George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is getting a new sequel of sorts. Deadline reports that Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska, aka the Soska Sisters (Rabid, American Mary, See No Evil 2), are directing a new film called Festival of the Living Dead that will acknowledge the events of Romero’s first zombie movie. In development for the free streaming service Tubi, the film will also star Ashley Moore (I Know What You Did Last Summer) and Camren Bicondova (Gotham) in the lead roles. The script comes from Helen Marsh and Miriam Lyapin. Jacob Nasser is producing.
Festival of the Living Dead is set more than 50 years after the events of Night of the Living Dead, which was first released in 1968. That zombie attack has become the subject of morbid nostalgia in recent years, which has resulted in an event called the Festival of the Living Dead. Moore plays Ash, a young woman who attends the festival with some friends only for the festivities to be disrupted by a “blast of radioactive space dust” that turns most everyone into the walking dead, leaving it up to the survivors to “defend themselves or be devoured” by the zombie onslaught.
The Deadline report further describes the Ash character as someone who has just been accepted into college and is torn between her boyfriend and her old friends when the story picks up. She attends the Festival of the Living Dead when her boyfriend buys tickets, as her favorite band is said to be playing. Bicondova co-stars as Iris, Ash’s best friend who agrees to watch Ash’s younger brother, Luke, during the festivities of the festival.
Also starring in the movie are Andre Anthony (The Night Agent), Christian Rose, Shiloh O’Reilly (The Haunted Museum), Gage Marsh (You Me Her), Keana Lyn Bastidas (The Hardy Boys), and Maia Jae Bastidas (Rabbit Hole).
Night of the Living Dead Gets a New Sequel
The original Night of the Living Dead is in the public domain, so any filmmaker is free to make a sequel that acknowledges the events of the film if they so desire. While Romero wrote a remake directed by Tom Savini in 1990, the film has also been given multiple unofficial remakes because of this as well. The public domain status only applies to Night of the Living Dead as well, which is why only that first film can be acknowledged while Romero’s own follow-ups, like Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, are protected by copyright.
Another recent movie based on the original film was in the form of an animated remake. Last year, it was also announced that Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead) is set to direct a movie about the making of Night of the Living Dead. The untitled movie hasn’t yet been given a release date and its current status is unclear.
Festival of the Living Dead does not yet have a premiere date.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
