July 28, 2010

Along with a living room dedicated to creating an atmosphere fraught with all of the trappings of the zombiepocalypse, The Walking Dead had a pretty fine showing at this year’s Comic-Con. The biggest announcement though? We’ve got a brand frickin’ new trailer for the TV show!! Give it a view here and then let us know what you think in the comment section. Mad Men and Breaking Bad may be two of the best shows on television, but they’ve got nothing on masses of automaton flesh. Stay tuned this October!

July 16, 2010 Update

Production on The Walking Dead has running smoothly for over a month, and we’re finally getting to see the cast up close and personal. AMC has released a promotional cast photo, and it seems pretty complete. It’s got heroes, guns, and of course, zombies:

June 3, 2010 Update

Yesterday we got the finalized casting and a particularly sweet/graphic image from AMC’s The Walking Dead. Frank Darabont is directing the adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s zombie epic and now we are getting a featurette detailing the work that Darabont is doing behind the scenes as writer/director of the series. What Mad Men did for advertising, The Walking Dead will do for zombies!

June 2, 2010 Update

The Walking Dead has gone into production! With this dramatic step forward from pre-production to just plain old production that means that we now have a finalized cast list:

Jon Bernthal … Shane Walsh
Jeffrey DeMunn … Dale
Linds Edwards … Leon Basset
Laurie Holden … Andrea
Andrew Lincoln … Rick Grimes
Addy Miller … (1 episode, 2010)
Sarah Wayne Callies … Lori Grimes
Steven Yeun … Glenn

It also means that we get out first look at a production still, and it’s a doozy!

May 5, 2010 Update

The Walking Dead updates seem to be pouring in now that producers of the show have no doubt seen there October premiere date and realized that they haven’t wrapped casting. Laurie Holden from The Majestic and FX’s The Shield has been tapped to play one of survivors (currently unnamed), who is in love with an older man and is an expert sniper. Also joining the cast is Steven Yeun, who apart from some voice-over work on Crysis is pretty green to the entertainment landscape.
[Hollywood Reporter]

May 3, 2010 Update

The latest update has revealed that Sarah Wayne Callies has joined the cast of The Walking Dead as female lead Lori Grimes. Grimes is the the wife of protagonist Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) who begins to slowly mentally unravel as the show progresses. Callies is most famous for her role as Dr. Sara Tancredi on Prison Break but apart from a one episode stint on House we haven’t see her since. The Walking Dead is set to premiere in October 2010 during AMC’s Fearfest, the network’s annual blockbuster marathon of thriller and horror films.
[AussielloFiles]

April 6, 2010 Update

AMC has confirmed the casting choice of Andrew Lincoln in the lead role of Rick Grimes. Lincoln is probably most well known for his role in the 2003 film Love Actually. This may seem like a strange choice but apparently Robert Kirkman, the creator of the series couldn’t be more thrilled, calling Lincoln, “an amazing find.” Lincoln will be joining Jon Bernthal who was previously cast as Shane.

March 30, 2010 Update

The Walking Dead has been fast-tracked and given a 6 episode order from AMC. The Hollywood Reporter says: “Dead” will begin production in June in Atlanta. The series is set to premiere in October 2010 during AMC’s Fearfest, the network’s annual marathon of thriller and horror films.

January 28, 2010 Update

Oh, zombies. How we do love thee. Whether your view of these undead rascals is as a metaphor for social conformity and rampant susceptibility to commercialism, or as SWEET MOTHER OF GOD WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR FACE!!? AAAAH!, there is no denying the widespread appeal of this popular type of fictional monster. Be they George Romero’s lumbering black and white automatons, or Danny Boyle’s sprinting refugees from anger management, zombies hold an undeniably powerful sway in the world of geek culture. And thankfully, unlike some sparkly emo blood-suckers I could mention, thus far they’ve been able to avoid jumping the shark, or nuking the fridge, or even, say, chomping the squirrel. That last one’s new, so go ahead and use it.

But as popular as they are, as much as they have gone so far as to recently invade classic works of literature, there has yet to be a television series devoted to our decaying brethren. That is, until now. Announced last year, and now picked up for a 6 episode order, cable network AMC will be adding an adaptation of Image Comics’ The Walking Dead to their growing stable of prime time dramas, which currently includes critical darlings Breaking Bad and Mad Men.

There are two types of self-respecting comic fans in this world, those who read The Walking Dead, and those who are intending to read it. Written by Robert Kirkman, TWD tells the story of, what else? – a nomadic band of human survivors trying to find a place to live after your garden-variety Zombpocalypse. But that simple premise doesn’t do the comic justice. All the running, shooting, screaming and chomping takes a backseat to the human drama. Kirkman has said his idea for the series was to examine what happens to the characters of a zombie movie after the credits roll – what everyday life is like for them in this drastically changed world, and even more importantly, how it changes them. He wants to show how catastrophe can bring out the absolute best and worst in human nature.

Kirkman really focuses on building and establishing the characters in his not-so-merry band of survivors, to the extent that we care very deeply about them, which makes it all the more effective when you see some of the unbelievably horrible crap the sadistic bastard puts them through during the course of this now 60+ issue epic. The series is my current personal favorite, all at once exhilarating, tender, surprising, terrifying, and heartbreaking.

The TV series is going to be written, directed, produced, and in all likelihood at this point, catered by Frank Darabont. Great news, or the greatest news? Probably best known for his excellent version of The Shawshank Redemption, Darabont has certainly shown a great affinity for character development as well as monster-mashing in his projects. Early reviews of his leaked pilot script for The Walking Dead are very promising, with one reviewer at Coming Attractions going so far as to say it “could even do for horror what the new Battlestar Galactica did for science fiction”.
So, um, wow. Given all this, combined with AMC’s proven track record of quality original programming so far, I cannot wait for this to surface. Moving forward, I expect to devour any tidbit about this project about as voraciously as zombies might feast on their precious braaaaaiiiiiiiins.

Psyched about The Walking Dead series? Can’t wait to see some wholesome zombie disembowelment? Let us know in the Comment Section.

Related posts on 30ninjas.com:

• It’s All Geek To Me – NYCC ’10 – The Walking Dead — “It’s Going To Make Breaking Bad Look Like A Bunch Of Pussies”
• Frank Darabont Adapts The Walking Dead
• Walking Dead Gets a Game Deal?
• Monday in Action — Game of Thrones, Deathly Hallows, and The Walking Dead
• Walking Dead Gets Greenlit
• Wednesday in Action — Looper, Tron Bikes, and the Writers of The Walking Dead