Move over True Blood, hitch a ride Twilight, vampires are so last year. This Halloween, it's all about the zombies, baby. The eagerly awaited adaptation of The Walking Dead is due to air in the States and Canada on AMC, October 31st 2010, with a feature length episode. And shortly afterwards, it makes the hop to Britain with a slot scheduled for bonfire night, November 5th, on everybody's new favourite channel FX.
Top Ensemble Cast for Walking Dead
The cast and production crew for Walking Dead are something else. Andrew Lincoln, so often reduced to playing spurned lovers (see Love Actually, Heartbreaker), gets the kick-ass role he's been waiting for as apocalypse survivor Rick Grimes. His wife Lori is played by Sarah Wayne Callies, who's probably best known as Dr Sara Tancredi from Prison Break, and his best friend Shane is played by Jon Bernthal (The Pacific, The Ghost). In addition, there's Emma Bell and Laurie Holden, who play sisters Andrea and Amy, Steven Yuen who plays Glen, and Lennie James who plays Morgan Jones.
That's a pretty hot cast to be getting on with. It's even possible that we can forgive Lennie James' involvement with the dire Prisoner remake, if The Walking Dead turns out to be as good as it looks. And it does look good. Just check out the awesome Walking Dead trailer.
Frank Darabont Directs New Zombie TV Series
Writer/director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) is pegged as the 'creator' of this new series, but it’s based on the graphic novels and comics invented by Robert Kirkman. Darabont is a long time fan of the Walking Dead comics, and has ensured Kirkman is still very much involved. Kirkman has writing credits on the six episodes for this opening series, and an executive producer tag too.
The other big names behind the scenes are producer Gale Anne Hurd, whose hits include Terminator and Aliens, and SFX ubermeister Greg Nicotero (Sin City, Evil Dead II, + many more) - so that should mean some stunning zombie visual effects.
When is The Walking Dead on?
Episode 1 of The Walking Dead, directed by Darabont, airs in Canada and the States on Oct 31st, later elsewhere. In Britain, there is a wait of only 5 days, before the dead will walk on our screens - which will put us in the unusual position of watching the same season as our American friends at approximately the same time, instead of playing catch up. So that's cool. (As long as you have Sky or Virgin which both broadcast the desired channel FX).
The first episode of The Walking Dead tv show is titled (like Kirkman’s comic) Days Gone Bye. It’s an epic 90 minutes long, and introduces the main man himself Rick Grimes, a County Sheriff who ends up shepherding a raggle taggle group of survivors. Early on Grimes is hospitalised following a shooting. What happens next has more than a touch of 28 Days Later about it, what with Grimes waking up to find the planet has been annihilated by a virus, and the dead are rising again as zombies.
Kirkman has said that he came up with the opening to his opus magnum before 28 Days, but because his publishing date was pushed back the film came out first. (See GQ's interview, 02/08/10) Not that it's a problem - zombie stories all have to start somewhere. Waking up from a coma to find the world has changed is hardly an original concept anyway. What it is, is a succinct and familiar way of introducing a zombie apocalypse that cuts straight to the chase.
The Walking Dead vs. Dawn of the Dead
Aside from 28 Days Later, the other obvious influence, not just on The Walking Dead but the zombie genre as a whole, is director George A. Romero. His Living Dead films are the jumping off point for most everybody when it comes to zombies. Kirkman is a fan, mentioning in his introduction to the Walking Dead comics how he admires the social commentary that underpins good zombie films. He elaborates:
“Give me Dawn of the Dead over Night of the Living Dead any day. To me, zombie movies are thought provoking, dramatic fiction…… Movies that make you question the very fabric of our society….”
Given that kind of sensibility from the writer, a director who’s a huge fan of the source material, and a cast to die for, how can The Walking Dead fail to excite? It surely looks set to follow in the footsteps of AMC’s two other big hitters Mad Men and Breaking Bad in marking the channel out as a purveyor of quality left of centre drama. So keep ’em peeled this Halloween, ’cause the dead are getting ready to rise again, and they sure don't look happy.
References
- Amctv.com, The Walking Dead pages, accessed 09/10/10
- Estrella, Ernie, 04/08/10, “The walking dead: Beneath the rotting flesh”, buzz focus.com, accessed 09/10/10
- IMDb.com, The Walking Dead pages, accessed 09/10/10
- Kirkman, Robert, & Moore, Tony, 26/09/06, The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye, Image comics illustrated edition
- Pappademas, Alex, 02/08/10, “Dead reckoning: Robert Kirkman brings zombies to Don Draper’s back yard”, GQ.com, accessed 09/10/10
Michelle Strozykowski - Michelle Strozykowski lives in a small brewing town smack bang in the middle of England. She loves films, especially arty European ones ...
