Roger Avary on DAWN OF THE DEAD remake'

Hey folks, Harry here... Had a long conversation with Roger Avary a couple of days ago about this whole DAWN OF THE DEAD nonsense. This is what happened...

There are very few things on this planet known as Earth that Roger Avary loves more than DAWN OF THE DEAD. He's a gigantic fan... Huge fan, beating pulsing heart in love fan of the original film. He has the board game... been interviewed and been a part of tribute films about the movie. He's seen the film so many times that he can't count them. He's been terrified of this remake from the beginning of the first rumors. When he heard James Gunn had finished his script, the morbidity of his soul... the unquenched question of whether or not it was worthwhile or not was driving him crazy. So he told his agent that he wanted the script because he was interested in directing.

Now... at that time, he wasn't really interested in directing, he just wanted to see the script... to see how good or bad the project was. When he got the script... he devoured it. Tore into the cover and read it through. When all was done, when the final page was turned, Roger Avary went 'Ang Lee' mad. I mean, just green pulsating anger and furor. Basically the thought... "ROGER SMASH" was going through his head. But Roger doesn't tear projects apart, he is a creator... he writes scripts, directs movies... He didn't know what to do, but he hated what he had read so much that he couldn't even think straight. He went to bed, woke up with an epiphany at 4 A.M. as to how a DAWN OF THE DEAD remake should be done... I won't tell that here, but his idea was to tell a different story that was taking place at the same time in the same universe as the original that didn't work to destroy or replace what Romero had done, but to add texture to the story we all know.

For the next several hours he waited till his agent would get to the office... Sketching out ideas... putting it together... Suddenly - he knew his agent was 'in office' and he placed the call... "GET ME A MEETING AT STRIKE ENTERTAINMENT I WANT TO DO DAWN OF THE DEAD!" Sure enough he got his meeting... Sat down in the exec's office - told them how bad the script was, what an affront to god, mankind and general grade school writing quality. Then went to tell him his idea - going into how it would be completely complimentary to Romero's original vision... Then the exec told him that Romero has never made a particularly good movie... Roger then tore the exec's asshole out with a plastic spoon while telling him exactly why Romero is a genius.... Then the exec quantified his idiotic statement to mean he's never made a money making film for a studio... Roger then told him about CREEPSHOW - but apparently Roger was met with something close to Deer in Headlights expression.

The executive told Roger that he liked James Gunn's script and that they wanted to make it. That they want a director that can give it that MUMMY-esque quality, since UNIVERSAL is the distributor on this future load of shit. Roger left the meeting knowing that he probably didn't get the gig, he got the call from his agent telling him that they thought he was quite bright and passionate, but that Roger scared them. GOD FORBID a director wanting to do the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake could SCARE the executives in question. Anyways... look for Roger's own writing of the even soon at AVARY.COM!

Meanwhile... If you have James Gunn's script for DAWN OF THE DEAD - my P.O. Box is P.O. BOX 180011 - Austin, Tx 78718-0011. I must read this ASAP!!! While there is still a chance to do something before we have another SCOOBY DOO on our hands....