George A. Romero died in 2017 with one more zombie story mapped out and nobody shooting it. A crew in Kentucky finished that job last month. Twilight of the Dead, built from the treatment Romero developed in his final years, has wrapped principal photography with Kate Beckinsale and Betty Gabriel at the front of the cast.
Deadline broke the news. The film shot in Kentucky under directors Doron and Yoav Paz, the brothers behind Jeruzalem and The Golem, and it is the first Dead film drawn from Romero’s own material since Survival of the Dead in 2009.
Beckinsale Is the Second Actor to Take the Lead
This production has been rebuilt more than once. Milla Jovovich was announced in the lead years ago, with Brad Anderson set to direct, and neither is on the film that just wrapped. Beckinsale came aboard in May, when Magenta Light Studios closed a North American theatrical deal at the Cannes market and the Paz brothers took the chair.
Gabriel, who played Georgina in Get Out and turned up again in Upgrade, co-stars alongside newcomer Abigail London and John D. Hickman, last seen in Becky. Ho Sung Pak, the stunt and action director on Bullet Train, handled the fight work. Producers include John Baldecchi and Sarah Donnelly for Roundtable Entertainment, Paolo Zelati, Bob Yari, Shaun Sanghani and Kenneth Kim.
Nicotero Broke In on ‘Day of the Dead’
Greg Nicotero is handling the special makeup effects, which closes a loop that opened in 1985. His first film job was Romero’s Day of the Dead, working under Tom Savini, and he went on to collaborate with Romero again on Monkey Shines and Land of the Dead. He has said he has “a vested interest in preserving Romero’s legacy,” which from him reads less like a press line than a job description.
Doron and Yoav Paz framed the assignment in similar language. “Stepping into Romero’s world is the ultimate privilege for any genre filmmaker,” the directors said. “This is more than a continuation; it’s a responsibility.”
No Date, No Footage, and a Lot Riding on the Tone
Magenta Light Studios holds North American theatrical rights and The Syndicate is handling international sales. No release date has been set and no footage has surfaced. The logline puts what is left of humanity on a devastated Earth, split into warring factions while the undead keep advancing, which is Romero’s standard arrangement: the dead are the weather, and the living are the problem.
Romero spent his last decade with more unmade projects than made ones, including a Resident Evil adaptation that collapsed before it ever reached a camera. His zombie films were never frightening because of the zombies, and a final chapter that forgets that would be a poor way to close the book. The treatment is his. Whether the movie is depends on what the Paz brothers did with it in Kentucky.
