Film Forum

Following the opening night 7:30 show of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, producer Russ Streiner (who also plays Johnny), actor/sound engineer Gary Streiner, and George Romero’s co-screenwriter John Russo will appear in person for a post-film Q&A. 

Russ Streiner is best known among film fans for his role as “Johnny” in the 1968 George A. Romero classic, Night Of The Living Dead. Russ was also a producer of that film and is one of the principals of Image Ten, Inc. the company that owns Night. Russ is the founder and chairperson of the Pittsburgh Film Office that has been hosting major movie production in Pittsburgh for more than 27 years.

John Russo began by co-authoring the screenplay for the horror classic, Night of the Living Dead, and went on to create or co-create many international hits including Return of the Living Dead, Midnight, The Majorettes, and The Awakening. His three books on the art and craft of movie making have become bibles of independent production, and one of them, Scare Tactics, won a national award for Superior Nonfiction. His screenplay for Escape of the Living Dead was made into a five-part comic book released by Avatar to great acclaim; it made the Top Ten of Horror Comics nationally and spawned two graphic novels and ten sequels. Russo's latest zombie novel is The Hungry Dead, published by Kensington Books. He is also slated to direct two movies: a remake of his cult hit, Midnight, and a brand new take on the "zombie phenomenon" entitled Spawn of the Dead.

Gary Streiner started his career in filmmaking in his senior year of high school, going to school half day and working at Latent Image the second half. A little over two years later he became the sound engineer on the classic film Night of the Living Dead. He was one of the original ten people to invest into a company called Image Ten, the production company of record for Night. After 11 years at Latent Image he moved on to work with other Pittsburgh film companies and in the mid-80s he changed his career path and went into the advertising agency business where, as an executive producer, he worked on national and international advertising. While working on American Express with Jerry Seinfeld he went onto produce a documentary with Jerry called Comedian. Currently he is working at Image Ten on the relaunch of the Night of the Living Dead brand.

Related Films

Listen