: Ádám Császi & Iván Szabó
Producers: Titus Kreyenberg (unafilm), Samm Haillay (Third Films) Adrás Muht (Focus fox)
“Kicking Blood” (Canada)
Director/Writer: Blaine Thurier
Producers: Leonard Farlinger & Jennifer Jonas (New Real Films)
“Nameless” (France/Belgium)
Director: Yannick Muller
Writers: Yannick Muller & Nicolas Fleureau
Producers: Delphine Crozatier (Contrebande Productions) & Sylvain Goldberg & Serge de Poucques
(Nexus Factory)
“A Nightmare Wakes” (USA)
Director/Writer: Nora Unkel
Producers: Devin Shepherd & Nora Unkel (Wild Obscura Films)
“Protect Us From Our Hunger” (Luxembourg)
Director/Writer: Jacques Molitor
Producers: Gilles Chanial, Caroline Piras (Les Films Fauves)
“The Restoration at Grayson Manor” (USA)
Director: Glenn McQuaid
Writers: Clay McLeod Chapman (Script), Glenn McQuaid (Story)
Producer: Larry Fessenden (Glass Eye Pix)
“Restore Point” (Czech Republic)
Director: Robert Hloz
Writer: Tomislav Cecka
Producer: Jan Kallista (Film Kolektiv)
“The Stolen Child” (Canada)
Director/Writer: Sebastian McKinnon
Producers: Sebastian McKinnon (Five Knights Productions Inc), Victoria Sanchez-Mandryk & Sandy
Martinez (Just Believe Productions)
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“Zoo” (Sweden/Denmark)
Director/Writer: Antonio Tublén
Producer: Alexander Brondsted (Pingpong Film)
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