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George A. Romero’s final zombie story has made it through production.
Deadline reports that Twilight of the Dead wrapped filming in Kentucky in September, with Kate Beckinsale (Underworld, Vacancy) leading the cast alongside Betty Gabriel (Get Out, Upgrade), newcomer Abigail London, and John D. Hickman (Becky).
Romero conceived this final chapter before his death, and other filmmakers have spent years bringing it to fruition. After all the development, changes, and waiting, the movie has actually been shot.
Doron Paz and Yoav Paz, the filmmaking brothers behind Jeruzalem and The Golem, directed the film, with Ho Sung Pak (Bullet Train) directing its stunt and action sequences.
And there’s a particularly important connection to Romero behind the camera: Greg Nicotero handled the special effects. As we previously reported, Nicotero first revealed his involvement to Daily Dead at Living Dead Weekend. His career began working with Romero on Day of the Dead, decades before his extensive work on The Walking Dead.
The new film takes place on a devastated Earth, where humanity’s remaining survivors are caught between warring factions and an evolving undead threat.
Romero changed horror with Night of the Living Dead in 1968, establishing the flesh-eating zombie as we know it and showing how quickly the living can become their own worst enemies. He followed it with Dawn of the Dead in 1978 and Day of the Dead in 1985, completing one of horror’s most important trilogies.
Twenty years later, Universal brought his undead back to theaters with Land of the Dead in 2005. Romero then returned to smaller-scale filmmaking with Diary of the Dead in 2007 and Survival of the Dead in 2009. That later trio gave him another opportunity to use the zombie apocalypse to pick apart the world around him, from class divisions to media manipulation and humanity’s inability to stop fighting itself.
When Romero died in 2017, it could have closed the book on his zombie saga. But he had developed a treatment for Twilight of the Dead with Paolo Zelati, envisioning it as the conclusion. Zelati, Joe Knetter, and Robert L. Lucas developed the screenplay, and the project was publicly revealed in 2021.
Getting it made has involved changes in both cast and directors. Brad Anderson (Session 9) and Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil) were previously attached before the Paz Brothers and Beckinsale came aboard. The production has the support of Romero’s estate, with Suzanne Romero partnering on the project.
Roundtable Entertainment’s John Baldecchi and Sarah Donnelly produce, with company president Dominic Ianno serving as executive producer. Zelati also produces, alongside Bob Yari, Shaun Sanghani of SSS Entertainment, and Aanaxion’s Kenneth Kim, Pak, and George Furla.
Yari’s Magenta Light Studios holds North American rights and plans to release Twilight of the Dead theatrically in the U.S. and Canada. The Syndicate is handling international sales. A release date has not been announced.
There’s a little flexibility in that “final chapter” billing, too: The producers previously told Deadline that they haven’t ruled out further films launching a new franchise if this one succeeds.
For now, though, the milestone is significant enough. Romero never got to direct this story himself, but the idea began with him. Nearly six decades after Night of the Living Dead, we’re getting one more last hurrah.
Categorized:News