Living Dead - Dan O'Bannon and John Russo's Living Dead Spin-offs

Dan O'Bannon and John Russo's Living Dead Spin-offs

There are currently two distinct franchises utilizing the Living Dead moniker. The first was Return of the Living Dead, which originated as a novel written in 1978 by John A. Russo. It was later adapted to a film by Dan O'Bannon, which spawned its own series of movies, with a total of four sequels. This could be seen more as a spin-off of Night of the Living Dead rather than sequels, as the first movie treats Night of the Living Dead as a movie that was based on real events.

Russo and producer Tom Fox planned to bring Return of the Living Dead to the screen offering O'Bannon the director's seat, he accepted on the condition he could rewrite the film radically so as to differentiate it from Romero's films. O'Bannon discarded Russo's script in its entirety and rewrote it, retaining only the title and changing the "rules" significantly. His alterations to the canon include the zombies' fixation on brains alone (whereas Romero/Russo zombies will devour any part of a living human), the ability to move rapidly and communicate (despite physical defects that would render such activity impossible), and the ability of 2–4–5 Trioxin to resurrect any deceased life form, regardless of how long the decedent has been interred. Although Russo and O'Bannon were only directly involved with the first film in the series, the rest of the films, to varying degrees, stick to their outline and "rules" established in the first film.

Dan O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead series includes:

1. The Return of the Living Dead (O'Bannon, 1985)
2. Return of the Living Dead Part II (Ken Wiederhorn, 1988)
3. Return of the Living Dead 3 (Brian Yuzna, 1993)
4. Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis (Ellory Elkayem, 2005)
5. Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave (Ellory Elkayem, 2005)

Then, in 1998, Russo went back to the original Night of the Living Dead to reshoot extra sequences into the film. This version, which was officially named Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition, added a subplot, alternate opening, and new score. Children of the Living Dead was then produced as a direct sequel to Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition, as it followed up on scenes that were newly inserted.

Russo's alternate Night of the Living Dead series includes:

1. Night of the Living Dead 30th Anniversary Edition (Russo, 1998)
2. Children of the Living Dead (Tor Ramsey, 2001)