For legendary filmmaker George A. Romero, it's deathly ironic how some his cautionary tales have come to fruition, even if it takes 40 years.

The zombies, in Romero's iconic 1968 horror film "Night of the Living Dead," of course, came back to life thanks to radiation from a satellite returning from orbit.

It's an ironic thought, considering that the military shot down a spy satellite Wednesday night before it could enter Earth's atmosphere -- a satellite that contains hazardous fuel that could pose danger to people.

And even more ironic, how it happened on the eve of an international tour Romero and his cast and crew are embarking upon to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the film -- which kicks off with a Thursday night screening of the film in Dallas at Texas Frightmare Weekend.

"All of the 'Living Dead' folks are here in Dallas, and we were having a chuckle about the satellite being shot down producing the same effect (as the film)," Romero said with a huge laugh in an @ The Movies interview. "We were thinking, 'What if that toxic s--- that they're worrying about causes some sort of zombie-ism?'"

Presented by the AFI Dallas 2008 International Film Festival, the screening of the film will be accompanied by a question and answer session with co-writer/director Romero, as well as cast members Marilyn Eastman, Bill Hinzman, George Kosana, Judith O'Dea and Kyra Schon. Also on hand for the event are co-writer John Russo and Russ Streiner -- the film's co-producer who doubled as an actor playing the bespectacled Johnny -- the first living human to fall prey to the living dead in the film.

While the film shocked audiences with its graphic depiction of zombies eating human flesh, "Night of the Living Dead" is perhaps just as notable for its poignant sociopolitical commentary.

The interesting thing is, Romero, Russo and Streiner never set out to make a film that dealt with such hot-button issues as race relations. It just accidentally morphed into that with casting of African-American actor Duane Jones, who plays the protagonist Ben.

"We cast Duane Jones because he was the best actor from among our friends," recalled Romero of the performer, who died in 1988. "We thought we were being very hip for not changing the script. We recognized that in those days, you didn't cast an African-American actor in a role that was basically written for a white guy. If you transpose the it and take Duane out of there and put a white guy in there -- just an angry truck-driver type -- then movie is not as impactful, even though it's the same script."

The strange thing is, Romero said, the racial implications of having Jones taking the role didn't even occur to them, but the actor recognized it straight away.

"Duane said to me, 'You're asking me to slug a white woman. Do you realize what's going to happen to me when I walk out of this theater?' Romero recalled. "He was really sensitive to it, but we just saying, 'Come on, man, we're all '60s guys here, we're way past that s---.'"

Only after the "Night of the Living Dead" was completed -- a film which ends with Ben being shot by a white posse -- did a tragic event make Romero and company realize what kind of socially-significant film they had on their hands.

"Russ Streiner and I were driving to New York with a print of the film to show it to potential distributors," Romero said. "That night in the car, we heard that Martin Luther King had been assassinated. So, all of a sudden the impact of the film hit us."

Seeing the potential to inject commentary into his films, Romero made certain that the narratives of his future zombie films -- "Dawn of the Dead," "Day of the Dead" and "Land of the Dead" -- did not happen by accident.

"When people started to write about 'Night of the Living Dead,' calling it 'essential American cinema' and all that s---, that was one of the reasons I resisted doing another one for a while," said Romero, who didn't release 'Dawn' until 1978. "I said, 'I've got to have some substance underneath here. When I did get around to doing it, it became a conceit of mine to use African-American leads, and use some underlying sociopolitical satire and so forth."

Unfortunately for fans, Romero's films have been few and far between. But when audience do get a new "Dead" film, they're in for something that has, well, some life in it.

"I'm comforted by the fact that there's a story there," Romero said. "And while they are political, I'm not trying to preach. They're my opinions, of course, but they are also snapshots of the times. The first four 'Dead' films were 10 years apart or more, and I have a good feeling that I was able to chronicle things. If you watch all of them back-to-back, you'll get a picture of how the attitudes of North America has changed over that period of time. Even stylistically, I was trying to emulate the movies of the time."

Released in select theaters last week, Romero's fifth "Dead" film -- "Diary of the Dead" -- keys in a group of student filmmakers who set out to make a horror film, only to change the direction and make it a documentary when a catastrophic event produces real zombies.

Again, the 68-year-old filmmaker wasn't about to spoil an opportunity to make another comment about the times we live in.

"I wanted to do something about this emerging age of media, which is pretty scary to me," Romero said. "Everyone out there, basically, is encouraged to say whatever they want and throw up a blog. People are so obsessed -- they're invited in the middle of Super Tuesday to get a shot of a tornado in Arkansas so cable networks can put it on the air.

"Everybody has a camera phone, with Virginia Tech, everything that we saw was just shot by folks out there," Romero added. "It's a lot of information and often times that information is just opinion or perspective. It's completely unmanaged. I find it frightening."

At least for the "Night of the Living Dead" 40th anniversary tour, Romero and company will be in manageable confines, where they can enjoy the company of admirers, and each other.

Not too shabby for a film that cost $100,000 to shoot -- a small film that defined the zombie genre and transcended so many lives and careers. And lucky for Romero, many of the core members that made it happen are with him today and for much of the year to celebrate it.

"When we got together last night, we were talking about how we when we made this little movie, we never thought it would do anything," Romero said. "We were thrilled when it went out into drive-ins and neighborhood theaters, and in 6 months, it returned three- or four-times what it cost us to make. After that, we thought it was over."

"And now here it is again, 40 years later with the same little bunch of guys, but we're touring the world with it," Romero added. "To think that this whole gang is going to be in Spain, Russia and Australia together, is stunning."