George A. Romero, considered the godfather of the zombie subgenre, is taking his undead franchise on the road, as we first reported back in May.

Included in this summer’s Frontières co-production market, which returns to the Fantasia International Film Festival from July 20-23 in Montreal, is a brand new Romero zombie film that is seeking financing.

Similar to how Don Coscarelli passed on the directing duties with the fifth Phantasm, Romero will not be helming George A. Romero Presents: Road of the Dead, this time passing the baton to Matt Birman.

Road of the Dead takes place six years after 2005’s post-apocalyptic Land of the Dead and is set on an island where zombie prisoners race cars in a modern-day Coliseum for the entertainment of wealthy humans.

“In the darkest days of the zombie apocalypse, the last safe place on earth is anything but, as a mad despot uses the spectacle of high octane carnage to keep control of his populous.”

Birman describes the project as Road Warrior meets Rollerball at a Nascar race, with significant inspiration from Ben-Hur.

Birman is the perfect choice to continue Romero’s legacy as he was the second unit director on several “of the dead” films, including Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead.

Romero co-wrote the screenplay with Birman who both produce with Matt Manjourides and Justin Martell.

Below you’ll find our exclusive look at the film’s sales art!

Frontières is an international co-production market and networking platform specifically focused on genre film financing and co-production between Europe and North America. It is organized by the Fantasia International Film Festival, in partnership with the Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes. Frontières began in 2012 at Fantasia and is now the leading industry event entirely focused on genre film.

In 2017, Frontières will present the ninth edition of its annual four-day co-production market at Fantasia in Montreal (July 20-23) where selected genre film projects from across Europe and North America will meet with 400 members of the international film industry.



Previous films to come out of Frontières include the gory festival favorite Turbo Kid, Julia Ducournau’s brutal Raw, the dimension-splattering The Void, Tim Reis’ Bad Blood, James Morrison’s Diverge, and the upcoming slasher The Ranger from Jenn Wexler and Glass Eye Pix.