 John A. Russo (qv) wrote a script called "The Return of the Living  Dead" at the same time that George Romero was doing  _Dawn of the Dead (1978)_ (qv). An independent producer,  Tom Fox (I) (qv), bought Russos script. He set up production and  gave the script to Dan OBannon (qv). OBannon refused to direct  it as it was written. He felt that it was too much of a serious  attempt at making a sequel to  _Night of the Living Dead (1968)_ (qv), and did not want to  "...intrude so directly on Romeros turf". It was re