Romero rises again for zombie film

Untitled thriller has already started shooting

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Romero

Director George Romero is beginning production on an untitled thriller. Once again, the antagonists are flesh-eating zombies.Romero first mined zombies with "Night of the Living Dead" and has been cannibalizing the genre since, most recently with "Diary of the Dead."

Romero wrote the new film and began shooting this week in Ontario.

Plot involves inhabitants of an isolated island off the North American coast who find their relatives rising from the dead to eat their kin. The leaders of the island feud over whether or not to kill their reanimated relatives or preserve them in hopes of finding a cure.

Cast includes Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Devon Bostick, Richard Fitzpatrick, Stefano Colacitti and Athena Karkanis.

Paula Devonshire is producing. Romero is exec producer along with Peter Grunwald, D.J. Carson and Artfire Films' Ara Katz, Art Spigel and Dan Fireman. Voltage Pictures is handling international sales, and Cinetic Media will sell domestic.