We don't know who started them in the first place, but George A Romero has quashed the rumours that he might contribute an episode or two to the AMC series **The Walking Dead.
The zombie maestro still has his own undead fish to fry. Speaking to Shock, on the occasion of Survival of the Dead's US DVD / blu-ray release, he confirmed that if approached by series producer Frank Darabont "I'd probably say no. My zombies are in the closet and I have my own particular way of using them. I'm clinging to my own franchise, as peculiar as that is. It's not big box office, but it's mine."
Romero is often talked up as a sort of directorial stunt casting whenever new zombie projects are mooted: he was nominally attached to the first Resident Evil film for a time. But it seems that, if he does go back to the zombie well, it'll be for his planned two-part Living Dead finale. Given the failure of Survival to secure any sort of significant distribution though (it went straight to DVD here a few months ago and only found the festival circuit, VOD and a very limited theatrical run in the US), the Grand Finale of the Dead may always remain a might-have-been.
Romero isn't stopping though: if the zombies don't pan out, he has other projects up his sleeve. "I'm writing a non-zombie horror thing," he reveals. "It's the first thing I've written where I'm really trying to get under your skin a little bit and actually scare you. Not since Night of the Living Dead have I tried to be creepy with anything. It's all been comic book, tongue-in-cheek scares. A loud scare and a quick movement can make you jump, but it's not scary. So I'm writing that. If the zombie films don't happen, maybe this one will."
Is he talking about Deep Red, or something new? Watch this space for updates...