George Romero's Daughter Made a Gay Zombie Movie, With Her Father's Blessing
'I am his kid. There's no denying it. And he has influenced me greatly.' Romero said. Queens of the Dead will feature Easter eggs to honor her father's legacy. 'And this is his monster, this is his genre. I had fun doing my little Romero nods throughout the film, and we have some good ones,' she shared, including appearances by notable figures such as makeup artist and actor Tom Savini and Dawn of the Dead star Gaylen Ross.
'The zombie apocalypse is such a rich sandbox to play in when it comes to social commentary. I can't be my dad's daughter without making an attempt at saying something with zombies,' Romero told the magazine. 'I did want this to be a film in which I am paying homage to the world and the monster he created, but I'm also introducing my own voice. It's very much not a film he would make, but it is using his vocabulary and is playing by his rules. As far as the queer element, on one hand, I just feel like the gays need a zombie film. It's time that we get to have a big gay zombie movie.'
'I didn't want to touch the genre unless it felt authentic to me,' Romero emphasized. Queens of the Dead revolves around a night in the queer party scene when the nightlife vibes at a warehouse drag show get interrupted by the zombie apocalypse. The inspiration came from intense conflict on social media among party promoters during her stint as a DJ.
Romero recounted, 'The original promoter posted this manifesto begging the question, 'When will the queer community stop devouring its own?' And it hit me like a bolt of lightning. I was like, 'Oh my God! This would be how I want to explore the zombie genre in this world of queer nightlife.'' The Mandalorian baddie Katy O'Brien plays the fictionalized promoter who leads the film; Romero noted that there's a special thanks to Tom Cruise in the credits for letting them take the time off their Mission: Impossible shoot to film the horror flick.
Romero hopes the film will shine a light on the hunger for more genre films that represent an intersection of gay scream queens with that familiar flair for horror and dark comedy from her father's roots. The legendary filmmaker didn't get to see a completed script but mentored his daughter during the development process.
Romero shared, 'He said, 'I love it! Run with it. Go for it.' Unfortunately, he never got to read the completed script because it took me about seven years to get this developed… but I did have this blessing.'
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TN Lottery Mega Millions, Cash4Life winning numbers for July 25, 2025
The Tennessee Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big. Here's a look at July 25, 2025, results for each game: Winning Mega Millions numbers from July 25 drawing 14-21-25-49-52, Mega Ball: 07 Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here. Winning Cash4Life numbers from July 25 drawing 05-15-36-40-60, Cash Ball: 03 Check Cash4Life payouts and previous drawings here. Winning Cash 3 numbers from July 25 drawing Morning: 3-6-0, Wild: 1 Midday: 3-2-7, Wild: 4 Evening: 9-3-1, Wild: 1 Check Cash 3 payouts and previous drawings here. Winning Cash 4 numbers from July 25 drawing Morning: 2-8-9-0, Wild: 0 Midday: 8-4-0-6, Wild: 8 Evening: 5-3-4-6, Wild: 5 Check Cash 4 payouts and previous drawings here. Winning Daily Tennessee Jackpot numbers from July 25 drawing 07-08-12-15-38 Check Daily Tennessee Jackpot payouts and previous drawings here. Winning Tennessee Cash numbers from July 25 drawing 02-04-13-19-24, Bonus: 03 Check Tennessee Cash payouts and previous drawings here. Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results Are you a winner? Here's how to claim your lottery prize All Tennessee Lottery retailers will redeem prizes up to $599. For prizes over $599, winners can submit winning tickets through the mail or in person at Tennessee Lottery offices. By mail, send a winner claim form, winning lottery ticket, a copy of a government-issued ID and proof of social security number to P.O. Box 290636, Nashville, TN 37229. Prize claims less than $600 do not require a claim form. Please include contact information on prizes claimed by mail in the event we need to contact you. To submit in person, sign the back of your ticket, fill out a winner claim form and deliver the form, along with the ticket and government-issued ID and proof of social security number to any of these locations: Nashville Headquarters & Claim Center: 26 Century Blvd., Nashville, TN 37214, 615-254-4946 in the (615) and (629) area, 901-466-4946 in the (901) area, 865-512-4946 in the (865) area, 423-939-7529 in the (423) area or 1-877-786-7529 (all other areas in Tennessee). Outside Tennessee, dial 615-254-4946. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. This office can cash prizes of any amount. Knoxville District Office: Cedar Springs Shopping Center, 9298 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37922, (865) 251-1900. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. This office can cash prizes up to $199,999. Chattanooga District Office: 2020 Gunbarrel Rd., Suite 106, Chattanooga, TN 37421, (423) 308-3610. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. This office can cash prizes up to $199,999. Memphis District Office: Chiles Plaza, 7424 U.S. Highway 64, Suite 104, Memphis, TN 38133, (901) 322-8520. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. This office can cash prizes up to $199,999. Check previous winning numbers and payouts at When are the Tennessee Lottery drawings held? Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Mega Millions: 10:00 p.m. CT Tuesday and Friday. Cash4Life: 9:15 p.m. CT daily. Cash 3, 4: Daily at 9:28 a.m. (Morning) and 12:28 p.m. CT (Midday), except for Sunday. Evening game daily, seven days a week, at 6:28 p.m. CT. Daily Tennessee Jackpot: 9:00 p.m. CT daily. Tennessee Cash: 10:34 p.m. CT Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Powerball Double Play: 10:30 p.m. CT Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Tennessean editor. You can send feedback using this form. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN Lottery Mega Millions, Cash4Life winning numbers for July 25, 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
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"And then there were various things that played into that, I think, over the years, [but] that was probably the seed. And my writing partner, [Adam Cantor], ... something happened with his grandparents that mirrored my experience when I was a very young man. ... And then for me, there was a movie that had a great influence on me, it was Robert Altman's 3 Women, which is set at an elderly spa in the desert. ... I think it's one of the great films ever made, and it has incredible creep factor." While The Home leans into its "creep factor," the majority of people still associate Davidson with comedy, but DeMonaco knew that he had the ability to take on a different genre of storytelling. "He literally lived down the street from me here in Staten Island, ... his mom still lives down the street," DeMonaco said. "People know him as a comic, but I knew him as something else. ... He surprised me at how good an actor he was outside of the comedy." "I wrote it during COVID and my buddy Adam, a local guy too, ... we were writing and thinking, well who's of this age, 26, 27, there's not many names out there. ... We're not going to get Chalamet. I was writing with Pete before that. We were, ... oddly, writing a comedy right before COVID hit, and we were keeping in touch during COVID. ... There was something natural in ... the character of Max in The Home that I felt that Pete could tap into. ... Pete had some trauma in his life, a lot of trauma in his childhood, so I felt he could relate to what Max was going through. Pete's an artist, Max is an artist. And he, I think, purges some of that trauma through his art, and I felt Max was doing what Pete does also. So I felt there was something there." 'I need to be invested in the character's plight' The most lofty task for DeMonaco in The Home is achieving this slow burn of the story, but also building tension effectively to give the audience a powerful final act. "The Purge, I always say, is like a punch in the face. I thought here ... we were building something with various layers and twists and turns that The Purge really doesn't have," DeMonaco said. "I wanted to get to this point where the audience would need a cathartic release, ... as Max did. ... I also wanted them to be so angry at certain characters in the film, without giving anything away, that I felt that they would be looking forward to this last 20 minutes." "Sometimes I think filmmakers were forced, when we work in certain parameters, we have to pull punches. We can't show everything we want to show. And I was like, no, no, if I'm going to do this, we're going to go, we're going to turn it up to 11. ... It's a matter of always giving [the audience] enough, but not too much, especially when you're dealing with somewhat of a mystery." DeMonaco added that having the audience engaged in Max's journey was critical to the build up of tension in the film "I think, hopefully, Pete's engaged in the mystery of what's happening in The Home, and the audience will stay with him and want to follow him," DeMonaco said. "I know that there are some horror films that kind of work just as visceral rides, but I think for me, I need to be invested in the character's plight. So we took a lot of time, I think, trying to build what Max went through, the trauma of his past." "And I think when you get to the editing room, that's where everything changes. And you could throw out all your ideas and say, alright this is going too slow, we need to move this faster. Let's move this scene up here, because we need a little jolt for the audience to give them a little more. ... My producer says it's almost like a a Swiss clock. 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And I wrote a couple of big movies, big budgets compared to what I'm working with now, ... big directors, and I noticed how they were handcuffed by the studio system, because, somewhat understandably, you're dealing with tens of millions of dollars, and that doesn't include marketing budget," DeMonaco explained. "When I worked with Francis Ford Coppola on my first film, I don't think any of us were truly excited by the film. ... He was really handcuffed by the studio. There was a cut of that film that was much darker, much more interesting to Francis and I and my co-writer at the time. Yet, because of the budget level, they even reeled in Francis Ford Coppola." "And so when I saw this [I thought], what are they going to do to me? ... So when I started getting closer to directing, when I met Sébastien Lemercier, my producer, ... we always had somewhat kept the control. ... When we made Purge one we shot it in 18 days, and it was not easy at all. Even This Is The Night we shot in 25 days. ... At the end of the day, I think that not having people tell you what to do, there's a great benefit to that. Having said that, I do wonder what it's like to make a $100 million film and have all those toys." James DeMonaco teases 'Purge 6': 'We meet some really cool women' As DeMonaco shared that he's finished the script for Purge 6, he also addressed navigating the pressure of continuing the franchise, but also doing it from a place of passion. "I did one job, literally, for money, ... and it was terrible. What I wrote was terrible. ... And this probably really limits me, but I have to work from something that comes from another part of me, that is not just motivated by money or just product," DeMonaco said. "So I knew Jason was calling, studio's calling saying, 'Yeah, we want another one.' ... I'll be honest, I wrote one before this one. I had written another one, but the budget was too big. ... We were going to try something different and go big, and that didn't really work out." "So I told Jason and he gets it, Jason's great, he's a wonderful producer. So he's like, 'You've got to feel it.' But I think there's always part of Jason that's like, if you don't feel it, we may have to hand off the reins to someone else. [Sébastien and I], we always said we do have a fear that if we hand it off to someone else, it could be turned into something that we don't like. We always see it as a morality tale, and not that everybody has to see it like that, but ... we want to continue what we see. So it was a little pressure of, I'm afraid what someone else will do with it, but I did stick to my kind of internal guns, like make sure you feel something in your soul, because you know you're not going to do good work otherwise. And I think it worked out, meaning everything kind of came together timing-wise where I had an idea, there was some time to do it, and I just finished The Home, so it all kind of came together nicely." As fans are anxiously waiting to see what DeMonaco has in store for Purge 6, the filmmaker stressed that he always said he wouldn't go back to the franchise if he "didn't have something," but particularly in today's political climate, he had a story to tell. "There's always a sociopolitical commentary within the Purge movies, and I try not to be preachy, although I think I got preachy in four and five, but I try not to be that preachy," DeMonaco said. "We're in such a weird political time now that something hit me about, I guess five months ago when I pitched the studio my new idea, and they seemed to be really jazzed." "I would say that we get to see some of our old favourite characters. ... We meet some really cool women in this one. That's the tease. 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DC Lottery results: See winning numbers for Mega Millions, DC 2 on July 25, 2025
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