Romero talks about Diary of the Dead

From Sci-Fi Wire:

Diary of the Dead writer/director George A. Romero acknowledged to SCI FI Wire that some longtime Dead fans were not pleased initially when word spread that Romero planned to shoot the latest installment in his zombie oeuvre in the manner of The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield.

Diary of the Dead follows student filmmakers who, after the dead start walking the Earth and terrorizing the living, drop their mummy movie and document--by filming and blogging--the horrors occurring around them.

"I think they thought maybe it was going to be Blair Witch," Romero said about the fans in an interview. "Maybe they thought it was going to be a bad idea. Maybe it is. I thought we were the first guys. I didn't think Blair Witch was really the same kind of thing at all. Everyone still brings up Blair Witch because of the subjective camera stuff and all that."

Romero added that he was shooting his film before Cloverfield and Redacted, both of which make heavy use of subjective first-person hand-held camera shooting.

"All of a sudden, I think, it's that the whole world has become a camera," Romero said. "And maybe it's that reality TV has become reality movies."

Fortunately, Romero said, the doubters are starting to come around. "I'm not sure exactly why people were disappointed to hear what we were doing, but I'm happy that, at least now, since the film has been shown to some audiences, everyone's saying, 'Oh, I get it now,'" Romero said. "It's still quite theatrical. There's a story there. And it ain't Blair Witch. Anyway, we thought we were going to be the first guys doing it, and now about all I can say is I'm part of a trend." Diary of the Dead opens on Feb. 15.

- The Monster