First Look At ‘Queens Of The Dead’ By Tina Romero
Image Source: JoBlo
Tina Romero and Katy O’Brian sat down with Entertainment Weekly recently to give a first look at their film, Queens of the Dead. While Romero’s father, George A. Romero, is well known in the monster film world, particularly where zombie thrillers are concerned, his daughter did not have any initial plans for filling his shoes. She always thought that if she decided to go that route, it would need to feel authentic to her.
Romero explained to EW how the concept for Queens of the Dead evolved organically. "Over the decade that I was DJing in the queer scene in NYC, I saw the community shift from a world that was more split up — boys versus girls — to a world that was much more mixed and identity agnostic," she said. When the club she used to DJ at underwent some organizational changes, the director commented that there was a lot of drama. She explained that "The original promoter posted this manifesto begging the question, 'When will the queer community stop devouring its own?' And it hit me like a bolt of lightning. I was like, 'Oh my God! This would be how I want to explore the zombie genre in this world of queer nightlife. It's colorful, it's full of fascinating characters, it's a world I know, it has music, it has lots of people who are scrappy and know how to make stuff work, it's New York, it's so many things — not to mention the intersection of drag and zombies, transformation wise. I got very titillated by the idea," she said.
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Image Source: Premiere
Sadly, Romero’s father passed away before he could read the final iteration of the script, but he did give his daughter his blessing, and she pays him homage throughout the film. At one point in the film, a character says, "This is not a George A. Romero movie." Additionally, Dawn of the Dead alums Tom Savini and Gaylen Ross appear in the film.
Romero had a lot to say about her dad’s influence. "I am his kid. There's no denying it. And he has influenced me greatly," Romero told EW. "And this is his monster, this is his genre. I had fun doing my little Romero nods throughout the film, and we have some good ones."
"The zombie apocalypse is such a rich sandbox to play in when it comes to social commentary,” Romero said. “I can't be my dad's daughter without making an attempt at saying something with zombies. I did want this to be a film in which I am paying homage to the world and the monster he created, but I'm also introducing my own voice. It's very much not a film he would make, but it is using his vocabulary and is playing by his rules. As far as the queer element, on one hand, I just feel like the gays need a zombie film. It's time that we get to have a big gay zombie movie," she said.
Romero also discussed bringing Katy O’Brian in on the project. She remembered sending The Mandalorian actress a letter to see if she’d be interested. "I'm a big horror fan. I'll bite. Let me read the script," O’Brian said. "It was something that I was looking forward to doing because I just don't get to do humor very often. And also I love that it's just unapologetically queer. We're not coding anybody or anything."
The end credits are said to feature a special thanks to Tom Cruise for allowing O'Brian a week off from filming Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning so that the actress could appear in both films. This film will be Tina Romero’s directorial debut and will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 7.
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