Breaking News: Frank Darabont Resurrects The Walking Dead at AMC!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
By: MrDisgusting

I'm so happy right now, I think I might cry. Have you read Image Comics' The Walking Dead yet? No? Do you live under a rock? It's too expensive you say? You sit at a Barnes and Nobles and read it there. No excuses allowed here fellas, it's time to go forth and read Robert Kirkman's comic masterpiece that's finally making its move to live-action.

While I expected to see this land at HBO or Showtime, AMC has landed the property and attached filmmaking guru Frank Darabont (The Mist, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption) to write and direct the series. What could be better? Seriously, nothing could be better. NOTHING. Read on for all the fine print.



AMC is venturing into zombie-drama territory with multi-hyphenate Frank Darabont.

Cable is close to finalizing one of the richest development deals ever with Darabont to write and direct a series adaptation of the Image Comics graphic novel series "The Walking Dead," penned by Robert Kirkman. Gale Anne Hurd of Valhalla Pictures and David Alpert of Circle of Confusion are also on board to exec produce.

The project is set among a group of zombie survivors of an apocalypse who are led by a police officer, Rick Grimes, in search of a safe place to live. What makes this comic special is that it's about the survivors and NOT about the zombies.



Numerous editions of the "Walking Dead" graphic novels have been published since 2003.

Joel Stillerman, AMC's senior veep of programming, production and original content, said the project appealed to the cabler because of "the quality of the storytelling" in Kirkman's work. The series will stay faithful to the tone of the original novels, he said.

"This is not about zombies popping out of closets," Stillerman said. "This is a story about survival, and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to survive under these circumstances. The world (in 'Walking Dead') is portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way."

Stillerman noted that the cabler's annual "Fear Fest" movie showcase around Halloween is one of AMC's most popular programming events of the year.

"We've got an audience that loves this kind of material," he said.



Darabont and Hurd pitched the project to AMC and several other outlets. There is no studio attached yet. The duo's involvement made the project a must-have for the cabler, Stillerman said.

"These are two world-class filmmakers who are also brilliant storytellers with experience in the fantasy genre," he said.

Hands down, best. news. of. the. year. DON'T F*CK THIS UP.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/17047

Kirkman Talks AMC's Walking Dead Series
Source: MTV
September 30, 2009

When AMC teamed with Frank Darabont (The Mist) to develop a television series out of Robert Kirkman's "The Walking Dead," it instantly became a "most anticipated" project.

Kirkman will serve as an executive producer on the series while Darabont will write and direct for producers Gale Anne Hurd (a genre vet, look 'er up) of Valhalla Motion Pictures and David Alpert of Circle of Confusion.


"I've told Frank flat-out that I do not want him to follow the comic to the detriment of the show," Kirkman tells MTV in a recent interview.

"I encourage him to veer off if he has something that will work really well on TV that wouldn't work in a comic. I don't want people who enjoy the comic to be watching the TV show and going, 'Oh, this is leading to that one thing I already know about from the comic.' I think it will be 100-percent true to the tone of the series, but at the same time it will be an entertaining, secondary way of experiencing 'The Walking Dead' in a completely different light, so I'm excited."


Again, so are we. But are you nervous that AMC might temper some of the nastier moments (the zombie stuff)? Don't worry, so far the only thing they're concerned about is Darabont's use of the "F bomb" in his scripts.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=12060

Green Light Means Go for The Walking Dead!
Source: Variety
January 20, 2010

"Exciting times." So says "The Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman on his Twitter account. Why?

AMC just gave the green light to the television adaptation of "The Walking Dead"! This means Frank Darabont will be moving behind the camera soon to direct the pilot he penned.



Darabont was attached to the property last summer. Genre lover and producer Gale Anne Hurd is overseeing the series with Circle of Confusion.

If all goes according to plan, Darabont may be neck-deep in the undead this spring or summer telling the story of Rick Grimes, a cop who awakens in a hospital one day to find zombies have overrun the world.


Can't wait to see what he does...

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=13750

Exclusive: A review of the pilot script for The Walking Dead TV series
Posted by Patrick Sauriol
Sunday, January 24, 2010

Is there such a thing as having too much dead people in your entertainment quota?

The answer to that question will only be known if AMC decides to give a greenlight to a TV series based on Robert Kirkman's ongoing comic book series about life after the zombie apocalypse, The Walking Dead.



If you haven't been paying attention, the 2000s saw the zombie finally rise to mainstream status with a horde of well-received movies in this monster genre: the Resident Evil films (with a fourth now in production); a remake of Dawn of the Dead; 28 Days Later and its sequel which gave the idea of a slow moving corpse a twist with its fast runners; zombie comedies Zombieland and Fido; and the return of the father of modern zombie cinema, George A. Romero, with two new ghoul films, Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead (and there's a third forthcoming, Survival of the Dead.)




With all of that box office success one would think that television executives would be looking to cash in on the zombie hype and get a TV series on the air.

Actually, one network did try: back in 2007 CBS ordered a pilot called Babylon Fields which could be best described as a drama set after the dead return from the grave. After viewing the pilot the network decided that the show didn't fit in with the network's fall schedule, and so a series was never ordered.


So much for zombies on the tube, right?



Well, not really. Just like any good zombie it's hard to keep the idea of a zombie TV series dead and buried.

Last summer the rights to Kirkman's Walking Dead were sold to AMC. Fans of the book may have felt somewhat reassured when it was also mentioned that Frank Darabont would be directing the pilot, as well as writing the pilot's screenplay and serving as an executive producer on the show.

The director of The Shawshank Redemption, The Majestic, The Green Mile and The Mist, Darabont was also a producer on a proposed sequel to The Thing, the 1982 John Carpenter movie.

Unfortunately that four-hour mini-series never got further than the screenplay stage, but when I reviewed it last year, I found the script to be an outstanding idea for a continuation of The Thing.

If Darabont could bring some of that quality found in the Thing mini-series sequel to The Walking Dead TV show, then AMC's Mad Men audience may be in for a real ride.





Only as recently as last week did AMC order a pilot to be made from Darabont's Walking Dead screenplay. If the cable network likes what they see then there'll be a Walking Dead TV series coming as soon as this fall or perhaps around the start of 2011.


So, here is the big question: does Darabont's Walking Dead pilot have the necessary ingredients to be not just a decent horror TV series but a good drama?

The answer: Yes, it does.




Contained in Darabont's 60-page pilot script are all the elements to make the show a success. There's plenty of horror that happens in those 60 pages.

The director's script covers the broad range of the zombie horror emotional spectrum, such as giving us moments of extreme gore (hey, any zombie TV show wouldn't be a zombie show if it didn't have folks being munched on!), moments of shock value (hey, you didn't think that there was a zombie hiding behind that car, did you?) and the moments that I believe are the best indicator that The Walking Dead TV series has what it takes to transcend the boundaries of being simply labelled a horror show, the psychological horror scenes.

Those scenes are the hammers that you're going to remember and the ones that are going to propel this show to be viewed as something more important than just a scary show.





If you're familiar with the beginnings of the comic then you'll be on familiar ground when you watch the pilot episode, even though it would appear that Darabont isn't interested in making a direct adaptation of the comic book's origin story.


Our hero is Officer Rick Grimes, a deputy for a small Georgia town outside of Atlanta. About 15 pages into our story Grimes is involved in a police incident where he receives a near-fatal injury. After being taken to the hospital and falling into a short coma, our law enforcement man awakens to find the hospital empty and the telltale signs that something very bad has gone down while he was out.

The way that Darabont chooses to introduce Grimes to the post-zombie world is nearly identical to the opening moments of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later but it's forgivable; the impact of the changed world is that much more heightened with Grimes serving as our introduction to it.

From there Grimes tries to find his family, his wife Lori and their young son Carl. He returns to his home and finds the neighborhood deserted, his wife and son gone. Still not fully comprehending what's happened, Grimes is saved by another father and son who have taken up shelter in a neighbor's house. From these two survivors Grimes learns about the zombie plague and the rules of life: if you're bitten, if a zombie so much as scratches you, you become infected, you die and then you become a zombie yourself.


We're also shown some of the rules of the game that the Walking Dead zombies adhere to: there are "walkers", the ones that slowly come up to you. The walkers are slow and a head shot will take them out. That said, there's a lot of walkers out there and if they decide to come at you at once, save that last bullet for yourself, you dig?


From his new neighbors Grimes is told that his family may have decided to head into Atlanta where the government was setting up a safety zone. With that info, Grimes heads off by himself and makes his way into the city. What happens in the next 20-or-so minutes is pretty intense for our hero and I want to leave it for Darabont to show to you.




I'm not sure if Darabont is the kind of guy that puts in camera effects into all of his screenplays but in his Walking Dead script there are a couple of places where he describes the visual tricks that he wants to do to heighten the surreal nature of a scene.

There's a moment where Grimes is in a tough situation and has to fire a pistol at close quarters at a zombie. In the environment that he's in, Grimes is momentarily deafened by the blast.


In Darabont's script, the description of what we the viewer should experience to communicate the deafness is in there. Reading that sort of scene as well as a few others like that made me more interested in seeing what Darabont's visual style is going to be in this show.

If you were a fan of the comic book before, now you know that the pilot's set-up of the Walking Dead story follows a similar arc as the comic's but it's not exact. I'd guess that about half to two-thirds of the first two issues are contained in the pilot episode but there's also new material.

For instance, we now get to see the incident that brought Grimes to the hospital (the comic begins with him coming to in his deserted room) and there's some changes with what happens when he is in Atlanta that differ with the comic's depiction of events. Darabont seems to know what he's doing and in the places where he chooses to include new material, with his changes/additions better serving the story and bring more characterization (at the beginning and middle) and intensity (at the end).

In particular there was a new revelation concerning the plight of the other father that Grimes finds living in his old neighborhood that's not in the comic. This new material really underscored the sense of what kind of deep and unsettling world the survivors are now living in.




Darabont's also done a solid job of knowing what works from The Walking Dead and sometimes reproducing it exactly in his screenplay, such as the case with the bicycle Grimes comes across and the reaction of its former owner to the officer's arrival.



The Walking Dead pilot doesn't sell out its concept for the sake of finding a wider audience. This is a show set in a world where families have died and the survivors haven't had the time to cope with their losses, much less come to terms with civilization collapsing around them.

Knowing the course that Kirkman's comic book takes and now after seeing how Darabont's chose to make the pilot more of a drama than a flat-out horror action show, AMC's Walking Dead has fantastic potential.


The Walking Dead could even do for horror what the new Battlestar Galactica did for science fiction. Cross your fingers and hope that the show comes together as well as it did on the page.

http://coronacomingattractions.com/news/exclusive-review-pilot-script-walking-dead-tv-series

TV: The Walking Dead Pilot to Begin Lensing in May
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Bloody Disgusting has learned that a May 15 start date has been locked for the pilot episode of "The Walking Dead", AMC's live-action comic book adaptation being directed by Frank Darabont.

Shooting will commence in Atlanta, GA with hopes of bringing us a new TV series based on one of the greatest comics of all time.



Published by Image Comics, Robert Kirkman's tale chronicles the travels of a group of people trying to survive in a world stricken by a zombie apocalypse.

The Walking Dead is centered on Rick Grimes, a small-town police officer from Cynthiana, Kentucky, his family, and a number of other survivors who have banded together in order to survive after the world is overrun with zombies. As the series progresses, the characters become more developed, and their personalities shift under the stress of a zombie apocalypse.

Fighting growing despair — and sometimes each other — the group searches for a secure location which they can finally call home.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/19047

First Actor Announced for "Walking Dead"
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
March 26, 2010


Frank Darabont and AMC's series "The Walking Dead" has begun casting.

Jon Bernthal will play Shane, best friend to the lead character Rick Grimes who has not been cast yet.

Bernthal has starred in "Eastwick" and he played Al Capone in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.



"The Walking Dead" is based on the on-going comic book series by Robert Kirkman. It follows Grimes, a police officer who awakens from a coma to a zombie apocalypse.

He sets out with other survivors to find his family and a safe haven from the flesh-eaters.



Darabont begins shooting in a few months.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=14658

FX Shop Locked for "The Walking Dead"
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
March 29, 2010


No stranger to the undead, Greg Nicotero confirmed to Shock Till You Drop that KNB Effects Group - which he co-operates with Howard Berg - is pulling zombie duties on "The Walking Dead".

This re-teams the shop with writer-director Frank Darabont. They last worked together on 2007's Stephen King adaptation The Mist. KNB recently wrapped Predators in Texas.



KNB's recent history with zombies includes overseeing the work on Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead (Nicotero served as a makeup FX producer on both) and creating the undead for Land of the Dead and "Masters of Horror".

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=14673

AMC Orders Up More "Walking Dead"
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
March 29, 2010


AMC must be digging what Frank Darabont is cooking up for "The Walking Dead". Six episodes have been ordered and the network is wisely aiming for an October debut.

Just in time for the Halloween season and AMC's annual Fearfest!



Darabont is still trying to find his leading man for Rick Grimes who, as you might know from reading Robert Kirkman's "Walking Dead" comic books, is the police officer who wakes up from a coma and must contend with survival during a zombie uprising.

Jon Bernthal has been cast as Shane, Grimes' partner and friend.




Charlie Collier, AMC President, says in a press release, "With its depth of story and the remarkable talent attached, "The Walking Dead" gives us an opportunity to raise the bar significantly within this popular genre, and continue our commitment to being the home of premium programming on basic cable."



"The Walking Dead" begins production in June in Atlanta with six, one-hour episodes for season one.

KNB EFX is handling the make-up, as we reported this morning.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=14680

TV: Rick Grimes Officially Cast in AMC's "The Walking Dead"
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


In the end, AMC has cast Andrew Lincoln as the lead in its zombie apocalypse thriller "The Walking Dead", the Frank Darabont adaptation that goes behind camera this June in Atlanta.

Lincoln ("Teachers," "Enduring Love") will play Rick Grimes, a small-town cop who leads a group of survivors in their struggle against a world besieged by zombies.

As previously announced, Jon Bernthal will play Shane, a survivor who was Rick's police partner before the zombie disaster.



"Andrew Lincoln, wow -- what an amazing find this guy is," said Robert Kirkman, who wrote the comic book series upon which the series is based.

"Writing Rick Grimes month after month in the comic series, I had no idea he was an actual living breathing human being, and yet here he is. I couldn't be more thrilled with how this show is coming together."



AMC has already ordered 6 episodes.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/19714

Bit 'O "Walking Dead" Clarification
Source: BrandonRouth.com
April 12, 2010


The morning began with some news circulating around the web that Brandon Routh was potentially going to co-star in the Frank Darabont/AMC series "The Walking Dead".

Not bad, not bad. But it ain't true.




The official site for the actor debunked this rumor via Twitter stating he is not on board, contrary to those reports that spread like wildfire.

Besides, if he was cast, I could only picture him as Shane, best friend to the Rick Grimes character. But Shane's shoes have already been filled by actor Jon Bernthal.

Andrew Lincoln stars as Rick.




Normally, we'd skirt rumors like this one if we were not sure of it ourselves, but as the story blew up throughout the day, we thought we'd give you an update regardless.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=14844

Darabont Regular Joins Cast of "Walking Dead"
Source: FearNET
April 17, 2010


This is all kinds of perfect.

FearNET reports actor Jeffrey DeMunn has joined the cast of "The Walking Dead", AMC's highly anticipated television series based on Robert Kirkman's comic book of the same name.

He'll join actors Andrew Lincoln, as Rick, and Jon Bernthal cast as Shane. The site speculates DeMunn will fill the role of Dale, and we'd bet money on that, too.





DeMunn has appeared in "Walking Dead" director Frank Darabont's previous efforts The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Majestic and The Mist.

He has also starred in "Stephen King's Storm of the Century".




Darabont and company are currently in Atlanta, Georgia prepping for principal photography.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=14896

Exclusive: Frank Darabont Talks "The Walking Dead"
April 19, 2010


On Friday, April 16, the Dallas Film Society presented Frank Darabont with a Star Award for his considerable body of work, which includes The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist among other screenwriting and directing projects.

Earlier that day, FEARnet sat down with Darabont to talk about the honor of receiving the award, what it means to reflect personally and professionally on his body of work, and what’s in store for horror fans as he moves into production on "The Walking Dead", a forthcoming television series based on Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel series about zombies for which Darabont has already been commissioned by AMC to produce six episodes.





FEARnet: What did they tell you when they invited you out to give you this award?

Frank Darabont: Come out, we’ll give you an award – we want to give you this nice award to honor you and your work. I said okay, why not? There’s nothing to complain about there.

I kind of wondered why I was chosen, or asked to be the guy for this, but what the heck? Do not look a gift horse in the mouth. Just thank the horse.







Do you see threads that run through your work, either when you’re doing films, or in retrospect?

For example, notwithstanding the choice of doing multiple Stephen King adaptations, you did A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 early in your career, and then did The Mist later on?

Does it occur to you at any level that you do or don’t gravitate towards material that could be similar in concept or theme to what you’ve already done?

As a writer and as a filmmaker, you do find yourself drawn to themes that are consistent. There’s a certain resonance throughout the work that I’ve found you’re not even really aware of until afterwards – hindsight being the perfect tool, of course.

You look back and go, oh, wow, there is a commonality between Shawshank Redemption and The Majestic; there’s a commonality between The Green Mile and The Mist.


The specifics are quite different, but sort of the underlying themes – I mean, The Mist is sort of the anti-Shawshank, isn’t it, in that it’s examining hopelessness instead of hope, you know? It’s more condemning human nature than praising it, and yet it pivots on the same fulcrum.

And in a sense, it’s also a prison movie – people are trapped in a supermarket and trying out what to make of their lives. In a way The Majestic is a prison movie too – there’s no prison in it at all, but it’s a guy trapped in his life that is like a prison to him, and given an opportunity to step out of the gate and be his better self.

So you do find these themes that do recur in you work, but only after the fact. One of these days I’d like to do something that’s completely different from those.







When I spoke to you about The Green Mile coming out on DVD a few years ago, you talked about the frustrating experience of writing the Indiana Jones script.

Talking about the idea of recognizing themes and inspirations in retrospect, do you feel that The Mist was perhaps some exploration of that frustration with Indiana Jones as it related to a sense of hopelessness?

I think The Mist was really my exploration of my frustration with the 21st century thus far, and where the hopelessness and divisiveness that human beings seem to be embracing and which indeed this country seems to be embracing, which I find heartbreaking because I’ve always loved this country. That was really much more of a political film than my personal bitchfest about things in my career that haven’t gone right.

But I think the Indiana Jones situation was simply one of those experiences where… hey, there’s a great line in Reservoir Dogs where Steve Buscemi says “some guys are lucky, and some ain’t,” and that’s true of everybody and their careers as well.

You never know going in whether something is going to land with a hollow thud or land with grace and beauty, or not land at all. We all weather these peaks and valleys, and I hope to weather my successes and failures with equal grace.







Could you talk about "The Walking Dead" a little bit? Zombieland came out last year-

A great movie.





It was a great movie, but originally it was supposed to be a TV series.

Do you feel emboldened by the success of that film, or does that fact that it was considered better-suited for film prove intimidating?

It’s going to be a very different animal, it really is, so Zombieland, as much as I do love it, because boy is it a great comedy, and I laughed my ass off, it’s more in the world of Shaun of the Dead, another of my favorite movies, that is in the kind of world that we’re going to be trying to create.

Robert Kirkman’s comic book series, the graphic novel series, is very much a template for us, and it’s a tremendous opportunity to take the subject as serious as possible, and really as a long-term exploration of characters, which is what television does best when television is really working.


That’s our goal, so gosh, I really don’t think that Zombieland is any competition for us nor are we for them.

It’s really going to be I think two different animals. We’re much more beholden to Kirkman, which is a comfortable place to be because he has blazed a fantastic trail for us to follow.

We will take detours along that path – we will take steps off the trail – but always wind up veering back onto the trail that Robert provides for us, because it’s fantastic stuff.







Does that source material provide you with a pretty complete template for the rules of that world? Because notwithstanding Zombieland last year, of course there’s a great legacy of zombie films.

Okay, that’s the intimidating part (laughs). Because that actually proves to be actually a deep pool of very, very good stuff. Boy, there’s a lot of good stuff that’s been done. You see all of these home runs along the way and you go, how will I do?

I don’t want to posit ourselves as being competition for any of those films, but I hope that we’ll be considered at least in the category of that good stuff as we go along – that it was worthy stuff to do.

And I think Robert has given us a tremendous leg up, a head start in that sense.







Have you thought about what sort of platform will be required to execute these stories as the show progresses?

Network broadcasts might limit what you could do in terms of gore, but cable channels like HBO would give you greater latitude.

I think there’s going to be obviously an ongoing dialogue with standards and practices, but I think we have a friendly venue in AMC, if you see the kind of edgy stuff that "Breaking Bad" is doing, which I adore, by the way.

I don’t think we’re going to be lacking for adult content or the ability to depict the world that we’re depicting. I don’t think we’re going to have that many constraints, and if there are they’ll be in minor increments that will not affect the storytelling that we’re doing.

It will just give us an opportunity to maybe do an enhanced cut on DVD or something, but I really don’t think we’ll be constrained too far. I’m certainly not getting the sense that AMC is there to interfere; they are a fantastic group of folks, and they’re very excited about this. They really want to enable rather than hinder this process.







Is that what’s immediately next on your slate?

Mmm-hmm. Oh yeah, hell, I just got off the plane from Atlanta where we’re scouting. We’re in prep right now, we’re casting, and we’re shooting the first of six episodes in June, the top of June.

So we’re what, seven weeks out now?







How many of the cast and crew people are assembled at this point?

We are right now looking to cast the two female roles in the ensemble.

We’ve also just gotten Jeff DeMunn; I’ve always said Jeff DeMunn is my good luck charm, and I can’t make a film without him. We’ve just gotten him on board as one of the ensemble members, which is a great joy for me.


One of the great pleasures of doing anything is to be able to reconvene with those colleagues who have the talent and provide you with the comfort zone of great collaborative, positive energy. Not to sound like Andy Hardy here, but if you’re going to go do a show in a barn, do it with people who have really got the talent and are great to work with, and so far that’s all coming together.

Not just in the cast end, but on the crew end. I’m working with people I really value and really treasure. And it may not mean anything to the general public, but to have my first A.D. Casey Caldwell on this means the world to me.


To have my production designer Greg Melton on this means the world to me. I’m going to get to work with David Tattersall again, and he’s going to shoot the pilot for me. I haven’t had the chance to work with him since The Majestic, so it’s been about ten years, and he is one of the great gentlemen in his line of work, and one of the great talents.

All of these people are. So I’m very lucky that way, and these are people that will have your back. They will go the extra mile.







Does David’s participation mean that you’re planning to shoot it digitally?

No! Actually we’re not going to shoot it digitally. We’re going to go old-school – we’re going to go film. I tested all of the different camera systems that are available at the moment because I was very keen actually on trying out the digital approach, and then I realized that I was really going to shoot myself in the foot because I did, simply because the nature of this particular show made me consider you want what you’re shooting on to help the make-up instead of hurt the make-up – let’s start there.


Hi-def is a little merciless when it comes to these things, so we’re shooting on film. This is going to be a show where people are hiding places and looking out windows and doors and stuff; well, if what’s outside that door is completely blown-out, nuclear white because digital doesn’t have the latitude that film does, you’d better shoot on film because you want whatever is outside to look like outside. You want to see walls and trees, and even if it’s overexposed, there’s a sense of reality to it. if you’re shooting digitally and you point at the door and all there is is white, you might as well shoot on a sound stage and hang a white silk out there.


By necessity, you pick the thing that you think will help the show the best, and yeah – we’re going to be shooting old school.

http://www.fearnet.com/news/interviews/b18841_exclusive_frank_darabont_talks_walking.html

TV: Rick Grimes' Wife Lori Cast for AMC's "The Walking Dead"
Friday, April 30, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Sarah Wayne Callies ("Prison Break") has just scored the female lead in AMC's eagerly anticipated "The Walking Dead" series, based on Robert Kirkman’s megapopular comic books, reports EW.


The Ausiello Files fave will portray Lori Grimes, the slowly-unraveling wife of the show’s hero, Rick (Andrew Lincoln).

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20036

TV: Casting Rounding Out for Darabont's "The Walking Dead"
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


AMC continues to add to the cast of Frank Darabont's apocalyptic zombie drama "The Walking Dead" by tapping Laurie Holden (Silent Hill) for the role of Andrea, a key member of the survivor group who has a proficiency with a sniper rifle and falls for a man twice her age.

Holden was in writer-producer-director Darabont's The Mist and had a recurring role in the final season of FX's "The Shield."


In addition, newcomer Steven Yeun has been added to the cast as Glenn. He and Holden join Andrew Lincoln, Jeffrey DeMunn and Jon Bernthal on the show.



The Image Comics adaptation is set among a group of zombie survivors of an apocalypse who are led by a police officer, Rick Grimes, in search of a safe place to live.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20086

Robert Kirkman tells Quint about the Frank Darabont WALKING DEAD TV series!!!
Published on Wednesday, May 26, 2010


Ahoy, squirts! Quint here.

Yeah, so I geeked out a little bit on Robert Kirkman. Sue me. The Walking Dead is my favorite comic out right now.



We got to talk for nearly 20 minutes about his role in the upcoming AMC series based on his zombie comic, spearheaded and led by Mr. Frank Darabont.

We discuss the support the show is getting from the network, the lengths to which they can go on non-pay TV and I was surprised to find out that gore-wise we look to be in good shape.

We just can’t expect any f-bombs.



Kirkman spilled a few details, including which episodes he’s writing in season 1 and just how the hell Jeffrey DeMunn is playing. I had a lot of fun with this chat and I hope you guys enjoy it, too!




Quint: Hello, sir. How do you do?

Kirkman: I’m doing all right.


Quint: I’m very excited to be talking to you about this because THE WALKING DEAD is my favorite comic book out now, so this is…

Kirkman: And rightly so!


Quint: “Damn right it is!”









Quint: But I have to say upfront that I’m at least two months behind, so anything that’s happened after the group got to the “a little too nice looking” suburb I’m not up to date on.


Kirkman: Well I won’t hold that against you and I’ll do my best not to spoil anything.





Quint: Regardless, I’ll be buying them. What’s kind of funny is that the person who turned me onto THE WALKING DEAD five years ago was Frank Darabont.

I had talked with him once or twice and then I bumped into him at a premiere and we got to talking about what he was doing and he said, “Hey, I just got this great comic book, a zombie book called THE WALKING DEAD.” He urged me to check it out, I did and then I got hooked.

Now you guys are finally actually getting to make the show.


Kirkman: Yeah, it all worked out.








Quint: I’ve read some of your tweets where you are saying you were location scouting.

The impression I get is AMC seems to be really getting behind the show. Is that right?


Kirkman: Yeah, AMC is giving us a huge deal of support and they have already shown that they have a lot of confidence in the show just by immediately picking up the six episode first season without ever even starting to shoot the pilot, which I’m told is fairly unusual, so I’m pretty excited with how the process has been going so far.



Everyone’s moving full speed ahead. That’s kind of a fun thing because like you say you talked to Frank like five years ago and there was a time when it was going to be a pilot at NBC, but that kind of fell through and Frank kind of stayed in the picture and kept in touch with me and did his best to do things behind the scenes to try and get it made because he really likes the comic and I think was really gung-ho about making it.



The funny thing to me is five years went by and it was a little bit more than a year ago when Frank called me and said “Hey, I think AMC is interested in this.” They optioned it in September of last year, I think, and then in January they were like “Hey, we are making the show.”

Then from January up until now, it has been nonstop. It just cracks me up how things can move so slowly and then as soon as they decide to make a show it’s like a hundred things happening at once.



So right now it’s like full speed ahead and they are moving forward with this pilot. I wrote the first episode and then they are going to be shooting all summer for the first six episodes.

Frank is in Atlanta right now doing prep, so he’s kind of hard at it. They start shooting in, I think, a week.




Quint: That’s crazy.

Kirkman: It’s pretty exciting.
And then I’ll be going down there for that, so I’m looking forward to it.










Quint: Are you looking to have any sort of involvement beyond just the first episode?

Can you see yourself coming back and scripting more or are you just wanting to kick it off right?”


Kirkman: You know what, I’ll give you guys a little bit of a… I think it might be an exclusive.

I don’t think anybody has talked about it yet and I don’t know why it would need to be kept a secret or anything, but I’m actually writing the fourth episode in the six episode first season, so I’ve been spending time in the writer’s room and working with them plumbing out the season.



I just turned in my outline for the fourth episode a week or so ago. I’m going to be pretty involved in the series up to the point of actually writing a few episodes here and there, hopefully as we move into the second season.

So yeah, it’s pretty exciting.









Quint: That’s great. It’s got to be a completely different beast than your standard script duties for the book.

Is it an hour long show or half hour?


Kirkman: It’s an hour long. It’s a little bit different. I’ve done screenwriting before…

Also, the writers room is a very useful tool and they will be there to say, “Yeah, that script doesn’t look like a television script, it looks like a comic script. You need to change this around,” so I’ll be leaning on them quite a bit as I kind of learn the ropes.

They are all great guys who are really supportive, so I’m pretty excited about that.



I do need to clarify, just a second ago I said something about “As we move into the second season.” I don’t want to give you the impression that that’s already been picked up or anything.

Everyone on the show is just assuming that it’s going to get a second season. We are all pretty optimistic because we know how good the show’s going to be, but I don’t want you to say “Oh, it looks like he slipped!” I don’t want you to think it’s been picked up or anything because that’s definitely not the case.




Quint: No worries. It’s always good to clarify.

I wouldn’t have announced it like that or made a big deal of it, but I think you might have had some fans pick up on that.


Kirkman: Exactly.











Quint: Considering that even JJ Abrams, who created one of the most popular shows ever, had to shoot a pilot before the network committed to his new series it’s pretty spectacular that AMC’s going in sight unseen?


Kirkman: I really have to give that to Frank Darabont. His vision for this show is so unique and the pilot script is so strong that I think that that’s why AMC got behind it so quickly.

I think Darabont’s hand in this is the thing that is driving it. I think that he’s going to turn this into a pretty awesome television show.





Quint: I know this is going to come across totally as me kissing your ass, but he’s got such great material to work with.


Kirkman: Look, I’m not denying that either!










Quint: AMC has, obviously, been very supportive, but what can you get away with on AMC, in terms of graphic language and the intensity of the violence and stuff like that?


Kirkman: You know, we just had a long meeting about this.

There are some language restrictions. You’re not going to be dropping the F-bomb on AMC, which is fine. It’s not like if no one ever said the “f” word in WALKING DEAD the comic book, people would miss it.



I think the best way to put it is if you have ever watched BREAKING BAD…. they push the limit in BREAKING BAD quite often. There’s severed heads on the back of turtles, there’s liquefied bodies falling through ceilings, somebody just got their head blown off recently.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s very graphic nasty stuff that’s on BREAKING BAD all of the time and the thing that I was very excited to learn about AMC is that there is no limitation to how much of that you can have per episode or per hour or per minute.





Quint: Really?


Kirkman: Anything you have seen in BREAKING BAD we can do every minute of our show.

And then also there’s a lot of things you can get away with, because they are zombies, so you will be seeing all kinds of cool stuff that you would expect to see in THE WALKING DEAD: THE TV SHOW, so while it isn’t a pay cable channel, I think that people are still going to get what they want.






Quint: That’s good, because having a neutered zombie show is definitely not ideal, especially when you have people like KNB on board who can tear people up pretty good.


Kirkman: Oh yeah.

Nicotero has already been doing make-up tests on all of the zombies and there’s a bite test that I’ve seen.

There’s a head shot test… So there’s all kinds of cool stuff that he’s already done on the show that just looks amazing.





Quint: I haven’t seen anything yet, but I’ve heard that Nicotero’s zombies are very Adlard-ish.


Kirkman: Yeah, they are very true to the comics.











Quint: Here’s a question that I know a lot of fans have asked… I’ve seen this pop up a lot in our talkback.

Has there been any talk at all about shooting the show in black and white?


Kirkman: No, no there isn’t.

I have a concern that if people were flipping the channels and they saw something that was in black and white, they might think it was an old movie.

It’s just something that’s usually not done on television and while I think it’s neat and I know Darabont likes black and white a lot, that’s why there’s a black and white version of THE MIST on the DVD and he wanted to do the movie in black and white originally.

I don’t know that there’s going to be a black and white version of the show on the DVD. There might be, but it just doesn’t make sense as a television show for a lot of reasons.




One of the things that I’m really adamant about is I want this to be the best show possible and I don’t want there to be any kind of limitations on the show where they are trying to mimic the comic book.

I think black and white would be limiting the show only for the reason of making it more like the comic book. And I kind of like that the show is going to be somewhat different than the comic, so that it will be a different experience for people who like the comic and read the comic.

I’m fine with it being in color and I think it’s going to be great.



Now it’s not going to be a rainbowy bright color kind of show because I know they are doing a lot of visual stuff to kind of dull things down and not put a lot of bright colors on screen and make it visually interesting and fit the tone of the story, but it’s not going to be black and white.










Quint: I guess the last thing that we should probably talk about regarding the TV show is the cast, which is starting to bit by bit come out.

I think the last ones I saw were Jeff DeMunn and Laurie Holden coming on board. I think those are really interesting people. I like that they are Darabont regulars.

Have you gotten to weigh in at all?
Has Frank asked your opinion on any of this stuff or is this kind of off in his world?


Kirkman: I got to see most of the screen tests and a lot of the readings and I saw the different actors that tried out for the different roles and I would kind of hang back and enjoy them and let Gale Anne Hurde and AMC and Frank…

You know, they know acting and they know actors and they are the ones actually making the show. I had input, but I wasn’t really going to come in and tell them “I like this guy” because I don’t know anything about acting! “That guy” could be really horrible! I know what I like and I know what I don’t like, but I’m no expert.



So basically they would come to me and they would say… for instance with Andrew Lincoln “This guy is really great. We really like him. Do you see him as Rick? What do you think about him?”


In the case of Andrew, I was like “He’s perfect.” His screen test was great. He’s a really good actor. He’s not too terribly recognizable, so it’s not like I’m going to be sitting there “Oh no, that’s not Rick, I’ve seen him in other things,” so he was perfect and I responded and said “Yeah, that guy’s awesome. I would totally love it if he was Rick.”


So they cast him. Now maybe they did that just because of me, you know. Maybe I got that guy the part, but probably not. (laughs) So I was definitely involved and I basically loved everyone that they picked and so I don’t know how influential I was on the casting at all.



I think Jon Bernthal is excellent, Sarah Wayne Callies is great, and Jeffrey DeMunn is awesome. I was so thrilled. He was great in THE MIST, so yeah I’m really excited about the cast.

I can’t wait to meet all of these people and annoy the sh*t out of them on the set. It’s going to be awesome!







[B]Quint: (laughs) And you get that right too. “This is mine suckers, you’re going to have to put up with me!”


Kirkman: (laughs) I’m going to see if I can get a photo of me wearing Dale’s… Jeffrey DeMunn, who I guess I just revealed is playing Dale, which for some reason they never printed out and people were speculating as to who he was playing.



Quint: Yeah, well who else is he going to play, really?


Kirkman: Yeah, it’s pretty obvious, but I’ve got to get that hat. I’ve got to wear that hat!


Quint: Oh yeah, that little fisherman hat or whatever? The kind of grandfatherly fisherman hat that he wears all of the time, yeah.


Kirkman: Yeah!

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/45261

First Photos from the "The Walking Dead"!
Source: AMC
June 2, 2010


AMC revealed the KNB EFX-created walking corpses that will populate Frank Darabont's adaptation of the Robert Kirkman comic book series.

They're looking pretty good so far - reminiscent of their work in George Romero's Land of the Dead (especially in the red-ringed eyes), also love the bite marks riddling the flesh, that's a nice touch.


In addition to the pics - AMC has also released a video introducing you to the series. Watch it below!

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=15369

Evolution of "Walking Dead" Zombie Art
Source: AMC
June 3, 2010


Since yesterday's photo debut, the place to clearly keep an eye on for all things "The Walking Dead"-related is AMC's production blog.


They've updated it with a cool, animated conceptual design which follows the slow decay of a shambling corpse.

Check out the piece, by KNB EFX, in motion here. - http://blogs.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/2010/06/the-walking-dead-sketches-gallery.php

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=15391

TV: Frank Darabont Looks to Night of the Living Dead for "Walking Dead" Inspiration
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


After all of the anticipation and all of the buzz, director Frank Darabont is officially on set filming the first of six episodes of "The Walking Dead", the AMC TV adaptation of the incredible Robert Kirkman zombie comic series from Image.

After a decade of unique and different zombie films - spawned by 28 Days Later - one of the first questions we all want to know is: will these zombies walk or run? Darabont is looking to George A. Romero's groundbreaking 1968 film Night of the Living Dead for inspiration.






In an interview with AMC, director Frank Darabont explains how he'll be deciding if the zombies in "The Walking Dead" will walk, run, or even jog.

"I've always wanted to do my take on the zombie mythos, since I was a kid and I saw Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' - the 1968 black and white version," he tells AMC.

"For our zombie show I'm calling that the Book of Genesis, and whenever there's a question about zombie behavior I go back to 'Night of the Living Dead'."


He continues, "Here's my favorite thing: the endless debate among the fans about how fast a zombie can move. There are the folks who just can't stand seeing zombies running. I'm kind of in that camp, but if you look at the very first zombie in 'Night' - the one in the cemetery chasing Barbara, he gets up to a pretty good jog.

I'm keying our zombie behavior off of that film: Whether they're in a very languid state or they're on the attack, they'll move no faster than that first zombie in 'Night of the Living Dead'."





AMC will premiere it this October.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20512

"Walking Dead" Face Serial Killer + First Photo and Video!
by Joseph McCabe
June 10, 2010


Another face familiar to longtime horror fans has joined "The Walking Dead".

And we've just received the first official production still photograph from the set of the upcoming AMC TV series.





Michael Rooker, star of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Slither announced via Twitter last night that he'll be joining the production.

"On my way to Atlanta," says Rooker, "soon to work with my new best friend Frank Darabont on 'The Walking Dead.'"






Here's the first official set photo.

Looks like makeup wizard Greg Nicotero and company are taking care to preserve the look of Charles Adlard's original comic book art.






Finally, here's a new behind-the-scenes video from AMC's blog, featuring director Frank Darabont, executive producer Gale Ann Hurd, and a whole mess of zombies.

http://www.fearnet.com/news/b19305_walking_dead_face_serial_killer_first.html

TV: Frank Darabont Directing Only the Pilot Episode of "The Walking Dead"... For Now
Monday, June 14, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


A little clarification about AMC's forthcoming "The Walking Dead" TV series.


Bloody Disgusting has confirmed that Frank Darabont will only be directing the pilot episode of the first season, although he could end up behind the camera more down the line.

If the series gets picked up beyond the ordered 6 episodes you may see him direct a few more. Although, he will be on set during much of the filming, which is now taking place in Atlanta, GA for premiere this coming October.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20565

EXCLUSIVE
TV: Local Boy Playing Rick Grimes' Son Carl in "The Walking Dead"

Monday, June 14, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Bloody Disgusting learned exclusively that Atlanta local Chandler Riggs will be starring as Rick Grimes' (Andrew Lincoln) son Carl in AMC TV's "The Walking Dead".

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20573

TV: First Look at Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes in "The Walking Dead"!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Bloody Disgusting has got your first ever look at Andrew Lincoln as father, police officer, zombie survivor "Rick Grimes" in AMC TV's "The Walking Dead".


We're told the following image takes place when Rick is en route to Atlanta and his car breaks down. It's just before he gets on a horse and rides it into downtown Atlanta.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20583

TV: Two More Become "The Walking Dead"
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


The casting news is pouring in as Linds Edwards (Seed) and Jim Coleman (American Gangster) are heading to Atlanta to join "The Walking Dead", reports the Walking Dead Podcast.


Edwards is playing "Leon Basset" while Coleman will be playing a new character, "Lambert (Lam) Kendel."

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20601

TV: Emma Bell Goes From Frozen to Starved in "The Walking Dead"
Friday, June 18, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Emma Bell (who was brilliant in Adam Green's chiller Frozen) has booked a recurring role on the AMC skein "The Walking Dead".

Bell will play a college student who seeks safety with the remaining survivors after the zombie invasion.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20625

Hear T-Dog's Bark in "The Walking Dead"
Source: IAE Magazine
June 18, 2010

Robert "IronE" Singleton is the newest member of the "Walking Dead" family.

According to IAE, The Blind Side and Remember the Titans actor is going to play "T-Dog" for Frank Darabont's episode of the AMC series.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=15569

Wow... looks like it will be an amazing show! :)

Dispatches from the Set:
Comic Creator and Executive Producer Robert Kirkman


Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead comic and Executive Producer of the series, explains what it's like to bring his story to life and witness the end of the world (or at least the end of Atlanta) in the process.





You started writing 'The Walking Dead' in 2003.
What's it like to finally be on set?

"Surreal," I guess, is a word I've been saying a lot.
"Amazing" is another word.



I was on a movie set last summer that was like a big budget blockbuster, and before I got out here I told myself, "I'm not going to be seeing the same kind of stuff because they don't have a budget like a summer blockbuster."

But you know what? It's almost bigger. The first day I was here was the day after they had flipped the car and there was a big shootout that we saw. It was just absolutely mind-blowing.









Are you finding things are being physically realized as you had imagined them?

Everyone is really trying to do good by the comic, and there are scenes that are straight out of it. I think that fans are just going to be thrilled.

But at the same time, [Frank Darabont] is vastly improving the material. And there are things here and there that along the way I should have caught, but didn't. There's some amazing stuff he added for Morgan's character in the Pilot episode that's just not in the comic.

It was back story, but he handles it in a way that just really brings it to the forefront. It's like, Morgan, that guy is an awesome character!









You commented last week about how psyched you were to see Andrew Lincoln portraying Rick --

I don't see how anyone couldn't see Rick. I don't see how Andrew Lincoln's wife, like 2 years ago, wasn't like, "Oh Hey Rick, how ya doing?" This guy just eats, drinks and sleeps Rick Grimes.

Steven Yeun, the actor playing Glenn, was on set for the first time yesterday. He walked over and said hello to Andrew Lincoln. They were chatting, and I looked over and I was like, "That's Rick talking to Glenn!"









You're writing one of the episodes this season.
How does that experience compare to writing the comic?

It's interesting because they're not characters that I'm writing very much any more. I'm working on the book every month, but most of the people on the show are dead in the comic. Spoiler alert! [Laughs]

I'm walking around set thinking to myself, "Yeah, I killed that guy. Yup, killed her. Probably gonna kill him next issue!" So it's a different experience, and there are a lot of cool twists that are going to make the show entertaining for people who have read the comic.

As far as me writing the stuff, it's really cool to go back and play with these characters again that I haven't been able to write in a while.









Have you learned anything new about the characters the second time around?

It kind of makes me wish that Shane hadn't died in Issue 6. Shane's a really cool guy, and there's a lot of story potential there. I blew through a lot of stuff that they're kind of dwelling on a little bit more here.

So yeah, there are places where I'm like, "Oh man I wish I'd done it this way." And that's kind of neat.









You were on set to witness hordes of zombies invading Atlanta.
What was that like?

That was probably the craziest thing I've ever seen. A three by three block square of Atlanta was shut down so that they could move around corners and go down streets.

It was more than I ever expected seeing, and you could get to a certain point in the area that they were shooting, and kind of turn around in a 360 degree view, and that's like, "OK here's what it's like at the end of the world, and I'm standing in the middle of it."

They had trucks turned over and a burned out bus, they had all the stores closed and dressed to look like the windows had all been cracked. And then all of a sudden, here's hundreds of zombie extras walking around.









What are you looking forward to most in the next 8 weeks of production?

I'm looking forward to being on set for my episode, and getting to see that kind of stuff. Because there's a lot of cool stuff that happens in every episode.

There's an entire list I could go down, but I'd ruin the entire season for you. Everything that they're going to be cramming into every episode I cannot wait to see them pull off. And I know they're going to be pulling it off in an amazing way.

It's non-stop awesome over here at the set of "The Walking Dead".




That sounds like the perfect way to end this conversation, Robert.

[Laughs] Good.

http://blogs.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/2010/06/robert-kirkman-interview.php

Is This "The Walking Dead's" Tyrese?
Source: IMDB
June 22, 2010


According to the IMDB, it is.

Frank Darabont has cast actor Keith Allen Hayes as "Tyrese" in "The Walking Dead". Tyrese is one of the survivors Rick (Andrew Lincoln) meets along his travels. When Rick finds him, Tyrese is accompanied by his teenage daughter and her boyfriend.



Hayes, like previously cast Robert "IronE" Singleton, is fresh off of The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=15599

Another Terrific Image from "The Walking Dead"
Source: AICN
June 23, 2010


The fellas at AICN were on a visit to "The Walking Dead" set in Atlanta, Georgia. And, in part two of their trip write-up, they showed off this fancy new picture from the Frank Darabont-directed pilot episode.

That's the work of KNB EFX on display below.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=15607

TV: Morgan's Son Duane Jones Cast in "The Walking Dead"
Thursday, June 24, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


More casting for Frank Darabont's "The Walking Dead" as Adrian Kali Turner has been cast as Morgan's son Duane Jones.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20691

KNB Specialist Greg Nicotero on "The Walking Dead" Effects Work
Monday, June 28, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


More goodies over at AMC as they've posted an interview with KNB special effects make-up designer Greg Nicotero on the now filming "The Walking Dead", AMC's live-action adaptation of Robert Kirkman's comic series that follows a group of zombie apocalypse survivors looking for a new/safe place to live.

Frank Darabont is currently filming the pilot episode airing this October.






You've been creating zombies for George Romero for years.
What made you want to tackle "The Walking Dead"?

I've been best friends with Frank Darabont since before he directed The Shawshank Redemption, and we share a similar interest and nostalgic devotion to George Romero and Night of the Living Dead.

We started talking about this project probably three or four years ago, when Frank was talking about wanting to do something different with zombies, and what we could do to make these guys look fresh and original.

And from then on, it's just been like, Hey man! We get to create zombies!









How do these zombies differ from the ones you created for Romero?

We used the graphic novel certainly as inspiration. We've always tried to push the envelope, and because I've done so many other projects it's always one of those things where you finish a movie and go, "Oh man next time I know how we can make it better. And after that I know how we can make it even better than that."

We've taken everything that we've learned on all these other projects, and applied them in terms of using new materials and new techniques - even something as simple as a zombie getting shot in the head.

We really sat down and worked through the best way to make that look realistic and practical.









What was your solution?

Well in the '70s they just put squibs on extras' heads and detonated them. Then you got to the point where if you had to use explosive squibs it could only be on a stunt person.

But for "The Walking Dead", we're going for a very specific physical type. Every zombie that we see is really tall and really thin and really gaunt looking. One of the story points is that these characters have been dead for so long that they're starving, and will eat virtually anything. They'll eat a horse, they'll eat a rat.

So we built this self-contained head-hit rig that runs off compressed air. You fill a tube with blood, and then you use a foot pump to get a really great blood spray. You can clip it on to anybody that you want, and then all of a sudden you have instantaneous head wound.









One of the more infamous scenes in the comic is when the zombies do in fact eat a horse.
What was that like to shoot?

It's almost like a Piranha attack - it really was like a feeding frenzy. We had thirty extras leaning over this prosthetic horse that we created, and they started ripping its insides and its entrails out and going crazy. They were sticking their heads in it and their hands in it.

I kind of whipped them into a little bit of a frenzy before we shot, and it was funny because at one point I walked over to Frank and I'm like, "Dude, these guys are so amped up you better shoot this quick before they tear the horse apart!"









What did you do to get them so pumped?

They saw me loading the horse. We made all these silicone guts and entrails and organs. So I came over with this big giant box of entrails and a big giant bucket of blood and I started soaking everything and stuffing all of it inside the abdomen of the horse.

And literally, the more stuff I put in there, the more excited they were to reach in and start pulling it out. So by the time they had seen everything loaded and the stomach was all filled and there was blood on it, it was like "Ready. 3, 2, 1. Go!"

Instantaneous gore.









Frank described how hot it's been in Atlanta.
How does that affect your make-up?

The make-ups that we're doing are relatively bulletproof. But when people start sweating or rubbing their necks, you do have to go in and touch people up. It's tricky.

I can't remember when I've worked under these circumstances, especially shooting in the daytime. Most zombie shows like this, they're shot at night. So to have a zombie TV series in broad daylight, running down Peachtree Avenue in downtown Atlanta, it's challenging.

Everything has to stand up to pretty tough scrutiny.









We featured a gallery of concept sketches showing a zombie decompose.
Will the zombies go through that change as the series progresses?

One conversation that Frank and I had at the beginning of our prep was, How far do I take them... We want to be able to show the degradation of these zombies over time. So some zombie make-ups are a little more fresh-looking, some are a little more decomposed looking.

This is the first time we've ever actually gone through and hand-picked the actual zombies that will be featured. It's one thing to glue prosthetics on somebody's face, but if you have somebody who's got a lot of character and they just have a really great structure to their face, it's great.

We'll go to dinner and a waitress will go by, and we're like, "Man, she'd be a great zombie

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20728

"Breaking Bad" Director Hording "The Walking Dead"!
Monday, July 5, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


It's been pretty well explained that Frank Darabont would (probably) only be directing the pilot episode of AMC's "The Walking Dead" TV series. So who else will get behind the camera for the other 5 episodes?

AITH is reporting that Michelle Maxwell MacLaren - one of the director's behind AMC's incredible "Breaking Bad" and producer on "The X-Files" - will take on the undead.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20795

A Tank of a Good Time on "The Walking Dead" Set
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


AMC just posted a new interview with production designer Greg Melton, while also sharing a new behind-the-scenes image from the set of "The Walking Dead"





How did you approach designing for "The Walking Dead"?

I did "Tales From the Crypt" for many years, and I always approached that show from a realism standpoint -- trying to set up a realistic world, and then let the surreal horror spin out of it.

And that's the strategy I've taken with this, to root it in reality as much as possible and let Rick move through this world and see it get more and more skewed.


A great example is when he wakes up in the hospital. It just gets worse and worse. It's like there was a running gun battle through this hospital. There were grenades. He comes outside and it looks like Dachau.

Then as he comes to the parking lot, there's going to be an entire military hospital unit that's been overrun. It just keeps unfolding. When you read the comic, Rick walks outside and there's a car crashed into a tree. [Laughs] I'm like, "OK yeah, we'll do this burned out bus and dump trucks stacked with bodies."









What visual inspiration did you get from the comics?

It's like having a storyboard of the whole production. Usually I get a storyboard of an effects sequence or an action sequence. But it's very interesting to have something from beginning to end.

There are a lot of iconic images in that graphic novel that we have taken into the series. People will go, "Oh yeah that's the downtown Atlanta shot."



For instance the police station in the graphic novel: One day I was driving around and saw right behind our production office this little brick building that looked exactly like the police station.

So there are a lot of points like that, and then the hospital is something we really took to a whole new level as far as the devastation and really showing for the first time the scale of the apocalypse in Rick's town.









How much do you typically have to dress a location?

I would say very little.

Obviously we had to devastate the hospital, but one of my rules with this is we need to own the location. Rick's house was kind of an abandoned house that was for sale. It had no windows, it was boarded up, kind of derelict. But it laid out beautifully for us, so we went through the trouble of fixing it up.

But I would say overall, we've been very fortunate with locations. They've been big dresses: The gas station was a huge dress. The hospital was a huge undertaking, especially once we got outside of it.









What goes into making Atlanta look like it's been through an apocalypse?

The challenge is, again, to find areas that we own. We're setting up an abandoned city, so we needed to find areas of downtown that we could shut down over a weekend. I was looking just to keep it tight, so that it was hard to see around corners and know what's coming ahead of you.

And then from there, it was just trying to build some backstories to what happened there: The concept was that a section of Atlanta had become a Green Zone where the military could protect a certain square-block area. And basically the thought is that Rick approaches this military checkpoint that's been overrun.

We had lots of abandoned cars with luggage or doors open, like people had come, tried to get in; some people had tried to run the blockade, we had some burnt, turned over cars.









How long did that take to set up?

They shut down the street at 7PM on a Friday night, and at 7AM we were shooting these apocalyptic scenes over six blocks. The set was so large, when Frank [Darabont] got there he didn't even see we had a Huey helicopter landed in the street.

He's like, "Where's the helicopter?" "It's down there!" "Well bring it up here!" So we immediately brought that up.

That's how big it was - the helicopter got lost. [Laughs]









Will you have to supplement these set-ups with CGI?

I have to say rather proudly that there are two or three sets that we've done - downtown Atlanta, the gas station - that were going to have a lot more CG work done to them.

But when we got done with them, Frank was like, "We kinda have it," which was great for me. He's like, "I don't think we need to extend this set. This is actually much more than I thought I was going to get."

That's been kind of cool, to actually be able to deliver enough physical scenery to fill the shot.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20809

San Diego Comic Con: Thursday, July 22



4:00pm-5:00pm in Room 5AB— Robert Kirkman (creator of "The Walking Dead" Comics):


He examines survival among "The Walking Dead".
He makes superheroes relatable in "Invincible".
He made lycanthropy dramatic in "The Astounding Wolf-Man".


Join Image Comics for an in-depth discussion and Q&A with writing juggernaut Robert Kirkman.
Moderated by Sina Grace.






--------------------------------------------------------------------------






San Diego Comic Con: Friday, July 23



11:30am-12:30pm in Room 6BCF— AMC's "The Walking Dead":


Andrew Lincoln
Jon Bernthal
Sarah Wayne Callies
Laurie Holden
Emma Bell


Series Creator/Director/Executive Producer Frank Darabont
Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd
Executive Producer Robert Kirkman
Makeup Artist Greg Nicotero
and Joel Stillerman (AMCs senior VP)


...discuss the making of AMC's series "The Walking Dead", based on the Image comic book series created and written by Robert Kirkman, premiering in October on AMC.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20859

San Diego Comic Con Teaser Art for "The Walking Dead"!!
Monday, July 12, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


AMC is bringing "The Walking Dead" to the San Diego Comic Con, and have released some early teaser art begging you not to open as there are "dead inside."

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20875

TV: First Look at the Entire Cast of "The Walking Dead" Army
Thursday, July 15, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Jon Bernthal
Andrew Lincoln
Jeffrey DeMunn
Sarah Wayne Callies
Laurie Holden
Steven Yeun
Chandler Riggs
Linds Edwards
Jim Coleman
Emma Bell



With the San Diego Comic Con only a week away, new details and images have begun to surface, such as the full cast photo found inside.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20906

Tiny Image From "The Walking Dead"
Friday, July 16, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Entertainment Weekly released their annual San Diego Comic Con preview magazine that features a look at AMC's TV series "The Walking Dead".

Yay Comic Con!

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20918

EXCLUSIVE:

TV: Downloading Nancy, "Breaking Bad" Director Becomes One of "The Walking Dead"
Friday, July 16, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


We've got a quick exclusive that rivals the awesomeness of the announcement that Michelle Maxwell MacLaren - one of the director's behind AMC's incredible "Breaking Bad" and producer on "X-Files" - would be directing one of AMC's "The Walking Dead" episodes.


While Frank Darabont got behind the camera for the pilot, Bloody Disgusting learned that another "Breaking Bad" Alumni, Johan Renck, will also be bringing the dead back to life.

Renck, who will direct the fourth episode of the first season, saw his unnerving Downloading Nancy go to theaters and VOD last year.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20924

TV: The Mysery Ends Today: All "Walking Dead" Directors/ Writers Revealed
Saturday, July 17, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


It's a rare occasions when the spotlight of a TV series is on the directors. Us horror fans care tremendously, which is why we've been sitting in absolute suspense waiting to hear who else will directing AMC's "The Walking Dead" alongside the brilliant Frank Darabont.

While we've already reported on two other names over the past few weeks, AICN got the drop on all six, along with the writers.






The directors for the first six are:

1) Frank Darabont (The Mist, The Shawshank Redemption)
2) Michelle MacLaren ("Breaking Bad", "The X-Files")
3) Gwyneth Horder-Payton ("The Shield", "BSG")
4) Johan Renck ("Breaking Bad")
5) Ernest Dickerson ("The Wire", "Dexter")
6) Guy Ferland ("The Shield", "Sons of Anarchy")






The writers for the first six are:

1) Frank Darabont
2) Frank Darabont
3) Frank Darabont w/ Chic Eglee and Jack LoGuidice
(Chic: "The Shield", "Dexter")
(Jack: "Sons of Anarchy")
4) Robert Kirkman (writer of the comic series)
5) Glen Mazzara ("The Shield", "HawthoRNe")
6) Adam Fierro ("The Shield", "Dexter", "24")

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20932

Norman Reedus is One of "The Walking Dead", Too
Source: Shock Till You Drop
July 19, 2010


Yet another notable casting addition to the ever-expanding cast of AMC's "The Walking Dead".

Actor Norman Reedus (The Boondock Saints) has confirmed on various instances via his Twitter account the last two weeks that he'll be appearing on the show, based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman.



No details have been revealed as to who he will play or which episode he'll debut in.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=15858

Video from the Set of "The Walking Dead"
Source: MTV
July 19, 2010


The gang at MTV reported back from their trip to Atlanta where they spoke to the team behind "The Walking Dead".

You get creator Robert Kirkman, zombies in action, director Frank Darabont and more!

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=15857

"Walking Dead" Season 2 a Go?
Source: AMC
July 21, 2010


Breaking news from AMC...

It appears the network has given "The Walking Dead" a longer lifespan. They've announced a sweepstakes in which you could win a walk-on role as a zombie in the series' second season!

Can get a better confirmation that the second season is a "go."



For details on how to enter, visit this link! - http://blogs.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/2010/07/the-walking-dead-sweepstakes.php


http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=15909

The Walking Dead will do well they have some great writers and directors lined up.

The Walking Dead will do well they have some great writers and directors lined up.

Yeah, AMC is putting a lot of promotion and faith into this one. Hopefully all expectations are met.

SDCC '10: Drew Struzan's Poster for "The Walking Dead"
Source: AICN
July 22, 2010


Since AICN is practically in the sack with Frank Darabont and that whole crew, it's only natural they get the first look at the Drew Struzan-painted one-sheet for "The Walking Dead".

And what an awesome piece of work it is.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/comicconnews.php?id=15928

Who Do Rooker and Reedus Play in "Walking Dead"?
Source: Shock Till You Drop
July 22, 2010


Although we've already reported that Michael Rooker and Norman Reedus have joined the cast of "The Walking Dead", we now know who they are playing.

AMC tells us they'll be brothers Merle Dixon (Rooker) and Daryl Dixon (Reedus), one a redneck ex-con and the other equally as dangerous.




The network also revealed/confirmed additional new cast members including:

Andrew Rothenberg (Jim)
Juan Pareja (Morales)
Iron E. Singleton (T-Dog)
Jeryl Prescott Sales (Jacqui)
Melissa McBride (Carol)
Adam Minarovich (Ed)


- all members of the "survivor's camp."

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=15941

SD Comic-Con '10: Major "The Walking Dead" News Including Black & White Version, Romero to Direct?!
Friday, July 23, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


One of the major flaws with the San Diego Comic-Con is typically the studios don't let the talent reveal much about their projects, while the fans always end up asking the most idiotic questions imaginable).

AMC's panel for their "The Walking Dead" TV series was not only the best of the Con, but it was just jammed with information including a tease of a possible black & white home video release, and the idea by Darabont that zombie genre creator George A Romero might get behind the camera for an episode in season two (confirmed as greenlit by the way)!




Here's the breakdown:


-According to Frank Darabont "The Walking Dead" will have a worldwide simultaneous release in over thirty languages.



-Artist Charlie Adlard cameos as a zombie.



-Darabont says that they will take every interesting detour that they find but will still stay true to the storyline of the comic.



-They're expanding the world and the events during the journey, and Kirkman says he's blown away by the areas that they're improving on.



-Bear McCreary ("Battlestar Galactica") has been confirmed as the show's composer.



-Norman Reedus has joined the cast.



-When asked why he didn't shoot in Los Angeles, Darabont said, "When LA gets its sh*t together and gives filmmakers tax incentives," he'll think about it.



-FX artist Greg Nicotero said that AMC hasn't objected to any of the show's violence. In fact, the reel that they showed here at Comic-Con was edited because the powers that be would not let them show any of the gore.

There will be lots of Romero-esque headshots.



-Darabont says he cannot wait to get to Michonne and Tyrese in Season Two, which has been confirmed and is a go.



-When asked if any well known horror directors might one day come on board, Darabont hinted that he wants Romero to possibly direct in the future.



-Darabont says that he wants a black and white version to be released on DVD similar to his release of The Mist.




FOOTAGE DESCRIPTION!

"The trailer opened with a police blockade and amazing high speed chase and shootout that sees Rick wounded. Cut to Rick waking up in hospital and discovering it empty with rows of corpses lying outside.

Lots of zombie action shots with Rick freaking out as he holds his gun towards an approaching zombie little girl. Rick facing off with Michael Rooker saying he's looking for his family and nothing will get in his way. Shots of Rick riding through barren Atlanta and encountering zombie hordes. Rick under a tank blasting zombies. He climbs in a tank, and we see aerial shot of hundreds of zombies piling on the tank."

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/21021

SDCC '10: Video Highlights from "The Walking Dead" Panel
Source: AMC
July 24, 2010


The folks at AMC cut together an 11 minute highlight reel featuring Gale Anne Hurd, Frank Darabont, Greg Nicotero and more!

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/comicconnews.php?id=15990

New Insane "Walking Dead" Zombie Image, Interview
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
By: MrDisgusting



How did you get involved with "The Walking Dead"?

Gosh, I don't even know. I've never worked with Frank Darabont before; I think they just looked at a bunch of reels and resumes and called me up.

That was it.






Had you ever had a desire to shoot a zombie series?

No, but you know I came up through the camera department in horror movies -- I crewed on Re-Animator, From Beyond, all those Empire Pictures movies.

So I'm used to things like that.









Horror movies usually take place at night. This series takes place mostly during the day.
What are the challenges to that?

I think the challenges are to just get the idea that there's something to be afraid of around every corner. Because it's daylight you're not normally scared -- we're scared at night.

But the levels of this are brilliantly laid out by Frank: The rooftop is a little safer than street level, street level is really terrifying, and below street level gets safer.

So the scary places start to be the safe places, and the safe places start to be the scary places.











What kind of visual tricks do you use to enhance this feeling of danger?

Just to play it as normal as possible, and prey on the fact that everyone knows that it's scary [Laughs]. We do tricks like we make it a little cooler -- like the warmth has disappeared from the world. And we use film so that the blues come out a little stronger, but I'm trying hard to keep it purely on a psychological level.


Also, it's normal policy to make a camera perfectly level with the horizon, but not here. We don't do the obvious tilt left or right, but all things are a little bit off. My aim is to make it off-kilter enough to where there's just something subconsciously wrong with every image -- it starts to become a world where nothing's right.












You're responsible for the show's lighting and color, but your source material is a black and white comic.
What inspiration can you draw from it?

Oh all kinds. Everything comes from the comic book. And then Frank's taken it to its own place where it needs to be for us.

Photographically all I've done is take most of the color out -- I've desaturated things and I'll bleed the color out.

It's still a color image, it's still acceptable for television (because you can't put a black and white show on television any more) --






You'd like to try, I take it?

I would love to try. I think we should just do it! Any convention out there I think we should put our foot through it.

That said, we have to do it with color, so we'll just take the color out a bit, and bring it back within the realm of what was originally intended by Kirkman.






Is that a situation where the decision to shoot on 16mm film is useful?

16mm is the perfect choice. Regardless if we did it in HD or 35mm film, we'd add grain in the end to make it have this look. It calls up the language of what we're used to seeing in a horror film.

George Romero's stuff was all grainy. It's like looking at a documentary, and you instantly get into the 16mm documentary world. And if you take those same cameras and put them into "The Walking Dead", it begins to be a believable, real experience.

We were looking at a day exterior the other day, and it actually becomes scary -- the moment when you realize it's possible to do something this frightful in broad daylight.













You're used to shooting Westerns, having shot a few episodes of "Deadwood" and all of "Firefly".
Do you see any Western themes in "The Walking Dead"?

[Laughs] Yeah, I think that's encapsulated in Rick Grimes, right?

I actually find myself thinking about "Firefly" from time to time on set. In both we made the choice not to embellish an image -- in my lexicon it would be not adding backlight, which is a product of working on a soundstage.

In a practical location like where we are, we choose not to make it pretty, and to instead have it be a bunch of people on the edge of life.






Speaking of "Firefly", which is scarier: Reavers or Walkers?

You know those Reavers were awful scary, but these Walkers don't have a purpose other than to eat things. So they're slower, but they're more inexorable.

They're just not going to stop, no matter what, so I'd go for the Walkers. The Walkers occupy my thoughts at night a lot more than the Reavers. The Reavers I could kind of laugh off. [Laughs]

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/21149

"The Walking Dead" Cast Talks Zombie Rules, Blood & Brains (VIDEO)
by Maggie Furlong
posted Aug 10th 2010


When the apocalypse happens and zombies take over, what becomes of the last humans standing?



"The Walking Dead" -- an adaptation of the hugely popular comic book -- will explore just that, with an amazing cast (including Andrew Lincoln, Sarah Wayne Callies, Jon Bernthal and Emma Bell), a legendary leader (Oscar nominated writer-director Frank Darabont) and a wealth of source material for inspiration, the series is one of the most talked about this season.



I caught up with the "Walking Dead" cast and producers who marveled at the uprising of zombies in pop culture, promised that "if you like gore, this is gonna be for you" and, just in case, listed off the rules for surviving a zombie attack.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/08/10/the-walking-dead-cast-interviews/

TV: See the Zombie Fury Engulf Atlanta in Awesome New "Walking Dead" Stills!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Today, AMC releases five new images from the set of its upcoming original series "The Walking Dead", which depict new shots of walkers as well as the arrival of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) on horseback in Atlanta -- and the horrors he encounters there.


"The Walking Dead" is currently being filmed on location in Atlanta, GA, and will premiere on AMC this October.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/21346

TV: "The Walking Dead" to Premiere on Halloween! Watch the Trailer Now!!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Close your windows, lock your doors and clear your schedules.

Come this Halloween, you'll have more to fear than trick-or-treaters. AMC has announced that its newest original series, "The Walking Dead" will premiere on Halloween night, Sunday, Oct. 31 at 10PM | 9C!!




The Sunday night series will debut with a 90-minute premiere episode directed by Frank Darabont (The Mist). Subsequent episodes will be one-hour long presentations.


Also, the official four and a half-minute trailer first screened at Comic-Con is now available here online in full-screen HD! Watch it below...

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/21414

Early Second Season Detail for "Walking Dead"
Source: Fangoria
August 30, 2010


While a formal announcement concerning "The Walking Dead's" second season has been made, an AMC contest in which you could win a zombie role in the show's sophomore run was a good indication of a secure future.


Fangoria's on set sources now tell them that shooting is looking to resume in February 2011 on season two.



Presently, AMC is prepping a six-episode run for season one that begins on Halloween.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=16361

Thomas Jane Yearns To Be One of "The Walking Dead"
BY Bryan Alexander
Monday, Aug 30, 2010


Thomas Jane might have a pretty decent gig on HBO's hit "Hung", but that doesn't mean he doesn't yearn for a little of undead action on the side.



Jane tells PopcornBIz that he's angling for a spot on AMC's "The Walking Dead" in whatever capacity.

"That show is going to be a a big f----- hit," he told us at the HBO post-Emmy party. "I've seen it and it is fan-f---- tastic."






Jane spent his Emmy night at dinner with "Walking Dead" director Frank Darabont, hatching out a plan to get on the show which begins airing on Oct. 31.

If you haven't heard the "Walking Dead" hype, you soon will. The story of life after a zombie apocalypse is going to be a monster success.

"I'm going to come on and do a guest thing," he says. "Maybe play a bad guy."







Jane explains that he was originally supposed to star in the television series when it was destined to be on HBO. He ended up going with "Hung" and "The Walking Dead" went to AMC.

Jane says he'll insist on being human in the guest role, however. He'll slay the undead, but he won't play one.

"I'm not going to be a zombie," he says. "That's too much make up."







As if getting into character for the part, Jane was barefoot at the HBO party, making for an extremely odd site. But he admits the look will help him in the television role.

"I'm going to be barefoot on the 'Walking Dead,' " he says.

We can't wait.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/blogs/popcornbiz/Thomas-Jane-Yearns-To-Be-One-of-the-Walking-Dead-101781763.html

Rumor Control: "The Walking Dead" Season 2 NOT Greenlit
Thursday, September 2, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Contrary to Fangoria's premature reports, the second season of AMC's "The Walking Dead" has yet to be greenlit.



Aint it Cool News reached out to the actual source, pilot director/executive producer Frank Darabont, who quickly debunked the story:

"Shooting in February? As tired as I am right now getting season one through post, I'd rather shoot myself," he tells the site.



Watch for an OFFICIAL announcement when the deal is sealed.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/21540

TV: A Trio of "The Walking Dead" Teasers!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Entitled "Rick's Gun", "Hospital Corridor", and "Darkness": inside you'll find the first three TV spots for AMC's "The Walking Dead", all of which will begin to air this coming week.

The Frank Darabont-directed pilot airs on Halloween night. It kicks off the initial 6-episode first season.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/21557

Fourth TV Spot Revealed for "Walking Dead"
Source: AMC
September 9, 2010


A fourth spot for AMC's upcoming series "The Walking Dead" can be viewed below.

This one finds Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes making a house call of a gruesome nature.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=16485

TV: A Fresh Look at a Not-So-Fresh Zombie from "The Walking Dead"
Monday, September 13, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Included in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly is a fresh (or not-so-fresh) look at one of the undead in AMC's "The Walking Dead", their live-action adaptation of Robert Kirkman's mind-blowing comic series.

The Frank Darabont-directed pilot airs on Halloween night.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/21654

Fifth TV Spot for "The Walking Dead"
Source: AMC
September 17, 2010


"The Walking Dead". October 31. Get into it.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=16578

TV: Official Poster for AMC's "The Walking Dead"
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


AMC released today the key art for its upcoming original drama "The Walking Dead", which premieres Halloween night, Oct. 31 at 10PM | 9C.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/21751

New "Walking Dead" Sizzle Reel Online
Source: AMC
September 24, 2010


AMC announced this morning that "The Walking Dead" will be in the spotlight at the upcoming New York Comic-Con with a panel event at 2:15pm on Sunday, October 10th.


Panelists include:

Executive Producers:
Frank Darabont
Gale Anne Hurd
Robert Kirkman (who also created and writes the original comic book series)

Cast Members:
Andrew Lincoln
Sarah Wayne Callies
Jon Bernthal
Laurie Holden
Steven Yeun




Also released today is a brand-new sizzle reel, which you can check out below:

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/articlenews.php?id=16687

"The Walking Dead" from Comic to Screen Video
Friday, October 1, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Turning a comic book into a TV series is no easy task.

In this new behind-the-scenes video from AMC, Executive Producers Frank Darabont, Gale Anne Hurd and Robert Kirkman discuss how they managed to manifest their ambitious vision of "The Walking Dead" during its long journey from page to screen.

The series itself premieres on Halloween at 10PM | 9C.




How well does it translate?

Well, according to the comic's creator, Robert Kirkman: "If Jesus came down and said, 'From now on you can fly,' that's the only thing that would top this."

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/21886

New York Comic Con: "The Walking Dead"
Oct 11, 2010
by TV Guide Magazine News


AMC's panel for its upcoming zombie series "The Walking Dead" was so popular that thousands of fans were turned away after the IGN Theater was filled to capacity.

Lucky attendees devoured a six-minute clip of Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) running, chopping and shooting through a mob of rotting, decaying undead.

"Do you still have doubts?" asked Robert Kirkman, who wrote the Image Comics series on which the show is based. Judging from the cheering, no-one did.





"We follow Rick Grimes as he searches for his family in a zombie apocalypse," explained executive producer Gale Anne Hurd.

Joining Kirkman, director Frank Darabont and Hurd on stage were cast members Lincoln, Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes), Laurie Holden (Andrea), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Steven Yeun (Glenn) and Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon).


"It's very hard to be around to be around these actors because I've killed a lot of them in the comic book," Kirkman said with a laugh. But while the death rate is high and the gore is intense — "I can't believe it's on television," said Holden — everyone involved was quick to point out this is more than just horror: It's a character-driven drama.



"In a maximum sense, this is a survival story," Darabont told TV Guide Magazine earlier.


Callies added, "It's about a group of people who are trying not to turn into monsters. Human beings trying desperately to survive against odds that will claim almost everyone."



And all agreed that AMC is to thank for allowing them to do create such an adult story, in terms of both blood and complexity.

"If it were an R-rated feature," said Darabont, "there isn't anything we would have done differently."



After promising that fans won't be disappointed the director announced at the panel that "The Walking Dead" will go further than AMC's envelope-pushing series "Breaking Bad":

"We're going to make them look like p--sies!"

http://www.tvguide.com/News/New-York-Comic-1024211.aspx

AMC Releases "Walking Dead" Documentary
by Chris Harnick
posted Oct 11th 2010


To satisfy your hunger for "The Walking Dead", AMC has released a 17-minute behind-the-scenes documentary about the show.

With insight from creator Robert Kirkman, director/executive producer Frank Darabont and the series stars, it's like a special right from the season 1 DVD set ... only season 1 doesn't premiere until 10PM on Sun., Oct. 31.


Treat yourself to this delicious featurette and prepare for the undead.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/10/11/amc-releases-walking-dead-documentary/

Scream Awards 2010 "Walking Dead" Footage
Source: Spike
October 20, 2010


Here's a clip from the upcoming AMC series that made its debut at the Scream Awards which aired on Spike TV.

Look for "Dead" to air on Halloween night.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=16949

There are "Walking Dead" All Around the World
Source: Shock Till You Drop
October 25, 2010


In anticipation of the premiere of AMC's new series "The Walking Dead" on Sunday October 31 at 10 p.m., AMC and FOX international networks plan to stage a worldwide zombie invasion stunt.



"The Walking Dead" international broadcaster, Fox International Channels, will kick-off the stunts with overseas invasions beginning at daybreak in Taipei and Hong Kong on Tuesday, October 26, and moving across the globe where the stunt culminates at the show's Los Angeles premiere.



A week prior to the unprecedented global premiere of the show, AMC and FIC have planned to target one day multi-city events that will occur during morning commute peak hours.

Taking direction from "The Walking Dead's" legendary make-up artist Greg Nicotero, hundreds of zombies will consecutively take over major cities worldwide during a 24-hour period.







The planned global outbreaks will center in and around the world’s major landmarks including:

the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City
the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
Big Ben in London
the Prado Museum in Madrid
the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul
the Acropolis in Athens
and many more



They will begin at daybreak in Taipei and Hong Kong attacking a total of 26 cities, each outbreak will be documented and shared with fans the world over as it happens.








The Walking Dead Global Zombie Invasion Attacks


New York City, USA
Washington DC, USA
Boston, USA
Chicago, USA
San Francisco, USA
Los Angeles, USA



Taipei, Taiwan
Hong Kong
Istanbul, Turkey
Athens, Greece
Sofia, Bulgaria
Estonia, Tallinn
Belgrade, Serbia
Munich, Germany
Madrid, Spain
Rome, Italy
Johannesburg, S. Africa
London, UK – Westminster
Lisbon, Portugal
Sao Paolo, Brazil
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Santiago, Chile
Caracas, Venezuela
Bogota, Colombia
Mexico City, Mexico
Guatemala City, Guatemala

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=16989

Video: Worldwide Zombie Roundup
Oct 26, 2010
by Alyse Wax


Yesterday, we reported a zombie scourge covering the globe. Well, today we have video coverage.

At daybreak today, 26 cities let loose a global zombie invasion. They terrorized tourists in Athens and horrified shoppers in Hong Kong, all to celebrate "The Walking Dead" on AMC.




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http://www.fearnet.com/news/b20738_video_worldwide_zombie_roundup.html

Watch Five Minutes of "The Walking Dead"
Source: AMC
October 28, 2010


Want to get a lengthy preview of "The Walking Dead"?

Watch about five minutes below and see Rick (Andrew Lincoln) wake up into a world of the undead.

The series debut is on Halloween.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=17022

AMC Orders Up More "Walking Dead"
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
March 29, 2010


AMC must be digging what Frank Darabont is cooking up for "The Walking Dead". Six episodes have been ordered and the network is wisely aiming for an October debut.

Just in time for the Halloween season and AMC's annual Fearfest!



Darabont is still trying to find his leading man for Rick Grimes who, as you might know from reading Robert Kirkman's "Walking Dead" comic books, is the police officer who wakes up from a coma and must contend with survival during a zombie uprising.

Jon Bernthal has been cast as Shane, Grimes' partner and friend.




Charlie Collier, AMC President, says in a press release, "With its depth of story and the remarkable talent attached, "The Walking Dead" gives us an opportunity to raise the bar significantly within this popular genre, and continue our commitment to being the home of premium programming on basic cable."



"The Walking Dead" begins production in June in Atlanta with six, one-hour episodes for season one.

KNB EFX is handling the make-up, as we reported this morning.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=14680
In the end, AMC has cast Andrew Lincoln as the lead in its zombie apocalypse thriller "The Walking Dead", the Frank Darabont adaptation that goes behind camera this June in Atlanta.

Lincoln ("Teachers," "Enduring Love") will play Rick Grimes, a small-town cop who leads a group of survivors in their struggle against a world besieged by zombies.

As previously announced, Jon Bernthal will play Shane, a survivor who was Rick's police partner before the zombie disaster.