From Davis DVD

Land of the Dead

Director George Romero recently talked to IGN about the upcoming DVD release of his recent film Land of the Dead, and he confessed that much of the material will be character-building content rather than simply extra gore. "There is one scene in particular where [John Leguizamo's] Cholo, before he meets [Dennis Hopper's] Kaufman, he goes into a neighboring penthouse and finds a human that hung himself and has to kill him. That was a scene that we felt didn't turn out as effectively as it could have and we didn't think it was necessary so that's really the only major scene from the original script that's gone."

Romero also revealed that work on the DVD is currently underway and that its running time will be about six minutes longer. "[It's] all just adding back or putting in some effects that were excised and putting in some little things like little bits of dialogue in existing scenes that we cut out just to tighten the pace. It's mostly that, and that penthouse scene."

Romero says that he employed a few CGI tricks to bypass some of the MPAA's objections to the film's gore for the theatrical cut, but did not indicate whether the shots would be restored for the DVD. "I used Kubrick's trick on green screen," he explains. "I shot figures walking by so if there was a particular gory shot I could composite it and walk someone in front of it." He marvels at the MPAA's vigilance when it comes to excising or editing questionable footage. "It's amazing sometimes that the MPAA will do a frame count." Thanks to Bloody Disgusting.

I'm really looking forward to this release. I finally saw this over the weekend and I thought it was a lot of fun. I might even say it's my favorite of the four (I know I'm probably in the minority).

*patiently awaits the announcement of the "Box of the Dead" or some other variant title for a boxset of these loverly films*

Sounds good, lets hope an "ultimate edition" is out from the get go.

I can understand someone favoring this film over the previous 4.

I too am looking forward to the DVD release. I found it interesting that the theatrical release of LAND had more gore than the unrated director's cut of the DAWN remake on DVD. (LAND had a lot more going for it in every other aspect too, but that is a topic for another thread)

As for a boxset, now that Bill Lustig is no longer with Anchor Bay, I think that there is an excellent chance of seeing a quality DEAD boxset that includes LAND.

That might happen overseas ala the Halloween and Evil Dead series.

I'm sure to get this release without hesitation. I had a good time with this movie.

i'm sold

I havn't been keeping up with the horror genre as much, but was it set in stone that Universal would let AB have this one? Thanks.

Yeah I'm wondering about this, too, as (as much as I LOVE these films) I haven't gotten around to picking them up on DVD yet.

i LOVED the film and i will see it for a second time tonight. THATS how you do zombies. hopefully those "kubrick" shadows will be removed on the DVD but either way, i cannot wait for this DVD to hit.

There was a nice article - I'll try to find it - that discusses the use of the green-screen shot footage to mask some of the gore (one scene that was talked about was the soldiers in the shed scene), and how it makes it much easier to just remove them in the unrated release so you can see the full image.

I hope they dont release one of those box sets. Dawn already has an ultimate edition which is 4 discs by itself and including it in a box set would diminish the ultimate edition. Day has two discs with more than enough features for a movie that wasnt near as good as its predecessors. Night has about a million different versions out there, choose one and be happy. In order for a box set to be worth buying it'd have to include every disc from both Dawn and Days releases, otherwise whats the freakin point. Plus Night and Land were talking about an 8 disc box set which is absolutely pointless in my opinion when all the films have such good releases by themselves. Why does everyone have to have a cute little box for a movie and its sequels?

I don't see what the danger is that there will be a box set. Dawn and Day are Anchor Bay, Land is Universal. I suppose Universal could release a Night/Land set, or a Dawn remake/Land set.

Well, it depends. Anchor Bay doesn't have an acceptable version of NIGHT available. Their 30th Anniversary abomination has 2 versions... one with new footage added. The other with new music. Only Elite's Millennium Edition of NIGHT is worthy.

So this would be an opportunity for AB to correct that situation either by setting up an agreement with Elite (IIRC, Elite and AB had a working relationship in the past), or by creating their own ultimate edition.

There's also another opportunity to include a bonus disc of stuff that might have been left out of the individual movie releases.

Of course this assumes that AB would get the rights to produce the LAND DVD.

I already have the best editions of the first 3 films... so I'm not interested in a boxset, but I'm sure there are plenty who are.

I wouldn't be surprised if Universal does a double pack of Dawn 2004 and Land.

DJ

I'm a huge fan of the old movies but I think this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Hi Rooter, you may want to look into DVDtalk's policy on threadcraps.

I'm really getting tired of the MPAA. These people are so tight, they have no assholes. But they sure have big fucking mouths to compensate.

I was more throwing my opinion in with the many other people who posted in this thread. If you consider that crapping then maybe you are a bit too uptight.

Actually, that's exactly what threadcrapping is. This is a thread about the film's DVD release. If you want to discuss the film's quality (or lack thereof) there is a thread in the Movie Forum.

Yet many other people in this thread commented on it's quality, just positively.

I disagree with your assesment of the gore. I think DOTD had just as much if not more gore than LOTD. I also think DOTD was a much better film than LOTD, but like you said that is a topic for another thread.

For some reason positive comments aren't regarded as threadcraps, probably because they don't derail the thread. The point is your post contributed nothing to the discussion.

From the threadcrap thread:
"One commonly seen threadcrap is someone posting that "___________ is a crappy movie" in a thread dedicated to information about the movie's DVD release. The point of the thread isn't to discuss the quality of the movie, but to discuss the movie's DVD release.

The purpose of the DVD Talk Forum is discussion. Threadcraps interfere with the flow of discussion. Something that goes against the purpose of the forum and rudely interrupts a discussion between members has no place on this forum."

Really? Have you been to the movie forum recently?

I'm just quoting DVD Talk's policy.