NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD Director George Romero Thinks Brad Pitt Killed His Zombie Franchise

As the director of Night of the Living Dead, the film that paved the way for the zombie genre's rise to prominence, George A. Romero knows a thing or two about the walking dead. (He's also the man behind the original Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead.) The Hollywood Reporter caught up with him as he prepares to release a Blu-ray of the original Night of the Living Dead this weekend, and he pointed a finger at a very popular AMC show and one particular A-list star as the reason for its downfall:

I've sort of dropped out of it. The Dead are everywhere these days. I think really Brad Pitt killed it. The Walking Dead and Brad Pitt just sort of killed it all. The remake of Dawn of the Dead made money. I think pretty big money. Then Zombieland made money, and then all of a sudden, along comes Brad Pitt and he spends $400 million or whatever the hell to do World War Z. [World War Z author] Max Brooks is a friend of mine, and I thought the film was not at all representative what the book was and the zombies were, I don't know, ants crawling over the wall in Israel. Army ants. You might as well make The Naked Jungle. As far as I'm concerned, I'm content to wait until sort of zombies die off. My films, I've tried to put a message into them. It's not about the gore, it's not about the horror element that are in them. It's more about the message, for me. That's what it is, and I'm using this platform to be able to show my feelings of what I think.

I didn't mind World War Z as a movie (I thought it was pretty solid summer entertainment, especially considering all of its behind-the-scenes troubles), but I think what Romero seems to really be railing against here is the idea of pumping so much money into these zombie movies. He started the whole genre with a film that cost just over 100 grand, so it's gotta be strange for him to watch so much cash being thrown at a mainstream zombie film. He does have a point about the zombies in that movie, though..."army ants" is a pretty accurate description.

I think a lot of modern zombie properties also tend to forget about including a message or a larger point to them, so I can see how that might be a little frustrating, too — to see this thing you created being co-opted, stripped of its meaning, and churned out just for cheap thrills has to be a little disheartening. What do you think? Is this a case of the old guard shouting in the face of change, or does Romero have a legitimate point?