In an exclusive today, Deadline have reported that Nikyatu Jusu’s Night Of The Living Dead sequel is in the process of acquiring worldwide rights from Amazon’s MGM division, in what Deadline described as a ‘highly competitive situation’.
The upcoming project will have a script helmed by LaToya Morgan, best known for her work on The Walking Dead, and is intended to kick off a new Night Of The Living Dead franchise (George A. Romero’s 1968 classic of course being where it all began).
Jusu’s directorial debut, Nanny, premiered earlier this year and became the first horror film to win Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize. Just also became the second Black female filmmaker to claim the award. When asked about her upcoming project, the director had this to say;
“The original version of Night of the Living Dead is still so resonant to this day. Every era has the zombie that it needs and right now, zombies reflect the ways that humans treat each other and show us who is truly the monster.”
Details of the sequel are still heavily under wraps, but we do know that the film will be produced and overseen by Christine Romero and Tina Romero of Sanibel Films. When asked about the project, Christine commented that “George would have been so happy to see this happen!”
Jillian Apfelbaum, Tristen Tuckfield and Nic Gordon at Village Roadshow Pictures, Ryan Silbert of Origin Story, Andrew Childs for Roy Lee’s Vertigo Entertainment and Jon Mone and Ryan Shimazaki of Westbrook Studios are also producing.
Deadline also reported that Jusu will also adapt the feature length version of her acclaimed Sundance-premiering short Suicide by Sunlight. The film follows day-walking Black vampires protected from the sun by their melanin, for Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw and Universal. Jusu will direct that pic from a script written with Fredrica Bailey (See You Yesterday).
While you wait eagerly for more news on Night Of The Living Dead‘s sequel, check out Nanny when it arrives on Prime Video on December 16, 2022.
