Deadjournal

After a strong showing at the Toronto Film Festival, George A. Romero's latest, Diary of the Dead (according to Romero, not a proper installment in the Dead series, though likely to be considered canonical), has been picked up for U.S. distribution by the Weinstein Company. Purchase rights are reportedly somewhere in the $2 to $2.5 million range.

On the upside, this deal includes a theatrical release; some of the offers made for Diary were for direct-to-DVD distribution. On the downside, you might want to make sure you catch it in theaters. The Weinstein Company is Blockbuster-exclusive, so you won't be able to line Diary up in your Netflix queue.

Land of the Dead dislikers should be happy: Romero made Diary for about $10 mil, without studio oversight and the slick production values of the last film. If you can handle some introductory drunken rambling (not Romero's), you'll find here a letter from Romero which makes Diary of the Dead sound pretty appealing, especially for those preferring their zombie flicks sans Leguizamo and all the requisite studio touches.

Romero told an interviewer in Toronto that if the film is a hit, the Weinsteins will ask him to work on another Diary chapter.