Romero's very personal Diary

George A. Romero, who's just made his latest 'Dead' movie Diary of the Dead, has spoke about the pros and cons of making big studio films versus independent movies.

Romero signed a deal with Universal for his previous film Land Of The Dead but his latest zombie outing sees him happily returning to the indie arena.

"There's a different kind of responsibility that you have when you're working for a studio,"' he told Entertainment Weekly. "which is to make [your film] bigger, make it more about action, make it more about the values that they value, instead of being able to do something a little more personal. I was very worried when we made the deal with Universal [to make Land of the Dead]. But they really let us make the movie.

Romero feels that the pressure of dealing with the kind of big budgets many film makers dream can hamper directors.

"My complaint was just that it was a gruelling process, and the film had gotten too big. All the pressure, and the dough, and everything that comes with that, becomes a burden. I'm happy to do it; I've never said no to any studio that has invited me to work with them. But I'd rather stay at the $2 betting window and make little movies that I just really care about. For [Diary of the Dead], it was wonderfully great to just be free and do whatever we wanted to do all the way through post-production.

While Romero has been making the Zombie films since 1968, he says he would certainly consider a deviation and there's one particular character he'd like to revive.

"The movie I’ve wanted to do ever since I was a kid, don’t ask me why, is Tarzan. So if somebody came along and said, we're going to give you a bunch of money to go make Tarzan, I would immediately say yes. But then they probably wouldn't want me to do the real [Edgar Rice] Burroughs version."

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