With most of the great horror movies already remade, we are entering a second wave of reboots that bring back some classics in the genre. Zombie maestro George A. Romero already had his seminal 1985 trilogy ending thriller Day of the Dead remade in 2008, which arrived as a standalone story that wasn't a true follow-up to Zack Snyder's 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, which in turn really wasn't a sequel to Tom Savini's 1990 Night of the Living Dead remake. Now, we're getting a second Day of the Dead remake, and it doesn't appear to be connected to any of the movies that came before it either. But it will bring back an iconic character from Romero's oeuvre, sort of, and today we have a first look.
This sneak peek at the new Day of the Dead comes courtesy of Bloody Disgusting. The images show Johnathon Schaech as Bub, the sentient zombie who learns to use a Sony Walkman on his way to finding Valhalla as a member of the walking dead. This time out, he'll be called Max, though he basically serves the same purpose in the story line.
Hèctor Hernández Vicens, best known for his horror hit The Corpse of Anna Fritz, is directing this new iteration of Day of the Dead. And from the looks of it, Max and Bub share similar DNA, as they look quite a bit alike, which should make some fans of this series, however loosely it's timeline has been resurrected, happy. This will be a modern take on Bub, who was portrayed by Sherman Howard in the original.
Bub was part of a zombie experiment being carried out by Dr. Logan, who wanted to domesticate the zombies and return them to a more substantial place on the food chain, perhaps even turning them into upstanding members of the society yet again. The conceit carried through to George A. Romero's fourth film in the series Land of the Dead with the zombie Big Daddy. As of yet, Land of the Dead has not suffered a remake.
Johnathon Schaech is quite an accomplished actor, and has quite a few movies lined up for future release. You may remember him best from the Tom Hank's directed musical comedy That Thing You Do!, which gave him his big break. It's interesting to see him take on the role of a zombie, and he should be able to find just the right notes to make an audience empathize with a member of the living dead. Arriving with the first photo of Schaech in character are a few behind the scenes images, which show the actor alongside Sophie Skelton, who plays Zoe Parker.
This Day of the Dead redo sounds like it's getting a complete story reboot. It will follow a former medical student who is haunted by an evil figure from her recent past. This ghoul in question happens to be a half-human, half-zombie who's sole mission is to consume her soul from the inside out and completely demolish her as a living person. Johnathon Schaech and Sophie Skelton will be joined by an ensemble cast that includes Marcus Vanco, Jeff Gum, Lorina Kamburova, Nick Loeb, Rachel O'Meara, Debbie Sherman, Luke Cousins, Nathan Cooper, and Cristina Serafini. Campbell Grobman Films, the team behind the upcoming Leatherface prequel movie, is responsible for this quasi-remake. Take a look at the photos.
