"Land" will begin production October 11th in Toronto, with casting already underway.
Two months ago, Atmosphere Entertainment MM announced that "Land of the Dead" would be the first film to launch a new series of zombie films, marking Romero's return to the genre he created.
In 1968 Romero made Night of the Living Dead with less than a $100,000 budget; the "Land of the Dead" budget will be $15 million, according to Canton.
"Night" was followed by Dawn of the DeadM in 1978 and Day of the Dead in 1985. Canton said that like all of Romero's previous "Dead" pics, " 'Land of the Dead' will have an undertone of the social and political ethos of the times."
Universal has tipped its hat to Romero's legacy twice this year, releasing Zach Snyder's remake of Romero's Dawn of the Dead to a $59 million domestic gross; U's Edgar Wright helmed zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead -- released through U's Rogue Pictures label, part of U's Focus Features -- opens Friday in 607 theaters nationwide.
Story of "Land of the Dead" is set in the modern world. The living inhabit a walled-in city, protected from the walking dead that populate the wasteland beyond.
"Shooting will be in Toronto starting in early October and apprently Romero has been spending his days location scouting around the city. Savini also talked about how he will have a large role in the film playing a character who goes into the the zombie infested world to get supplies for wealthy survivors.
The coolest part he mentioned was that he would also be reprising his role from the original 'Dawn of the Dead' (the Biker Gang guy) that died and fell into the fountain in the mall- who has since become a zombie. He said that he will actually kill his zombie self in the new film.
There was also talk of using several CG zombies to sort of update the effects and show the audience things that a guy with makeup on could never pull off. Lastly he said Romero has made it clear his zombies will slow moving, as compared to the 'fast zombies' like in the 'Dawn' Remake, the way Romero always did it."