Anna Daniels
George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead is finding new life – as a TV series. Syfy just gave a 10-episode straight-to-series order to a Day of the Dead TV show based on Romero’s film of the same name. While it shares the same title as Romero’s classic, the storyline is a bit different, focusing on six strangers trying to survive the first 24 hours of an undead outbreak.
Deadline says Syfy just ordered a Day of the Dead show straight-to-series, and I’m surprised this hasn’t happened sooner. After all, The Walking Dead – which owes a lot to Romero’s zombie films – is a mega-hit, spawning numerous spin-offs, a forthcoming movie, and more. It was only a matter of time before someone decided to use Romero’s work to get in on that action.
The series is described as “the intense story of six strangers trying to survive the first 24 hours of an undead invasion. This ode to Romero’s famous flesh-eaters reminds us that sometimes all it takes to bring people together is a horde of hungry zombies trying to rip them apart.” The nerd in me takes issue with this storyline. “Strangers banding together as a zombie outbreak begins” is not the plot of Day of the Dead – it’s the plot of Night of the Living Dead. The original Day of the Dead is set well after the outbreak began, with humanity near extinction and living underground while the undead roams the world above. Why not use that as the storyline instead if you’re going to call your show Day of the Dead? Yes, I know this is a pointless sticking point, and most people will not care. But I care, damn it!
Anyway, Day of the Dead will be written by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas, who also serve as showrunners. Syfy has produced some quality horror shows in the past – like Channel Zero. They also have a few things to look forward to in the future as well, like Chucky, a new Child’s Play series coming directly from Chucky creator Don Mancini.
Day of the Dead will be executive produced by Stan Spry, Jeff Holland, and Drew Brown on behalf of Cartel Entertainment, along with Robert Dudelson, James Dudelson and Jordan Kizwani from HiTide Studios. Cartel Entertainment also produced Shudder’s Creepshow TV series. No word yet on when we might see Day of the Dead.
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