George A Romero's Land of the Dead Interview Bernie Goldmann (Producer) INTERVIEWER You look tired. Why? BERNIE GOLDMANN I'm a zombie at this point. We've been on nights for so long. It's such a weird existence to wake up at 12:00 in the afternoon. You wake up, get on the phone with Los Angeles, and you're on the phone with Los Angeles until 10:00 or 11:00 PM. And the whole time you're working on the movie and then we stay up until 6:00 or 7:00 AM and you come home and you're like, what do we do now? You go to sleep and wake up and you do it all over again.   INTERVIEWER Have most of the location shoots been night shoots? BERNIE GOLDMANN Yeah. INTERVIEWER Are they outside? BERNIE GOLDMANN The first five weeks of the movie were all outside. We tried to get as many of the exteriors done as early as possible. We've avoided the snow, we've gotten through the raindrops, so we've made it through. INTERVIEWER Is this a typical George Romero movie? BERNIE GOLDMANN Yes and No.Yes it is George coming back to the genre he created. This is also a very different George Romero movie than I think you've ever seen before. This has a lot of action to it and it's huge in scope. We looked at some of the movie the other day. I forgot how big the movie is, especially for the price we're making it for. There are a lot of different locations, there's a lot of variance in terms of the places we go, gags we do. If George was going to make a fourth movie, he was going to really push himself. I really feel like he catapulted himself way above where he has been before. He has taken the genre he is famous for and taken it to the next step. INTERVIEWER What about the actors? Is it difficult to avoid big up front fees with the actors and try to give them more of the residuals? BERNIE GOLDMANN No, the trick is to find people who are passionate about making the movie. And frankly having a legend like George made that a whole lot easier. Dennis Hopper, John Leguizamo, Simon and Asia are all in the movie because they are fans of George's and loved the script. It is also how we got Greg Nicotero, who is one of the stars of the movie as far as I'm concerned. Greg's group worked so long and hard on the movie and are really responsible for how cool the zombies look. There's a girl zombie we call Number Nine who is missing a piece of her face and when she opens her mouth you can see her teeth. You can see her teeth through the hole in her face and it's just incredible. There's another zombie who we call Tambourine Man, he's a musician in his real life and an amazing looking zombie. These actors that we hired have really jumped into their roles and really embraced being zombies. They've taken the roles as the challenge that they are. They don't have dialogue but they've just really stepped up and done a great job. INTERVIEWER Have you been a part of the project all the way through? BERNIE GOLDMANN Yes from the moment I first read the script. Maybe even before as I have been a fan of George's since I was a teenager and was always hoping that George would make another zombie movie. So as a fan I have unconsciously always been involved in this movie. INTERVIEWER Did the remake of Dawn of the Dead make your decision easier? BERNIE GOLDMANN I'm sure it did. It feels like horror movies are making a steady comeback. Warner Bros.Warner Brothers has been doing these horror movies steadily for the last few years and they have all seemed to work. Dawn and the remake of Chainsaw did well and all of a sudden the appetite was there again. I think there has always been an appetite for George to do another zombie movie. Whenever he wanted to do another the audience was going to be there and I think we've been rewarded with the support of the fan base who seem to be interested in seeing George's next zombie movie. INTERVIEWER What does Greg Nicotero add to the project? BERNIE GOLDMANN As I said Greg is one of the star's of the movie in my opinion. Greg had said, “George, if you ever do another zombie movie, you have got to hire me. I've got to be the one to do it.” Greg came in with amazing passion and incredible ideas. Some of the zombie gags that Greg came up with are what is going to make the certain scenes stand out. Those bits that he and George found are what make the movie a step up. You have to keep evolving if you're going to make a series of movies and that's what's great about this movie; it evolves. INTERVIEWER How many people are working on the production? BERNIE GOLDMANN Hundreds of crew and especially extras. INTERVIEWER Did your company put up the money? BERNIE GOLDMANN We have a company, a partnership with Wild Bunch, and they enabled us to get involved in the movie and then Universal Rogue came in and wanted the whole movie. INTERVIEWER How did you cast for this movie? BERNIE GOLDMANN We of course wanted great actors. What was really rewarding about the experience, was that once we announced that we were doing the movie, great actors stepped up and said, I'd love to work with George Romero. People like John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper and Simon Baker wanted to be a part of this movie. We got very lucky and it's part of the process that makes things go really smoothly and quickly. We got actors who are talented and bring so much to the roles. INTERVIEWER Did George have to make any compromises due to budget? BERNIE GOLDMANN No matter how much money you have, you always make concessions. I mean, that's just the reality of making a movie because you always want more. It's human nature. INTERVIEWER Do you think Land of the Dead will have too much violence? BERNIE GOLDMANN I think that's what the fans want, it's what I want. I think that's what these zombie movies are and let's face it, life is violent and people are violent and we're making an R-rated movie. I want to do violence. I want it to be exciting. You're talking about killing zombies and you kill them with headshots. That's the only way to kill them, let's have some fun. It's not like we're trying to make a PG-13 movie and sneak some teenagers in and show them some blood and gore. We're saying, no, we'd like the adults to come in and have some fun and we're going to blow up some cool shit. INTERVIEWER There is a rumor that Asia Argento's character is not very prominent in the film. Is that true? BERNIE GOLDMANN Asia is a total rock star in the movie. She's really tough. She fights with zombies. She's a total bad ass and  comes by it very naturally.  She's got a great personality.  She's a very strong woman and I think that really comes through in her part and it comes through in the movie. She's great to look at and she's out there kicking ass so I think that's fun in this kind of movie. 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