Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with more remake news today. You know, I went through a huge George A. Romero kick in my late teen years. Like most of you, I grew up with his DEAD movies and CREEPSHOW, but I took a crazy adventure over a couple of days where I jumped into MARTIN, KNIGHTRIDERS, THE CRAZIES and SEASON OF THE WITCH.
I loved the serious take on the vampire legend in MARTIN and consider it one of Romero's best overall movies, but THE CRAZIES was my favorite. It's just a ton of fun, capturing the spirit of his best DEAD movies, but giving it a completely different identity.
Oddly enough, of all the suggested (and executed) Romero remakes I thought THE CRAZIES could translate the best. It's a dirty and cheap movie with a great central idea (a toxin is released into a town's water supply that, when ingested, causes the ordinary townspeople go insane... causing the government to step in and try to maintain control) and I could see a really fun update to this movie.
They have previously cast Timothy Olyphant as the lead and have now cast Radha Mitchell as the female lead according to Hollywood Reporter. I like that pairing. Mitchell's really shown her chops in flicks like PITCH BLACK, SILENT HILL and the sadly released DTV giant croc movie ROGUE.
Breck Eisner directs for Overture Films. I hope they make a fun flick and at the very least hope that this remake shines some light on the greatly ignored Romero original.
