Must . . . Eat . . . George A. Romero's . . . Brain!

Back in September I had the privilege of attending a screening of two of George A. Romero's films, with a presentation from George A. Romero himself as part of the program.  I waited to blog about it closer to Halloween, for obvious thematic purposes, but it was fabulous fun to hear him speak about his film making career.  He is a very charismatic speaker, and inspirational as well. Plus he says f**k to emphasize his points, which was a big crowd pleaser, especially among the younger fans dressed all in black.

This is my friend Hank with Romero - doesn't he look thrilled?  He stood in line for 3 hours to get Romero's autograph and have this picture taken, and you can tell by the look on his face that it was worth every minute.

It has been a number of years since I have seen a George A. Romero film, and I have never had the good fortune to see one on the big screen in a movie theater before.  What struck me the most was the great sense of humor he manages to work into these over-the-top horror flicks.  The two films we saw were The Dark Half, and Creepshow, both involving the writing talents of Stephen King - King even acts in one of the Creepshow segments, The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill.

In an effort to make this post about gaming just a little bit I will ask this question: Where would the game Dead Rising be without George A. Romero? This is a game that has most sorely tempted me to cross over to console gaming, and I still hold a faint hope that someday the injustice of not being able to play this game on the PC will be remedied.  In spite of Capcom's disclaimer: "This game was not developed, approved, or licensed by the owners or creators of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead" (which is set in a mall just as the game is), can anyone really doubt that this game doesn't owe all of its success to George's original creative vision?  As gamers we owe a lot of playing enjoyment to the Zombie theme, none of which would have been possible without George A. Romero. 

You may not know this, but Romero lost the copyright to Night of the Living Dead due to a freakish copyright snafu and never profited from that film.  From the Wikipedia entry on the movie:

Night of the Living Dead lapsed into the public domain because of the neglect of the original theatrical distributor, the Walter Reade Organization, to place a copyright notice on the prints. In 1968, United States copyright law required a proper notice for a work to maintain a copyright. . . The distributor removed the statement when it changed the title. According to George Romero, Walter Reade "ripped us off."

Romero explained in his presentation that the original print of the film, which was called "Night of the Flesh Eaters" contained the proper copyright notice, but when the distributor decided to change the film's name to "Night of the Living Dead" they removed the copyright statement from the film, costing George the right to profit from his work.  The copyright laws at the time were such that this meant his work immediately entered into public domain.  Even today, if you buy a DVD of Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero doesn't make a penny.

I have a vision, a dream for gaming, which I will sum up with this proposed game title:  Night of the Living Legos.  I purchased this custom zombie Lego mini figure last week on eBay and then the inspiration struck while playing Lego Star Wars.  Lego Zombie! Those are two words that seem destined to go together.  Imagine a zombie game done completely in a Lego universe.  This could go a long way toward making me feel better about missing out on Dead Rising, and could give Romero a chance to make a little money off his original idea by having him write the game script.  As gamers, we all win when you work zombies into the equation, so bring on the undead slobbering masses - albeit in small cute plastic form - and prepare to see a blockbuster game franchise being born - or more appropriately, re-animated from the dead.  Just remember that you read it here first, but be sure to give the money to George.  He has earned it.