year Day of the Dead premiered, Night of the Living Dead co-writer John Russo released a film titled The Return of the Living Dead that offers an alternate continuity to the original film than Dawn of the Dead. Russo's film spawned four sequels. Return of the Living Dead sparked a legal battle with Romero, who believed Russo marketed his film in direct competition with Day of the Dead as a sequel to the original film. In the case Dawn Associates v. Links, Romero accused Russo of "appropriat[ing] part of the title of the prior work", plagiarizing Dawn of the Dead'''s advertising slogan ("When there is no more room in hell ... the dead will walk the earth"), and copying stills from the original 1968 film. Romero was ultimately granted a restraining order that forced Russo to cease his advertising campaign. Russo, however, was allowed to retain his title. Rise of the Living Dead George Cameron Romero, the son of director George A. Romero, has developed Rise of the Living Dead, a prelude to his father's classic pitched with the working title Origins. The film tracks a six-year period leading up to the story told by his father. George Cameron Romero's script is intended to be an homage to his father's work, a glimpse into the political turmoil of the mid-to-late 1960s, and a bookend piece to his father's original story. Despite raising funds for the film on Indiegogo in 2014, the film has yet to go into production as of 2021. In April 2021, Heavy Metal magazine began publishing a graphic novel adaptation of the story titled The Rise from Romero's script and with art by Diego Yapur. Remakes and other related films The first remake, debuting in 1990, was directed by special effects artist Tom Savini. It was based on the original screenplay but included more gore and a revised plot that portrayed Barbra (Patricia Tallman) as a capable and active heroine. Tony Todd played the role of Ben. Film historian Barry Grant saw the new Barbra as a corrective on the part of Romero. He suggests that the character was made stronger to rectify the depiction of female characters in the original film.<ref name="Grant">{{cite book|last=Grant|first=Barry Keith|chapter=Taking Back the Night of the Living Dead: George Romero, Feminism and the Horror Film|title=The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film|editor=Grant, Barry K.|publisher= University of Texas Press|year= 1996|isbn=978-0-292-72794-6}}</ref> The second remake