The 'London Sunday Times' reports that author Thomas Harris is at present polishing his new novel 'The Morbidity of the Soul'. The moment that has been completed, the screenplay for this sequel will be immediately written and hopefully be complete by very early 1999 for shooting next summer. Sir Anthony Hopkins is rumoured to be earning 15 million pounds (English money) to reprise the famous role of Dr. Hannibal 'the Cannibal' Lecter, making him the highest paid British actor ever. Also according to the arrticle, Hopkins said "I love playing Hannibal: he is great fun". So it looks fairly certain. It'll be directed by Jonathan Demme again, and Jodie Foster is going to be in it again.
However, we're not likely to see it any time soon 'cos, according to the article, not only has Hopkins got 4 more films to make Thomas Harris (author of Silence of the Lambs) hasn't finished writng the book yet. They don't say anything about the plot of the film, other than it has elements of Pierto Pacciani (a Tuscan farmer accused of preying on courting couples in the 50's who died this year).
Here is what is said to be the plot line for the new installment to the Dead series. (Night of, Day of and Dawn of.) "The story begins as the "zombie squads" sweep across the country exterminating the last of the ghouls (as we saw in the end of Night). We follow a crew through Pittsburgh (of course). The squads come across one of the last remaining rescue shelters/hosiptals. Inside, they find the few remaining survivors that have managed to escape the plague of murders. Among them is a pregnant woman. As the squad tries to help with the sick and injured, a lone zombie manages to sneak by them and gain entrance to the facility. They mistake him for one of the injured, until he takes a massive bite from the arm of the pregnant woman. They exterminate the zombie, but it is too late for the woman. The stress of the incident forces the woman into labor. The baby is born just before the woman dies of her injuries. The baby is turned over to the army who have to decide if it is safe to let it live. Meanwhile, similar incidents occur across the country. All the children are ordered to be turned over to the army. After thorough medical exams, the babbies are determined to be healthy. They decide the children can be allowed to live, but must be closely observed throughout their lives.
They set up a program to allow the children to be adopted by specially chosen parents who pass a rigorous screening process. The parents must keep detailed journals of incidents throughout the life of the child, and they must report to government facilities every month for medical evaluations. The children must be taken to special doctors when they are sick, and they must report to chosen school to be monitored throughout their lives.
For the first few years, everything seems to be fine. The children grow normally, and there are no medical problems. But, complications begin when the children reach puberty. Almost all of them begin to show symptoms of a rare disease (I don't remember what it was called, but he said it is a real disease that probably started the vampire stories... it causes the skin to turn pale white, and the gums to receed from the teeth, making them appear large. People with the disease do benifit from drinking blood because it gives them heavy doses of the nutrients that they are missing), and the government begins to panic.
They put the children in quarentine for more evaluation, but eventually decide that they will be okay and release them again to their parents. Just after this, a rash of murders occur in Pittsburgh. All of the victims have gaping bite wounds somewhere on their bodies, and most are missing some blood. The number of bodies grow, as the homeless population is wiped out. And before long, the bodies of the murder victims begin to rise again. The children are commiting these murders, and their victims become infected with the strange chemical or virus that is present in the children's body that was passed to them through their infected mother. The children are immune to this virus, but it has mutated and cause the vampire disease and given them the urge to kill. The world is now faced with a new plague of zombies."
Recently on Aint It Cool News, Harry, the owner of the website got an interesting letter from someone close to the production of the movies, this is what he reported:
From: Philip Nutman, writer of Children of the Dead
"A friend just emailed me your latest gabfest on CoD and no rumors, here's the straight scoop: Yes, there's going to be a forth "Dead" movie with or without George Romero (who hasn't signed on as yet) from an original screenplay by original "Night" writer John Russo. Yes, it's entitled "Children of the Dead". Yes, some of what your correspondent reported re: the plot is correct, but is just the background to the story and maybe constitutes 5% of the screenplay. The film is scheduled to shoot next year. I report this from an authorative, informed position as I am currently writing the three-issue comic book inspired by John's old screenplay and am involved, albeit indirectly at this point, in the production process. The screenplay is sitting beside me as I type (don't ask -- no you can't have a copy).
As to Romero's involvement, from what I understand, that's up to George. Maybe. Maybe not. I really don't know. But considering the fact he's a/ signed on to write and direct Resident Evil; b/in negotiations to write/direct Resident Evil; or c/ "having discussions about Resident Evil" -- well, no one, including George, seems to know what George is doing right now. All I can confirm is he and Russo have had discussions and had a meeting a couple of weeks ago with interested financial parties at the show in Las Vegas, and John Russo is producing the project. However, since Romero has also announced he's developing a TV show based on "Day of the Dead" with Britain's Granada TV it appears his plate is more than full. We'll just have to see."
