Land of the Dead

Interview by: Sean Clark Universal really doesn’t know what it has on its hands with Land of the Dead; it seems they’ve given it about half as much attention as they did the Dawn of the Dead remake, which is why not many may have known that there was a screening and press conference just a few days ago in L.A. That’s all right; our man Sean was on hand, as always, and got the transcript of Mr. Romero’s bit to us double quick, so here that is for you to enjoy. Look for more from the conference in the next few days! Question: Was there any pressure on you returning to the Dead series after such a long time away from it? George A. Romero: This is the pressure right here. There wasn’t so much pressure; sort of few and far between. I actually started the idea for this before 9/11. I had this concept that I do one in the 60’s, 70’s and then 80’s, and I missed the 90’s because my partner Peter and I wound up in development hell out here. There was about eight years where nothing happened and we couldn’t get a movie made. I wound up making more money during that period because I wound up working on all of these high profile projects but they never happened. So I fled and we raised five million bucks and I made a little move called Bruiser that nobody saw. Q: I saw it. GR: Hey, alright! And so I missed the 90’s. After licking my wounds from Bruiser I started to write this. I wound up having something I thought was presentable so I sent it around literally a few days before 9/11, and then everybody just wanted to make soft fuzzy movies so I put it on the shelf for about a year and a half, then came back to it with the idea of reflecting this idea of the new normal. So in a way I think it's a much more interesting film now. Initially it was about ignoring the problem, ignoring social ills like homelessness and AIDS and just telling people, "Don’t worry about it, that’s their problem" and I think this is more impactful. I don’t try to put it right in your face, I just try to get it in there. Maybe it’s a little too on the nose when he says, "We don’t negotiate with terrorists". I have to say somebody noticed. A reporter I talked to earlier today said, "Boy that truck, when it comes down that little street in that town, you just can’t help but think of Iraq". So I guess the stuff does get noticed but I try not to put it right up in there. Q: Congratulations on your return. GR: Thank you. I didn’t know I’d left (laughs). Q: Fans are going to want to know how you are going to follow this up. Is there going to be a World of the Dead? And could you talk a little bit about Masters of Horror? GR: Masters of Horror is something I am hoping to do. Mick is an old friend so I want to do it. It’s sort of related to what happens with this; if this opens strong I might be in a situation where I might have to do another one of these or would be asked to do another one of these right away. In which case I’ve sort of left the characters and the truck...I’d almost want to make chapter two of the same movie if that happens. Just sort of finish the story, and I have an idea of where to go with it in my mind. Just think of them both as one movie. If I have to do it next year unless we get nuked (laughs) or something and there is something else to talk about. So that’s it. If that happens I may not be able to do the Masters of Horror. I’ve been so tied up on this thing that I haven’t been able to write a script for it. Mick sent me a couple of scripts and they're pretty nice. I’m still hoping that I can get a couple of weeks and still be able to do that. I have a couple of other things that we are working on but everything would get trumped if they want to do a sequel to this. Q: How much pressure did you face trying to update this for today’s modern audience, as well as trying to maintain the integrity of the series approaching it several decades later? GR: I don’t think necessarily in those terms. The scope of this film was much bigger than anything else so it needed money. Although still we weren’t rich. We were under twenty million after they threw money at it in order to get it finished, after they changed the date. They wound up having to spend more money having everybody working overtime from sound mixers to CG guys. But it’s still under twenty and it was still pretty much guerilla filmmaking. On the set there was basically not a big difference, in fact we were much more relaxed shooting Dawn. We had forty-two days to make this film. The crews were fabulous; the cast were great. Nobody finked out. Everybody was there to do it, and it was all night. I think of the forty-two we only had, I think, eight days indoors, and it was all night in freezing Toronto weather. So it was very, very hard. As far as the sensibility I’ve sort of made slight stylistic changes in all of them to more reflect the cinematic style of the decade, as well as the politics, so that was a conscious decision too. I had a wonderful DP. As far as it fitting into the group, I haven’t really changed my attitude toward the zombies. They don’t run. I always say that my guys will take out library cards before they join health clubs. I’m more interested in their mental evolution. I also don’t find them as threatening when they are running at you. I say it’s like a first person shooter game or something and I don’t find that as threatening. I grew up on the Frankenstein monster and the Mummy, these things that sort of move at you slowly but they're hard to stop. You have to find their Achilles heel. That’s just my personal take. Q: What do you think now as an older filmmaker that maybe you didn’t know when you made Night of the Living Dead? GR: Mostly what I've learned has been about craft. I still feel like I'm learning. John Ford made a couple hundred flicks. You develop a lot of tricks that you can keep in your hip pocket. I think I know how to move the camera better, and I’m more sure of myself. I know if we're pressed for time that I can eliminate this shot or that shot so it still tells the story. It’s mostly that, but it’s also as you get older you get less intimidated. You feel more like you can do what you want to do and worry a little bit less about protocols. You feel more free to just be yourself, which is just something that comes with age. Q: Earlier today Simon Baker mentioned that you really know what you want when it comes to the zombies, and that you know what doesn’t work when others might think it will work. What do you see in zombies that others might not? GR: I don’t think that I necessarily see anything in them. As I say, I like them being personalities. I think that what maybe I’ve done that I haven’t seen in some other films is that they're not just a pack of people in clothes from the Gap. You can give them personalities with wardrobe. One of the first things that I asked the wardrobe designer to do was to make sure we know who they are, because they’re us. They come from different walks of life. I started really doing that with Dawn. That, and I’ve always had sort of real characters, real zombie characters from Dawn on. In this case it’s shooting them; giving them close ups. Treating them like real players, which they are. They’re not just masses and I was really trying to work with that on this film. Of course with Big Daddy, and particularly his central core of people that come from the town, they all have distinct personalities. But I don’t know what he means exactly by that, what works and doesn’t work. I guess what gets unbelievable sometimes. When you have a bunch of zombies in front of you, you can’t go like this. (George does the standard zombie imitation with arms outstretched in front of him.) Then all of a sudden everyone does that. So I prefer to let them do their own thing and sometimes you get some outrageous, way over the top stuff, so I’ll say that’s too much or that doesn’t work, so maybe he is talking about something like that; I don’t know. It’s all about believability. It’s a ridiculous premise to begin with so how do you keep people from laughing? Q: As you said earlier you haven’t gone anywhere. You have always been here ready to make films or making films. How do you feel that it took the success of a remake of one of your films to put you back in the spotlight so to speak? GR: You know I don’t feel that it did. I was obviously a little frustrated when those films came out first. but we were already in negotiations. I don’t know if I told this story to you guys yet, but we were in negotiations with Fox for like a year and a half on this film and that started right around, even prior to, the release of 28 Days Later. But Dawn wasn’t out there yet. It’s just one of those things where the contract dragged and dragged and lawyers were taking a week to a month to get back to each other to change a sentence. Before long it was a year and a half and it was just coincidental that they said they wanted to make the deal. So I think it would have got made. I think that what happened is, because of the success of those films, Universal was more willing to pony up a little more dough, which they did even during the shoot. It was originally around fifteen or fifteen and a half or something like that and they ponied up money during the shoot, extra dough. Then in the end when they saw the film and liked it they gave us a little more money to go shoot three more days. The scene where they chop through the fence and see the targets and the city was in the original script but we just ran out of time and that was the one we decided to drop. We had forty-two days and that was it. There was just no more money to shoot even an extra day. One of the three days there was money to shoot but it would just have been inserts like clocks and watches, all of the basic storytelling stuff. Then we got a third day to try and improve on some of the gore things and dance around the MPAA a little bit by doing the shadow and smoke thing to indicate what was going on without actually having it in your face. I used Kubrick’s trick; on green screen I shot figures walking by, so if there was a particular gory shot I could walk somebody in front of and composite it and walk someone in front of it. It’s amazing sometimes that the MPAA will do a frame count. Like nobody knows what’s going on here? If it’s eight frames shorter it’s okay? But I guess they have due diligence and that’s the only way that they measure it. Make that a little shorter so it will be all right. Q: But it doesn’t corrupt them to watch it though. GR: No, I guess not. Q: Going off of that, this is the shortest of those movies. It is really tight at about eighty-eight minutes or so. Was there more that you shot in terms of storyline that will return on the DVD etc? GR: There’s a few things. There is one scene in particular with Cholo before he meets Kaufman. He goes into a neighboring penthouse and finds a human that hung himself and has to kill him. And that was a scene that we felt didn’t turn out as effectively as it could have, and we didn’t think it was necessary, so that’s really the only major scene from the original script that’s gone. The DVD version we are working on now, and I think it’s about six minutes longer, but it's all just adding back or putting in some F/X that were excised and putting in some little things like little bits of dialogue in existing scenes that we cut out just to tighten the pace. It’s mostly that and that penthouse scene. Q: Of the recent zombie movies that have been coming out, which one have you liked the best? GR: Shaun. Q: Shaun of the Dead? How difficult was it to get Simon and Edger to do the cameos for you guys? GR: Oh man, difficult? They flipped to do it. They're great guys. They sent me a print while I was on a little island near Florida and Universal sent out a courier with a print before it was released here. So I sat in this little theater all by myself one morning and watched it and flipped for it. I called them up right away. We’ve sort of been in touch ever since. They’re great guys. They would have been there hell or high water. Q: You had previously established in Dawn of the Dead that money was worthless... GR: Yeah, worthless to that group. Q: So was it difficult to try to establish that is this film? GR: Well, it’s different because in Dawn of the Dead it’s about the stuff. It’s about consumerism; if you got a pair of Nikes that’s all you need. This is much more modeled after this administration. It’s all executive. It’s fancy stuff for people who can afford it. The administration is dealing in big, big bucks and doling out little bits, as he says, to keep people off the streets. But the operative of it, the sort of service personnel, are relegated to a very different lifestyle. So it just seemed natural because that is what really this is about, right? I mean this is Halliburton. So it’s a different era. But of course it is their own. It’s probably not worth anything in Union Town. So that is the difference. In Day it was this little community living down there and it had nothing to do with money. Q: When you cast Dennis Hopper, did you know that he was a Republican? GR: Who knew, huh, that Easy Rider was a Republican, goddamnit! But he came in knowing what it was and the first thing he said to me was, "People want me to play my villains way over the top. I’m not going to do that here. This guy has to be Rumsfeldian. I’m not going to go over the top with this at all." He has that one moment where he shoots at Big Daddy and gets really angry but he kept it pretty restrained. But he got it. We never had any big arguments about politics. Q: Given the illustrious history of this series there must have been a lot of people eager to work with you like Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. Can you talk about the process of assembling this cast? GR: Well, I’ve always thought of Asia because I’ve known her since she was knee high through her dad. So I went in saying that I would love to use Asia and the studio went along with that. Simon I had never met. He shot a series in Pittsburgh called The Guardian. He was there for three years so we at least had some commonality there. Dennis I’d never worked with or never met either. Again we had that 60’s commonality, you know that frustration. Easy Rider and Night came out within a year of each other so we had a lot to talk about. Robert Joy I had worked with before. Leguizamo again I was saying right at the beginning of casting, "If we could get someone like John Leguizamo." Mark Canton arranged a call and it turned out that John knew my work and said yes right away. I was in hog heaven. This cast really came to work. Nobody was hiding in their trailer. It was a rough, rough shoot. Everybody was right out there crawling around in the mud and doing it. Everybody took it quite seriously. Got it and got the point of it. Q: What sparked your interest in filmmaking to begin with and what are some of your interests today outside of filmmaking? GR: I used to paint. I went to college to study painting and design and found out I wasn’t good enough. It was at Carnegie Mellon and they had a wonderful theater school there so I transferred into that department. I thought you had to be born into royalty to make movies. Even though I had an uncle when I was a kid who had an 8mm camera and I tried to make a couple of little movies of my own but never taking it that seriously. It was just sort of a hobby. When I was in college schools like Carnegie Mellon had very little equipment. The class just sat down and watched the Battleship Potemkin and talked about it a lot and that was pretty much it. So I never had any hands-on but I always loved movies forever since I was a kid. Influences I would have to say Michael Powell probably; he’s my man, and Orson. When I came out of school I left without ever graduating and in those days cities the size of Pittsburgh had film labs. So I just went down and hung out at one of these film labs. My first job as a PA was literally bicycling news, news was on film. These journeyman guys splicing this shit together while smoking cigarettes over flammable glue pots (laughs). It was like a press room. It was in one of those labs that I learned the basics. Then we started a company to do commercials on film and that’s how our little group got together. I always loved movies; I just thought that we would never try to do it. I didn’t approach it, I didn’t try to go out and get a job or anything. I guess I always had that audacity to say, "Come on guys!" You know the old thing, hey we can have the dance right here. And that’s how Night of the Living Dead happened. Q: That line that Dennis Hopper says about zombies creeping him out, was that him or was that you? GR: No that was him. Q: Did he improvise that on the set? GR: Yeah he did and he picked his nose (laughs). That was all him. Q: What is the process of shooting in Toronto rather than in and around Pittsburgh? GR: Purely financial. Q: Is that a regret that you have? GR: I wanted to do it in Pittsburgh but it was purely just for nostalgia. I mean there was no real functional reason. There is an actual shot of the city of Pittsburgh in the film. That big shot of the city and we had to put the building in it. Had we shot the movie in Pittsburgh we would have still had to put the building in it. So there was no practical reason to necessarily shoot it there, and it’s always financial. I’m telling you that if this country and more states would give serious incentives and police like the unions, police the regulations more and all of that we wouldn’t have this problem. Productions wouldn’t run away. That wrapped up the conference with Mr. Romero. Of course we’d like to send a big thanks out to Universal for allowing us to be a part of it and to Mr. Romero for…well, being George A. freakin’ Romero! Land of the Dead opens nationwide on June 24th; be sure you’re there to support it so we can have more zombies! Discuss Land of the Dead in our forums!

Interview by: Ryan Rotten If you're a Dread Central regular, then you should be in agreement that writer/director George A. Romero needs little introduction, if any preface at all. His name is synonymous with walking corpses and his body of work speaks for itself: Martin, Knightriders, The Crazies, Creepshow, The Dark Half. Let's not forget the Dead trilogy (Night, Dawn and Day of the Dead) which will soon evolve into a quadrilogy when Romero ventures to Toronto this October to begin shooting Land of the Dead. It will be the first time in four years Romero has stepped behind the camera, his last effort being Bruiser, incidentally also lensed in Toronto. The last two years have been a busy not just on the flesh eater front but for 64-year-old Romero as well. The director has been attached to various projects - he'd probably say it was the story of his life - including an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula supposedly aimed to fly on television, the rock 'n roll musical Diamond Dead and an acting stint in Mick Garris' Riding the Bullet. But everything either crumbled away or was forced to the back seat of Romero's hearse when he was finally given the greenlight to roll on Land of the Dead after tinkering with the script for three years. You might agree, too, that a fourth Dead film takes precedence over anything else Romero had up his sleeve. Dread Central sat down with Romero on the first day of his three day visit to Toronto as the guest of honor at Rue Morgue's Festival of Fear in August. Ryan Rotten: When I spoke to Greg Nicotero he told me you guys were discussing the progress of zombie decay in Land of the Dead. Some of them will be farther along since this film picks up years later. George Romero: We're going to show some of that, [in the film] people are still dying every day, so... RR: Now you're in the process of casting, how's that going for you? Are you doing cattle call-like auditions? GR: Some - in Los Angeles and here in Toronto. But it's a studio release so you've got to have somebody on the marquee. RR: Well at the time of Dawn and Day of the Dead you were given a little leeway in regards to casting unknowns. I mean, everyone was virtually an unknown, so how much stretch is the studio given you? GR: A lot. They want a couple of "names" and that's what we're looking for. They're simpatico. I wish I could tell you more but none of the deals are done. (Sidenote: Romero would later revealed that Hooper was close to signing his contract and that he'd love to see Asia Argento also star.) RR: What are your feelings on shooting in Toronto? GR: I love the crews here. I shot Bruiser up here and it was the best experience I've ever had. Everybody was involved and into the film, so that was fabulous. But I have to say, as an American, I wish some more states would open up [to film productions]. I really wanted to shoot Land in Pittsburgh - just simply because of tradition. Pennsylvania is dancing around passing some legislation that I don't think any production company is gonna look at and think is great. I wish some of the states down there would get smart and do what Canada does in terms of rebates and all of that stuff because all you here down in L.A. is moaning about ‘Why is production running away?' First of all, it's great to shoot here. The cooperation level is unbelievable, the crews are dedicated, however, that's because there's work coming in! Down there it's pretty hard to do that. I wish some more states would pass reasonable legislation that would enable us to stay there and be competitive. RR: And isn't there a stipulation that if you shoot here in Canada you can only hire Canadian actors? GR: Yeah, that's great too. They're absolutely right to be doing what they're doing. It's great for the people who work in the industry up here. RR: Between Bruiser and now what were you working on spec script-wise? Was there anything that was really personal and close to your chest? GR: I was working for about a year and a half on a project that I was really in love with. Ed Harris got me involved with something called The Assassination, not a horror thing at all. It was a historical drama about the assassination of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. It damn near got up and going, I was down in Puerto Rico for five weeks with, by the way, a Canadian d.p. - who worked on Bruiser. But it just blew up, we actually had Anthony Quinn and James Coburn attached to it and they both decided to leave. [laughs] RR: You've got a story arc called The Death of Death kicking off DC Comics' Toe Tags, is that title going to be an on-going series for you? GR: No, but if they call me up and ask me to do more I will say yes before they call. I loved doing it. They originally called me and asked for a six-issue series which will be a hardcover later on. They were looking for filmmakers to do contribute to Toe Tags. They called me up and asked if I wanted to do it and I was like, 'Are you kidding?' RR: So obviously it was a good experience... GR: It's great to be able to write stuff and you don't have to worry about how you're going to shoot it. RR: That seems to be the general consensus for any of the guys working in horror comics right now. Rob Zombie said the same thing... GR: You can do whatever you want, man! Berni Wrightson did the covers, Tommy Castillo illustrated the books...wow, I just loved the whole process. I loved everything about it. RR: Did you have a tight turnaround to get the story done? GR: Compared to film? There was plenty of time! By the standards that I'm used to it was fabulous. There was plenty of time to write them and I didn't have to sit down write it all at once. I could do a couple and the artists could get started. RR: I just got the big mother Dawn of the Dead box set from Anchor Bay and it was great to see Christine (Romero) talking about the films along with the rest of you. She has played such a big part in your films, mostly behind the camera, does she have a place in Land? GR: She's been working with me on casting but I don't know if she'll have an official title, but she and I work together on everything I do. We're basically one guy...or one woman! RR: This has been a great year for the undead... GR: Yeah, it's definitely the year of the zombie, but who knows? Next year my film will come out next year and everyone might be tired of them! RR: Well, what about the societal reflections? Zombies are less walking metaphors and more like money making machines. Do you agree with that? GR: Yeah, I think mostly it's about the buck. Some of the anger that came out of the period so many of us got our start - Wes [Craven], John [Carpenter] - isn't there. Have you ever seen American Nightmare? RR: Yep. GR: That really says it. I think it really cut it to the bone, I think we really were pissed off that the '60s didn't work, that the world didn't change. Artists or people who were working in the media would eventually have some influence on it, but nothing changed. RR: The Dawn remake was surprisingly cool, but I mean, the message – any message it had – has already been explored. GR: I thought it was better than I expected it was going to be. Basically I thought it was a good action film. I said this to Richard Rubinstein, I even wrote it in the trade paperback introduction for Steve Niles' comic. The movie lost its reason for being and so it's an action film. It's well made, Zach did a good job. I mean, I went in with a chip on my shoulder, I wasn't involved at all...but I thought it was really pretty good. I think that's the problem with the genre in general, I mean, first of all so few people have an affection for it. Secondly, no one uses it as a platform to speak. Forget speak, forget preach, just express your opinion through it. Any opinion. Instead of just a guy with a knife running around, you know? RR: And I'm all for this boom in the horror biz but there's not a whole lot out there that sticks to your ribs. Has there been anything that's really impressed you in the last decade? GR: No. [laughs] I had the most fun watching some of the Japanese stuff like Battle Royale and Versus. RR: Of course Battle Royale is the one they won't bring over here. GR: I know, man, it's like, give me a break! Well, I mean, how could you? Not only would you have to cut the blood scenes but the concept is so... After Columbine? Nobody is gonna release that. RR: Do you think we'll ever get out of that Columbine shadow? Or at least see some horror films that really tap that kind of anger? GR: You would hope. Did you see [Gus Van Sant's] Elephant? RR: No, not yet. GR: I was mesmerized by that movie. It didn't quite give you the gut punch, that 'Here's what this movie is about you fuckin' asshole.' It was trying to say that but stopped short. But there was one film that somebody took and tried to do something with it. It's very hard, people don't want to hear about it and don't get it. Bruiser, to some extent, was about that same kind of disenfranchisement, that kind of shit that turns people nuts and violent. Nobody got it. It's very hard unless you're going to take it and say ‘This is a true story' with a horseshit re-enactment with drawing room speeches and people talking about what motivates them. First of all, that's not my style. I'd rather leave it up to thought. Think about it a little. RR: Horror films were once very truthful. They portrayed a side, like you said, that people don't want to see. Do you think this lack of truth is due in part to the filmmaker's fault or the overpowering studio element? GR: I would be very quick to blame it on the system but there are so many video cameras out there now, so many people making things. I've been a judge at festivals where you see films and they're vapid. I think there are a few people - whether it's musicians, sculpters, dancers, painters - and they get it. They combine their skill and expression. There are only ever, no matter what, only going to be a few people that care enough and rise above. I'm not trying to toot my horn. I'm the first guy to say the studios are bad and I will tell you that, yes, in terms of releasing things...when these guys suck off fourth thousand screens a week on...Van Helsing...you can't fuckin' get a screen to show your movie. So if you make a little movie, your first problem is getting a goddamn screen. I'd like to say that's the problem, but a lot of the little stuff I see people are making...you don't see wonderful things there either. Even there, it's only once and while. RR: I did my time in film school too, I know what you mean. From the year I started you can almost point out the one guy that was bound to go somewhere with his vision. GR: Exactly, just a couple of guys, man. I mean, I started studying painting and design and there was one cat in the class that was like, wow! Everybody measured themselves against him. I sat there was like ‘I'm not good at this!' So I scrammed. The point is there are only so many people who care and will do what it takes to express themselves. Unfortunately, what I think the studio system does is pick up and foster people who maybe shouldn't get the big deals. RR: Like the guys who build a career on making nothing but music videos. GR: Yeah, like the Hansen video. [laughs] You know, the one where they were on skateboards? [laughs] There's something else too, and I don't mean this in the negative sense. People that are filmmakers or should be filmmakers wind up defeated, before they get out there, either by school, a bad teacher, a bad experience. Many of those people - if they really have a dedication for it, and I've worked with them as d.p.'s, set designers - I can tell you, I've probably worked with 75 to a 100 people over the years that should be making films than working in a craft to serve filmmakers that don't know what they're doing. RR: I can see how school can do that. I mean, when I moved out to Los Angeles I began to think that maybe I shouldn't have dropped thousands on tuition and should have just moved to Hollywood and gained experience there. GR: This is the wrong thing to say, but, I always say if you have a passion for filmmaking, somehow find your richest uncle, get him to give you a few bucks and go shoot something. RR: And do it anywhere...it doesn't need to be Hollywood. GR: Right! I'm not saying you shouldn't try and get an education, but so few people are mature enough when they go into that situation. This teacher is telling me this, but he's telling me a standard thing that doesn't necessarily apply. RR: Go to class and just weed out what's relevant to you. GR: Yeah, there's definitely value in it. Ed Wood could teach you a lot about the biz and certain things, but when he starts trying to teach you about other things... [laughs] RR: Getting back into your stuff...we've been hearing that a Creepshow 3 is in development at Taurus Entertainment. GR: I don't know, I think the rights are pretty tied up. Richard Rubenstein may have a lasso on it, and might be able to do it. I'd love to be involved and do another Creepshow if Stephen King was involved. With what you could do today, the CG? I mean, we were literally cutting out those comic book patterns in the original film and trying to get red light to cut through sunlight. But what you could do today, not just CG for eye candy, but to enhance the comic book thing. I'd die to do that. RR: One other King project you have on tap is Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. GR: We've been working on that for several years and nobody gets it. They say, 'Well, this isn't really hard 'R' I mean, did they see Stand By Me, did they see Shawshank? RR: Did they read the book? GR: Did they read the book?! So, we've been coming up against problems on that, it still looks like it might happen. RR: You've got two cast members already locked in for that one, don't you? Laura Dern and Dakota Fanning, how's that working deal-wise with you going off to work on something else? GR: We're actively trying to finance it. We've got a lot of financing in place. What happened with Dakota is she agreed to do it, then along came Cat in the Hat and Man on Fire. She changed management, then she got a little too hot for this small-ish project. RR: Maybe she'll come around by the time you get to the movie. GR: It's funny how things happen. Just the fact that I'm making a movie again. If you sit between Bruiser and now, it's been four years. Now the phone is ringing off the hook, why? I'm the same guy, I was here two years ago. But now it's, 'Oh, somebody's giving him money to make a movie, that means it must be safe for me to give him money to make a movie!' It's just so fuckin' crazy. RR: Back to Land of the Dead for a second, when it was being kicked around at Fox, I heard they were trying to keep the Living Dead name. GR: Initially Fox wanted to call it Night of the Living Dead. I'm like, 'I've already made that movie...twice!' [laughs] So they wanted to do a colon title. Night of the Living Dead...teeth in the night or something like that. [laughs] Then we ran into problems with the title, you could blame Fox for that, we resolved that. But then we got another offer, the check was on the table. RR: Well, I saw that Fox had released a colorized version of Night on DVD, I figured they were trying to sink their teeth into ownership of the name...but that would be impossible 'cause the rights are all over the place, right? GR: They are. I mean, it has taken me years to resolve the title issue. I have it now under the MPAA, Image Ten, and Columbia so it's sort've now in my hands. RR: Can you explain a bit what this City of the Dead video game is? We know that American McGee is developing it and that you're somehow involved, that's all. GR: I don't know if that's gonna happen. It's an old, old thing. I didn't sign a deal to do City of the Dead. I signed a deal to do "George Romero Presents..." which gave these guys the rights to do three video games using my name and they had a six year period to get it off the ground. Then they designed a thing called City of the Dead, which didn't alarm me at first, because at the time my dead movie was called Dead Reckoning. I didn't think there was a conflict, then, my film's title changed to Land of the Dead. The company I signed the deal with, I don't know if they even exist anymore. RR: It looked a little advantageous to see City get announced around the same time as Land. GR: I think it got activated because the movie got launched and we got the front page of Variety. I'm hoping Universal will take the whole thing over, it'd be great if they just gobbled it up, that way there was no conflict. I mean, I didn't write City, I didn't do shit. RR: Thanks for clearing up the gray area. GR: They basically bought my name for George Romero Presents. And I had approval over the games. I've never seen the games to say whether they were shit or if they were cool. Never heard from them until this movie got announced. RR: Of course you've got a game system in the Romero household so if it does get made you can play. GR: My son does. I'm still trying to figure out how to play chess on the computer. That's about my speed. It gives you five minutes to think about your move. Discuss the latest horror in our forums!

Interview by: Uncle Creepy Rarely do I get intimidated. I've been around a lot of genre personalities. This was one moment in my life that I was never going to forget. In just a few minutes I would ring up a tour guide who would take me to a place that I have dreamed about since the mid 1980's. A land where the living die, and the dead live. Uncle Creepy: Hello, George. This is such an honor for me, and I want to thank you for taking the time to talk with us. George Romero: I’m happy to. UC: It’s an incredible moment for me. Before we start, I have to tell you a little story which, if anyone on this planet deserves to hear, it’s you. Even when I was a little kid of about 3 or 4, I was a night owl. My thing was that I’d wait for my parents to fall asleep, and once I heard the snoring, I’d sneak into the living room where we had this giant black and white console TV. I did that one night, and there was this newscast on about the dead returning to life and how we had to get to rescue stations. At that age, I really freaked out, and I ran into my parents’ bedroom and woke them up. They thought I was having a nightmare, but I insisted it was real and dragged them into the living room to see. Of course, what was on TV was Night of the Living Dead. GR: Oh, jeez. UC: So, Mr. Romero, you are responsible for my first spanking! GR: Uh oh! Well, I’m sorry about that. UC: Actually, I should thank you because it really changed my life. It was probably the most defining moment in my life. It made me a horror fan and a Romero fan. GR: Well, that’s a good thing. UC: That’s why this interview is such a momentous occasion for me. GR: Well, thank you! UC: Now that that’s off my chest . . . so, George Romero. Your name is synonymous with all things horror, and the fans love you. It seems you’ve never been hotter. I know there are obvious questions that a lot of people are waiting to hear answers to, but I’d also like to take things from a different angle as well and ask you some questions about you personally, not just as the maker of the infamous Dead series. I know you love movie soundtracks. Is any of that part of your decision to do Diamond Dead? GR: No! Brian Cooper had written the script and I knew the producer from years ago, and he called me up and said, “Hey, I have this great idea. Richard Hartley’s doing the music.” And he asked me if I wanted to be involved. I saw the script he had and listened to the music – he had had an artist do some character designs as well – and I just flipped for it. So it really has nothing to do with that; it was just something that fell into place. UC: How far along are you on Diamond Dead? GR: It’s very hard to say. We think the money is in place. There’s a possibility that if the money can’t wait for me, they might have to go with another director, so I really don’t know what’s going on. But it’s very close to happening and so is The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, a Stephen King project I’m involved in. Apparently the money is about to fall out of the trees on that one too. We have a deal on the next Dead film, which is now called Land of the Dead. I don’t know what it’ll be called in the end, but that’s a real deal. In fact, I’m sitting here working on an FX list. UC: So that’s a complete “go” – a greenlight? GR: Yeah, it’s a greenlight. UC: That is absolutely some of the best news I’ve ever heard! GR: Well, great! UC: As both a horror fan (and I’m sure I speak for everyone else out there) and a journalist, that is amazing! It’s gratifying to hear it’s an actual “go” from the source. GR: It’s trippy. I’m delighted to hear the news myself! I got the idea for this – or the rough idea; it’s a bit different now – before 9/11. I wrote the script and sent it out literally about 48 hours before the World Trade Center disaster, and of course, at that point everybody wanted soft and fuzzy movies. So I sort of pulled it back and sat on it for about a year and a half. And then I wanted to change it to reflect more of the post 9/11 mindset. It’s a very weird thing. On the one hand, it’s paranoia, and on the other hand, everybody’s living as though the world is still normal. That’s largely what this thing’s about, so I tried to reflect a little bit of that attitude. UC: How does it feel to be working on the fourth installment after all these years? GR: Well, it’s great. I’m enjoying the hell out of it! I really like the finished script – the one we’re using right now and calling finished anyway – so I’m thrilled. I’d really love to do it. UC: Any idea when production would start? GR: They’re hoping to start the beginning of October. October 3rd or whatever the Monday is. That’s a little tight; we might not be able to get it together that quickly. UC: You know, it’s about time because there’s been a resurgence in zombie film popularity. It’s amazed me that it has taken so long for Hollywood to get the clue that they should really just go to the Master. GR: Well, thanks again. Probably by the time this goes, it’ll be old news. But hopefully there’s going to be an audience for whatever I crank out here. UC: I can almost guarantee there will be. Now, things have changed drastically since Day of the Dead back in the mid-80’s. Has the subject of the MPAA come up? Are you going to go for an R rating? GR: I have to. It’s a much bigger budget, and the producers are insisting that I deliver an R. But they are basically letting me shoot the film the way I want to shoot it, and then I’ll probably have to cut it back for the initial U.S. release. I’ll get away with as much as I can inside the R, and then in some markets like Japan and so forth we’ll probably release a harder version. And then, you know, there’ll be the DVD and all that. UC: You have a habit of working with a lot of the same actors in your films. Are you bringing any actors back for this go-around with the Dead? GR: I hope so. I haven’t really gotten into it yet. This is all brand-new. We’re just working on an effects version first. The producers have hired a casting director, but we haven’t had any meetings yet or anything. I’d love for Savini to play a role, and I have a few things up my sleeve I’d love to do. They’re probably, because of the budget, going to want a couple of recognizable people, which wouldn’t be my preference. But we can’t afford, even though the budget’s bigger than any of the other Dead films (probably between $15 and $20 million), “big” names, so that’s fine with me. They might want some people with a little bit of a “Q” – is that what it’s called? UC: Yeah, yeah. GR: So, I just don’t know yet. It’s really just starting. I’m making my case for “leave it alone, just get good actors.” But we haven’t had the critical meetings, so we’ll just have to wait and see. UC: As far as effects, do you have anyone in mind? GR: I think I’m going to go with KNB, Greg Nicotero’s guys. UC: I don’t think you could possibly make a better choice. Greg was in Day of the Dead as well, right? GR: Yeah, exactly. He’s a Savini protégé. Tom is not that interested in doing it anymore. But if he’s in the film, Greg and I talked about maybe letting him do one specific character or something that he could really get his chops off on. UC: Well, you guys are sort of synonymous with one another. When people think Day of the Dead or Dawn of the Dead, they think Savini and Romero. So it would be obvious that you two work together in some capacity. Even as an actor, I think Tom would eat that up. GR: He would! I think he’d actually prefer it. Not have the burden, you know? UC: Lord knows he’s paid his dues FX-wise, huh? GR: Yeah, he has. UC: Now all of this has come into play recently. Things have really started cooking with Land of the Dead. Do you attribute some of that to the recent Dawn remake? And what did you think of the Dawn remake? Did you get a chance to watch it? GR: It was better than I expected it was going to be. UC: I think a lot of people could say that. GR: But I thought it sort of lost its reason for being . . . the whole social underside of it is gone. The mall is just a place where they hole up, you know. It’s not satirical. But I thought it was an okay action film with a couple of good script ideas in it. I don’t like fast moving zombies. Thank God these guys are not making me do that! I just think they are . . . you know . . . like the sheriff said in the original film, “They’re dead. They’re all messed up.” That’s what they should be! I do have an evolutionary process going on. At the end of Dawn, there was the guy that recognized the gun, and then there was Bub in Day of the Dead, and I’m going a little further in this one. But they still don’t have their motor coordination down. UC: They’re a little lopsided. GR: Yeah. UC: What was your favorite of the three? What Dead film has the most “George Romero” in it? Your most personal I guess? GR: It’s so hard to say. They were in such different times. I suppose my favorite has become Day of the Dead just because I think we executed it better than the others. Not that it’s necessarily a better film. I don’t know; it’s funny – when you think about how satisfied you are with your own work, half of it is did you have a good time doing it and then how well did you execute it. UC: Day is my favorite of your films too. I feel it was just the total package as far as the zombie films. You had your undertones, your commentaries that signify “George Romero,” and you had amazing special effects that to this day I haven’t really seen much top. One of the things I think a lot of people are going to be curious about in the new Land of the Dead film is whether or not you’re going to go the physical effects route or the CGI route or maybe a combination of both. What do you think of people making zombies with CGI like they did with Resident Evil? GR: I’ve talked to Greg about it, and we want to do as much as possible mechanically. I’m planning maybe six shots using CG just to make them a little more competitive or more amazing, but Greg is developing some really fabulous puppets. I’d like to do the whole thing that way, but again, the producers are saying to pick out a few moments where we can really do something a little spectacular. There’s one sequence in the film that physically needs CG, but it has nothing to do with the zombies. It’s a big effect – a bridge collapse. So that’s probably going to have to be a combination of scale models and CG. And there’s one other shot which I’m not allowed to talk about – they told me specifically not to talk about it – which is a zombie shot that has to be CG just because of the environment. Other than that, no, man; I don’t dig that. UC: Amen! GR: Greg has some wonderful ideas for being able to use puppets and electromagnets. He’s an amazing cat, a very creative guy. UC: He’s also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. GR: He’s great. A great guy! UC: I’m so happy as a fan to hear that this is finally happening. GR: Well, me too! UC: Zombies are my favorite part of the genre ever since my little ass spanking when I was three. It’s always seemed that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. You’ve inspired a lot of filmmakers to go out and make zombie movies. I was wondering if there are any that you’ve seen – or even not zombie movies – but any filmmakers that you’ve had your eye on recently that you think are up and coming talents in the genre? GR: I’ll tell you one movie that I loved: It’s called Shaun of the Dead. Have you seen that? UC: No, I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve heard wonderful things about it. GR: Oh, man. I just flipped! It’s British guys who used to do a TV series called Spaced; it’s sort of like a mini-Monty Python group. Wonderfully talented, wonderful actors. They just did this with such affection and love. You almost can’t call it a send-up even though it is. Let me just say it’s not spoofy; it certainly satirizes the genre, but it does it in such an affectionate way that it’s just . . . You’ve gotta see this movie! It’s fabulous. I’m their biggest endorser. I really flipped for it. UC: That’s excellent. GR: I think it finally has a release date. Maybe September? UC: Yes, September. I’m looking forward to it. Basically, for me, you put a zombie in it, I’ll go watch it. GR: I GUARANTEE you’re gonna come out of this one digging it. I hope there are enough fans of the genre to get the jokes and appreciate it. UC: I’m sure. I go to a lot of conventions and speak to a lot of fans, and there are a lot of old school fans that adore your work and adore the zombie genre. I know they’re looking forward to this as much as I am. Did you get a chance to see 28 Days Later? GR: I haven’t seen it. I have it; it’s sitting here. I can actually see it on my shelf. You know I get these screeners. I should because I hear it’s pretty good, but I just haven’t yet. Because I’ve been working on this, I didn’t want to . . . I don’t like influences. I had to see Dawn because Richard [Rubenstein] was asking me to comment on it. I didn’t even want to go see that. UC: It’s interesting that you mentioned the word “influences” when it comes to 28 Days Later because if and when you do watch it, in my opinion, it’s like a 90-minute homage with a half hour of each of the Dead trilogy films. It’s gotten a lot of acclaim, and the first thing I said to myself was that I felt like somebody had encapsulated the entire Dead trilogy and said, “Here it is. This is my homage to the Romero films.” It’s really interesting in that regard. You have the bleak beginning like Night did, then they go on a “shopping spree” with some consumerism at the midpoint, and then in the third act they end up in an Army complex where the soldiers are sort of the bad guys. GR: Oh, man! All right! UC: All that was missing was Captain Rhodes. GR: Oh yeah, Joe! Joe should be there! Somebody told me there’s some Crazies stuff in there too. I don’t know if that’s true or not. UC: I think you’ll enjoy it because it is a decent movie and they do some decent things, but the source material is just glaring. Another one of your films I’d like to talk about a little bit is Bruiser. GR: Nobody got it. UC: How do you feel about Bruiser today? GR: I love it! The zombie films aside – the zombie films are sort of like having misbehaved kids – my favorite is Martin, and behind that are Knightriders and Bruiser. I really love it. It’s just that nobody got it. It was really one from the heart and one that I wanted to do. The cast was great; the crew was terrific; we had a wonderful time making it. But it had a low budget and a short schedule. I’ve been used to covering my ass by doing a lot of coverage, and on that film I just couldn’t. I wound up having to choreograph it, and it was a whole different experience for me. So, I was happy to be able to pull it off, and I felt really good about it. I just loved the idea, but nobody gets it. We did it for a French company, Canal, and when we started the film, we’d get these guys on the phone. They loved it, and it was all buddy-buddy. By the time we finished the movie, they had gone through this merger with Vivendi and then Universal, and all of a sudden, the guys were gone. The only cats we were getting on the phone with were these execs from Universal. They had no idea what this movie was about, so I was disappointed that it never got a better release. But I’m also really happy there are a lot of fans who come around that really like it. I’m certainly glad it’s there. UC: That was also the first time you filmed out of the country. You filmed in Canada, right? GR: Yeah. And for this one right now, Land of the Dead, the producers are looking at Canada. The City of Pittsburgh and the State of Pennsylvania are trying like hell to provide some incentives so that we can do it here. But I don’t know if they can ever match the financial differences of going to Canada. If it pushes, they are actually running a budget for South Africa. Aside from wanting to go look at some elephants, I can’t imagine making that look like the Burgh. UC: So your preference would be to film in Pittsburgh? GR: Absolutely! It’s definitely written for Pittsburgh. It’s mentioned several times in the script. And there’s a physical reason for it: Pittsburgh’s on a little triangular peninsula of land. Both sides are rivers, and the base of the triangle is very narrow. It’s less than a mile across . . . three quarters of a mile. So that’s really all they have to blockade, and they’re cut off. The city’s cut off. There’s a little subway that runs across the river, and I have all that stuff built into the script. So, it’d be hard to do it anywhere else. But, you know, what are you going to do? You do what you have to do. UC: I’m sure. You mentioned the script was done around 9/11, which was 2001. How long were you actually working on the script? How long has the story been in development? GR: In my mind I left it alone after 9/11 for about a year and a half. Then I wrote a version that 20th Century Fox really wanted to do. It became one of those typical Hollywood things where we were still working on a contract a year and a half later. These guys I’m with now – the company called Atmosphere and a guy named Mark Canton (I think he used to be President of Warner, you know a big-deal cat) – came to me through pure serendipity. Canton was having lunch with my agent one day and asked what I was doing. My agent said, “Well, he’s got this other zombie thing and it’s at Fox, but we’ve been screwing around for a year and a half.” So Canton said, “Let me read it.” Two days later we made a deal. So after a year and a half of lawyers, the deal was done in a week. That’s the way it should be, man. UC: Life is full of serendipitous situations. You just never know which one’s going to pan out. GR: I know it. UC: You’re involved in a new comic book for DC as well, right? GR: I loved doing it! They called up and wanted to do some limited edition, six-issue stories written by filmmakers instead of comic book guys. They called me up first and asked if I had any ideas. I said to give me a couple of days, and I came up with one. They dug it, and so I wound up writing it. I just had a ball doing it. UC: What’s it called? GR: The series is called “Toe Tags.” I don’t know yet . . . we’re trying to decide what to call mine. I think all of them are going to be called “Toe Tags.” If they do one with Dario or with somebody else . . . UC: Sort of like an anthology. GR: Yeah. So I don’t know what specifically they’re going to call mine. I had a title on the Web for a while called “The Death of Death.” They might use that. UC: Interesting. GR: It’s a zombie thing too. And they’re really doing it, man. Bernie Wrightson did the covers, and they’re gorgeous. Tommy Castillo’s doing the book, you know the content. I’m just thrilled. It’s beautiful. UC: That’s very, very cool. Speaking of anthologies, I have to bring this up. Taurus Entertainment is of course doing the Day of the Dead: Contagium film, and they just announced Creepshow III. How does that make you feel? People doing sequels to your work? GR: I don’t know. I don’t know how they can do it. I’d rather be doing it myself. I don’t know how they’re doing Creepshow. Those guys . . . anyway . . . what are you going to do? UC: Good enough for me. What other projects are you working on? Do you have any non-horror projects in the works? GR: Well, sort of a non-horror thing, although it’s Stephen King. It’s a novel of his called The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. We have that, and it’s real close to getting financed as well. Those are the ones: Diamond Dead, Tom Gordon, and this one [Land of the Dead] which is a “go,” so . . . I’m hoping one of those will fall into place. UC: How does it feel to be so hot in Hollywood again? GR: Oh, man, it ain’t Hollywood, let me tell you. I don’t know. I’ve been getting a lot of press, and thankfully the fans seem to be really wanting this one and are supportive. It’s great! UC: It’s about time someone took notice. On another note -- you may not hear this enough -- I would like to tell you that in the estimation of a lot of fans including myself, you’re a real hero to those in the film business. You’ve always made “your” films, you know? You’ve always done it on your terms. I just think that’s something that should absolutely be applauded. GR: Well, thank you. UC: A lot of people would compromise their work in order to just get it made, and you’ve always been a “this is what I want to do” type of guy. That’s still such a refreshing and inspirational thing to a filmmaker because it shows that your work can make it out there. GR: I don’t know. I don’t want to sound like “oh, pshaw.” I am proud of that. It’s been tough though, man, I gotta tell you. It’s really hard. You drop off the radar, and all of a sudden nobody cares about you anymore. I did those couple of Orion things, and they just never got good distribution. Orion was in trouble. When you drop off the radar, it’s hard to get a gig. Also, my kind of ideas are not so automatic and not what Hollywood guys think of as horror concepts. When something gets hot – whether it’s the Scream series or whatever – they want you to come in and duplicate it. I don’t want to make movies about a guy in a hockey mask with a knife. I’m looking for something that underlies it and makes it a little more relevant. It’s tough. I was pitching this [Land of the Dead] and explaining it’s about people ignoring the problem, and I’d get these puzzled looks. But if I go out to a convention or something and say that to the fans, they get it right away. UC: How do you feel horror has evolved from the 60’s when you did Night of the Living Dead to how it is now? What are the main differences? GR: Not well. I just think too many things are made by people with no affection for the genre. Either that or it’s all effects driven. There’s no sort of reason to make most of the movies except that “here’s a cool idea.” Whether it’s Jeepers Creepers or whatever, it’s just basically a different spin on something old with no metaphor. So I haven’t been real pleased with a lot of the stuff. As I said, I didn’t love [the new] Dawn, but I liked it a lot more than I thought. I just love to watch the stuff like what you were saying. So, you know, I can get off on it, but on a more serious level there’s very little going on. UC: Other than The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, any more possibilities for some King/Romero collaborations? GR: I’d love it. If we get this one off the ground, we’ll take them one at a time, but he’s got a couple of things I’d love to work on. There’s a TV series being contemplated now based on Nightmares and Dreamscapes. I’ve sort of been asked if I want to contribute to that. UC: That would be cool. Whatever happened with your Dracula script? GR: They [ABC] just decided not to do it. Actually, they did Steve’s Kingdom Hospital instead. I called Steve and told him I was pissed. UC: Are you considering that project dead? GR: No, no. It’s still there. And we’re hoping to have somebody do it. UC: What was your take on the whole Dracula thing? Can you talk about it a little bit? GR: It was pure Stoker, man. I just went right back to the book and was trying to do the real deal. UC: You wanted to do a miniseries? GR: Initially it was going to be a miniseries, then it was going to be a three-hour movie. It goes through all these changes. Actually, I really loved the script, but anyway . . . UC: I think they definitely made the wrong decision when it came to which one to do. Kingdom Hospital went belly-up really fast. At least Dracula is proven source material. Plus, with your name attached to it, I think it would have done very well. GR: Yeah, I think it would have. Hopefully I’ll get to do it. UC: I’m sure somewhere down the line you will. I’d love to see a Romero Dracula. GR: Me too! UC: Now speaking of remakes and decisions, I hear they’re looking to remake The Crazies as well. GR: Yeah. Paramount is making a deal with us. We don’t have the paperwork on it yet, but I know they want to do it. It looks like it’s real. But they don’t want my creative input. They want me as an Executive Producer. They want to stick my name on it, but they don’t want me to come around too much. It’s one of those Hollywood things. UC: Man, all of a sudden it seems like you’re everywhere! GR: It’s weird, ain’t it? UC: I’m not complaining mind you! GR: Neither am I! But that’s it, just the three films. There’s also a thing that everybody talks about on the Web called The Ill, which is old. I haven’t done anything on it for three years. Everybody keeps asking me when that’s going to happen. Really, I haven’t touched it for three years, but somehow it stays alive on the Web. UC: The Web can be an amazing tool. But it can be as much trouble as it is good too. GR: I know. I get so irritated when they pick up a script that you’re in negotiations on and slam it. That can actually keep things from happening. UC: Obviously, you are a horror fan . . . GR: Yeah. I’m not a student, you know what I mean? I just love it. I dig it. UC: How do you feel about the prospect of finally a horror channel? GR: I think it’s terrific. UC: It’s been a long road – I’m sure you can appreciate that. GR: Fabulous! UC: Romero and The Horror Channel: It’s a no-brainer to me. Have you ever considered the possibility of an actual Dead series? GR: Yes. I have one. UC: Do you really? That’s something interesting I’ve never heard of before. GR: I’m not really promoting it. We just showed it to one place, and we haven’t pulled it out of that drawer since. But I actually have a pilot written and all that. I want to do a series and shoot it like Blair Witch. Start with the phenomenon on Day One and basically have a bunch of people running around with their own camcorders and stuff. It would all be very naturalistic. That was my idea. It could be done inexpensively. I’ve sort of been sitting on it. I’ve been saying that when we do this film, it might become worth more. UC: Maybe we could do that as a Horror Channel thing? GR: That would be fabulous. UC: I think the fans would love that. It’s a very interesting idea. GR: Let’s do it, man! I’m ready. Maybe we can do it this afternoon. UC: I’ll call my higher-ups as soon as I get off the phone with you and say, “Dude, let’s go!” I’m sure the fans want to see George Romero involved in The Horror Channel. You can’t fool them. You can’t go to the fans and present them with a diluted product and tell them it’s The Horror Channel. They’ll laugh at you. So we have to give them the goods, and that’s what we’re setting out to do. GR: I’m really pulling for you guys. I know there’s an audience, and it could be a gas. It’d be great, once you guys are on your feet, to do some original stuff. UC: That’s something that will definitely come to fruition a little bit down the road. I think I’ve probably taken up enough of your time, George. Again, I really appreciate it. GR: It’s been fun talking. I hope we get to meet soon. UC: