Fueding Amongst Dawn of the Dead Remakers?

[Chopper]

I looked up the credits to the Dawn of the Dead remake and I noticed that Richard Rubenstein was credited but Romero's name is nowhere with an exception of a reference. I remember hearing about how Rubenstein, who was a producer for a lot of Romero's films,  had a bad falling out with Romero. Does anyone know if they still dislike eachother? I'm just curious that if they do, & if so if the fued has something to do with Romero's absent participation in the remake.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Actually the only mention I've seen of Romero or the original film is on the Japanese poster for the flick which mentions it was based on an original screenplay by Romero.

[Chopper]

interesting. i can't remember which site i saw, it might have been the American official movie site, but it had Romero's name in the same context.

[JohnL]

BTW, they've started airing the commercials for this.

[saul-bruce]

yeah the new dawn of the dead is gonna be crap as they will be able to run. hey ashcampbell oh man r u ocming out friday & sat cos tom has a free house on saturday! yes!!!!!!!!!!!! p-a-r-t-y hahahahahahahahaha

[Chris K.]

The partnership between George Romero and his producer Richard P. Rubenstein, from what I have gathered, never seemed to have any big problems. However, the two never saw eye-to-eye on a few things.

George Romero the "director" is a man who takes time to make his films and is an anal-retentive perfectionist (something that riles up his producers when he doesn't get the project done in time) and that, if the work doesn't turn out the way it was intedned to (i.e., Romero felt that TWO EVIL EYES segement "The Strange Case of Mr. Valdemar" needed more post-production and better sound editing, something that the Italian producers wouldn't allow due to over-spending the budget), then Romero does display his disappointment towards it. However, Romero has no objections towards anybody liking his films that he "likes less".

Richard P. Rubenstein the "producer" is a man who puts money into projects and damn well expects payback. But if anything, Rubenstein is more of an "exploitation producer" and expects his films to be done quickly, even if the film doesn't look good in final editing or post production. That and he does abuse his producer status in more ways than one (i.e., he demanded Romero to cut down the 130 minute cut of CREEPSHOW down to 120 minutes, something that Romero was disappointed with).

However, their were times when Rubenstein really caused some problems for Romero. When Dan O'Bannon announced THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, Romero read the script and showed his support for the film. Rubenstein, on the other hand, tried to sue O'Bannon and the distributor Hemdale Films-Orion Pictures Corporation for the use of 'Living Dead' in the title. Romero, thankfully, stayed out of the picture and Rubenstein lost due to the order stating that other films after NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD had already used 'Living Dead' and that the term cannot be copyrighted.

In either case, despite their differences, Romero and Rubenstein have never said bad things about each other.

[Chopper]

Chirs, thanks for clearing all this up. I heard before that they both had a bad falling out, but it sounds like it was just a nasty rumour. In regards to the new film Romero probably just doesn't want anything to do with it, and Rubenstein might just be using it to make some dough.