Classic Zombie Horror Movie Sets Reboot

A classic ’80s zombie movie is set for a reboot. Movie studio Living Dead Media is developing a remake of 1985’s The Return of the Living Dead, per horror movie news outlet Bloody Disgusting reports. Little is known about the project, with no cast members revealed as of press time. No writers or directors are publicly attached, either.

“Our reboot of Return of the Living Dead will expand the existing world created by the original 5 films, while staying true to the R-rated, sci-fi, horror, dark comedy roots adored by fans of the cult classic around the world for the last 35 years,” Living Dead Media wrote in a statement on its website. “We are excited to resurrect this storied franchise for current fans and new generations of zombies fans.” 

Notably, Night of the Living Dead takes place in the same cinematic universe as George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, from 1968. The iconic zombie film had an error in its copywriting, as noted by ComicBook.com, and this allowed it to enter the public domain, which in turn meant that other films — such as Night of the Living Dead — could freely reference it without breaking any IP laws.

The Return of the Living Dead was written and directed by late filmmaker Dan O’Bannon. While the film was only one of a few directorial outings for O’Bannon, he was more well-known for being a scribe on movies such as Alien and Total Recall. Notably, The Return of the Living Dead would go on to spawn four sequels: Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988), Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993), Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis (2005), and Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave (2005). O’Bannon — who died from complications of Crohn’s disease in December 2009 — was not associated with any of the subsequent films.

Back in 2017, Return of the Living Dead actor Thom Mathews spoke with Horror Geek Life about this film and his role, Freddy Hanscom, telling the outlet that “the whole experience was great from the very beginning.” Mathews added, “I didn’t realize how great it was at the time, it was my first big part in a movie. But I had come to realize how special it was.”

“A lot of times when you have a writer that’s directing, they want you to just skip to the words,” Mathews continued. “But, Dan just knew that he needed to let the actors do their thing and make it more real for themselves. That goes across the board with every actor that was on the set. He always listened to people, for the most part. He didn’t always get along with Clu (Gulager), but for different reasons. Clu was under a lot of pressure. He got hired at the last minute and had a lot of dialogue, so he was stressed out.”

Mathews then offered., “As for the fondest memories, you know I had a lot of scenes with Jimmy (James) Karen. We would sit in the makeup chair and he just had all of these great stories about coming up as a young actor, being on Broadway, being good friends with Jason Robards, who came on set a couple of times. Just wonderful stories.”