Back in the day, George Romero made a nifty little cult classic called "Night of the Living Dead" for $114,000. "Boy, do I wish that was all it took now," he said yesterday, talking about financial decisions forcing his fourth zombie movie to Toronto instead of Pittsburgh.

"The franchise was born there. It's just so frustrating and so disappointing, I can't tell you," he said from the Jersey shore, where he has spent his very short vacation talking on the cell phone.

"I came to Pittsburgh to go to college, and I just fell in love with the place," writer-director Romero said. "My entire career has been here. I've always been able to say, 'Hey, guys, we can have the dance here.' It's just terrible you can't do it. You can't fight the bucks." A 45-day shoot is scheduled to start in Canada in early October.

Pittsburgh native Bernie Goldmann, president of Atmosphere Entertainment, which is producing the film, confirmed Tuesday that "Land of the Dead" is headed to Toronto, where it can save $2 million in tax rebates, plus take advantage of the currency exchange.

The movie, with a budget of as much as $20 million, is set in Pittsburgh. "We're going to lobby to get at least a couple of days here. I'm the wrong guy to talk to; I don't make those decisions," said Romero, who had planned to shoot Downtown and in McKees Rocks, Green Tree and other nearby locations.

"The movie is based on the idea that you could fortify a city like Pittsburgh [against zombies], with rivers on two sides, a base at the triangle of less than a mile ... a subway that runs in over the bridge. I had all that stuff written in. Now we're going to have to create it or fake it or whatever. I'd love to get a few exteriors of the actual city, but it's not like bringing the movie into town."

It would be second-unit work by a small crew. "It will be bupkis. The biggest benefit is, I can sleep in my own bed for two nights." Romero estimates the movie might have brought $15 million into the region, and he, like Goldmann, acknowledged the efforts made by Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and many others.

"It's just very hard when there's a $2 million to $3 million difference," and he and Gold- mann have called new legislation designed to lure TV and movie makers here untried and imperfect. "It might attract some lower-budget films, I don't know. It's not good legislation, and most of the producers I know are just not going to gamble on it," Romero said.

State Rep. Tom Stevenson, R-Mt. Lebanon, who wrote the House bill and later saw it changed in a Senate committee, agreed it was "tragic" that the city lost the film.

The timing for "Dead" was off, he said, coming so soon in the process. "Let's give the bill some time to work, and if it's not working properly ... then it's time to change the bill," perhaps in six months to a year.

"You have situations where people are going to use the [tax] credit. Just because it didn't work with Bernie Goldmann doesn't mean it's not going to work at all."