January 18, 2005
Leguizamo Talks Land Of The Dead
Paige, George Romero, and AZ 2004
John Leguizamo, who appears in the upcoming new George A. Romero zombie movie Land of the Dead, told SCI FI Wire that the sequel is the final installment in Romero's walking-dead series. "I'm hoping that it's [Romero's] masterpiece," Leguizamo said in an interview. "I have a lot of high hopes for that, because I love the man. He [is] 68 years old, and he's still building his career, and he's at the top of his game. We're doing all night shoots, exteriors, and he's smoking and drinking tons of coffee."
Leguizamo plays a zombie hunter named Cholo in the sequel to 1985's Day of the Dead. He said the movie has a lot of social and political undertones. "It's an apocalyptic world, and it's very political, too, but it's more of an action [movie]," Leguizamo said. "It's very operatic, too. It's a very ambitious piece. It's an action movie. It's political. It's got a little bit of comic relief as well. The zombies have taken over, and there are only certain patches of right-wing people controlling everything, and then the working-class people like me and Simon Baker come in and ... try to help get supplies from the zombies.”
Leguizamo said that he thinks the recent renaissance of zombie movies resulted from the current political climate, particularly in America. "It's a weird thing, [and] I've got my own hypothesis about that," he said. "I think it all has to do with the situation with the war in Iraq and all of that. I think it lightens things up when you can't take death so seriously. It lightens it up and plays with that anxiety. I think it has to do with a sort of right-wing, neo-conservatives controlling things and corporate power." Land of the Dead opens Oct. 21.
Posted by MK Magazine at January 18, 2005 11:02 AM