Greg Nicotero on Land of the Dead SFX

Here are a few clips from the interview:

How closely did you work with George Romero through all the various drafts to get the 4th DEAD movie off the ground?

Well, you know... I was in Austin working on "Spy Kids 2" and I got a phone call saying, "There's a script floating around for DEAD RECKONING and the guys need a budget, so what can you do?" So, that was Christmas of... what? 2002 maybe? Yeah... I can't remember exactly when we did "Spy Kids 2", so...

That was the first draft I got. It was called DEAD RECKONING. It was a much, much different script. It was actually... Riley was the one trying to buy his way into Fiddler's Green, not Cholo and Kaufman had a daughter that Riley was in love with. So, there was a whole other aspect to it that changed. I mean, the effects and the amount of zombies and stuff was pretty much the same. Not a lot had changed, but the script was very different. The original ending had a bunch of people taking off in a helicopter off the top of Fiddler's Green and the helicopter crashed into the building.

So, you're in charge of creating Romero zombies. Before the shoot started did you feel a sense of responsibility to deliver the goods more than you usually do?

Without a doubt. The first thing that people said was, "Why isn't Tom Savini doing the effects?" The reality was, you know... Tom Savini doesn't do make-up effects anymore. Tom is a director and an actor now, so George felt like it made the most sense for us to do the movie given my history with him and the fact that we've known each other and have been friends for 25, 30 years.

But yeah. Absolutely. I felt a tremendous amount of responsibility not only to carry on the legacy that has been established, but also to make them look different enough and give each one of them their own character.

You can read the complete interview and look at some really nice pics here. And be sure to check out Land of the Dead in cinemas from 24th of June.

THX to kidgloves for sending us this scoop.