MTV recently went to Atlanta to visit the set of THE WALKING DEAD, and they brought cameras along to document all the controlled havoc the AMC production seemingly spared no expense in creating. And when I say havoc, I meant that the crew blocked off a huge portion of the city’s downtown to fill it with a mess of zombies, wrecked cars and even a tank. Frank Darabont comments on the video below about that being pretty impressive for a TV show budget and I’m inclined to agree. It doesn’t look like they’ll be scaling the scope back, even a bit, from the comics.
Anyway, why settle for mere words when you can witness the carnage for yourself in the video below? == TEASER ==
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Here are some choice quotes for those of you outside the US…
"Everything is being done exactly the way I would've wanted it, and it's better than I could have ever envisioned it. The whole thing is just amazing… The cool thing about it is, Frank Darabont, everything that he's doing is him looking at the book and going, 'I think there's something here that would make it better’… and I'll be damned if he's not right every time.” - - Robert Kirkman (you know the man)
"I'd like to do 20 years of zombie TV…! We're going to follow the Robert Kirkman narrative pretty closely, but we're giving ourselves permission to veer off path and find the interesting detours… We've got hundreds of zombies, we've got a downed helicopter, it just goes on and on. It's crazy — all on a TV budget." - - Frank Darabont (the Director)
"There's a certain look that we're going for… we want real gaunt, real thin features... Tall, so that then we can make it look like they're malnourished. So far, we've had some great performers, and they bring the makeup to life." Greg Nicotero (the make-up effects head)
Sounds like "Rob & Frank" are having a collaborative experience similar to the one that other “Rob & Frank” pair had. I’m, of course, talking about the working relationship Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez had on the SIN CITY movie. Which is a good sign that this'll be a project that not only stays true to the source, it'll also capture that ever-elusive "mainstream attention." Speaking of mainstream attention, what’s even more exciting than seeing the WALKING DEAD coming to a major cable TV station is seeing Robert Kirkman, comics writer, getting interviewed on MTV! This isn't just Splash Page, this time - - this is MTV News proper. I had the great opportunity of meeting him five years ago at teeny-tiny, one room comics convention at the Prudential Center in Boston and I'm so glad to see Kirkmania primed to run rampant all over America today.
Anyway, what do you Comic Vine maniacs think of this footage? Does it feel you with ghoulish delight? Or undead dread?
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Studios and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Pre-order the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover now on Amazon.com.