‘Underworld’s Kate Beckinsale Officially Starring in George A. Romero’s Final Zombie Movie

One of the most influential franchises in horror history is rising from the grave. George A. Romero‘s decades-spanning zombie movie saga is finally coming to an end, almost ten years after Romero’s own passing. The film is set to star a horror icon of a different stripe in the form of Kate Beckinsale.

According to reports, Beckinsale has been tapped to star in Twilight of the Dead, the final film in the saga that Romero kicked off in 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. The project has been in the works for some time: it was previously to have starred Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil), and be directed by Brad Anderson (Session 9). Directing duties will now be taken over by brotherly duo Doron and Yoav Paz (The Golem). The film is based on a treatment Romero wrote before his 2017 death from lung cancer; it is the conclusion to his zombie saga, which took place over the course of six films, and will center around the last remnants of humanity dealing with both internecine conflict and the evolving threat of the undead.

What Zombie Movies Did George A. Romero Make?

In 1968, Romero directed and co-wrote (with John Russo) Night of the Living Dead; shot for a pittance in the Pennsylvania countryside, the film redefined terror for a horror-hungry audience, and served as a template for every zombie movie, TV show, and novel that followed it. It became a massive success, but thanks to a typographical error in the film’s credits, it immediately went into the public domain, ensuring that Romero saw little reward for his efforts. He returned to the genre in 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, a satire on consumerism that saw a band of survivors holing up inside a shopping mall; a follow-up, 1985’s Day of the Dead, criticized the military-industrial complex and also showed the undead (who are never referred to as “zombies” in Romero’s works) begin to evolve out of their mindless state. After a lengthy break from the genre, Romero returned with a bang in 2005’s Land of the Dead, a commentary on the stratification of society. Two more zombie films followed: 2007’s Diary of the Dead, a found-footage horror film, and 2009’s little-loved Survival of the Dead, which would prove to be Romero’s last film.