For the most part, the filmmakers and many of the talent behind Dawn of the Dead shared the same kind of single-minded drive as the ever-growing horde of living corpses at the center of their film. The zombies on-screen just want to feed; those involved in this Dawn just wanted to make a zombie movie.
A longtime fan of horror films and the “not-quite-dead” sub-genre, producer Eric Newman remembers, “Growing up, I had always loved those movies, but Dawn of the Dead was my favorite. There were always other zombie movies around, but Dawn felt to me like the one movie that stood out from the rest. I feel that the genre has not received the attention it deserves in this generation.”
What Newman wanted to do was bring the zombie movie into the 21st Century with a quality script, a talented and respected cast and up-to-date production values provided by a Hollywood studio.
Commenting on the unkillable nature of the genre, Newman observes, “Zombie myths are thousands of years old. It’s almost a vampire thing. Plus, zombies were also, for me, the perfect villains because they were fearless, tireless and ubiquitous. They were singular of purpose—to stalk, kill and eat you. You can’t reason with a zombie. People have always struggled to maintain their individuality against those who strive to crush it. Zombies are the mindless masses who forcibly convert you to their way of life.”
Newman’s zombie fever quickly spread to respected, veteran producer, Strike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham. It was then that Newman (on behalf of Strike) approached New Amsterdam Entertainment CEO Richard P. Rubinstein, who was the producer of the 1979 original, George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, and controlled the remake rights.
The original Dawn was nationally distributed in 1979 without an MPAA rating by a small independent distributor, earned over $20 million at the U.S. box office and was highly praised by many critics, including Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert, who gave the film four stars.
Rubinstein had previously been approached over many years by filmmakers wanting to secure the rights for a remake, but it wasn’t until Newman approached him that he began to consider granting the rights…and even then, not at first.
Rubinstein comments, “I believed that George’s film was successful critically and financially partially because it was written, directed, produced and distributed outside of the major studio system of moviemaking. I was concerned that somewhere along the way a studio would sanitize Newman’s vision for producing a version with ‘attitude.’ Ultimately, it was Marc Abraham’s long track record in keeping the creative integrity of the studio distributed films he has produced intact that gave me reason to say ‘yes’ and agree to turning the Strike team loose.”
Eric Newman adds, “I would like to see this movie make the old fans happy and make a lot of new fans. Because that’s the only reason we are doing it.”
One idea proved to be the cornerstone for all, an overall dictum the production would follow in every aspect of the project.
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