As a network that boasts Breaking Bad and Mad Men, AMC continues to buck the trend of formulaic television by adapting Robert Kirkman’s comic, The Walking Dead this October as a part of its “Fearfest” lineup. Several days after seeing the trailer at Comic-Con, I’m still buzzing over the footage. Few things truly impressed me at the convention more than the increasing love for Kirkman’s creation. The craze at the Image booth selling collections of the graphic novel and merchandise and all of the attention surrounding the AMC booth are promising signs for the undead.
This is the first time a zombie series has been done in the States. (Apparently, Australia beat us to the punch.) Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, The Mist) is writing the screenplay and is showrunning, Gale Anne Hurd (Aliens, Terminator) is producing, Greg Nicotero (Day of the Dead, The Mist) will head the visual effects and makeup, and Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica) was announced as the series score composer. This is a dream team of creative forces that has been assembled and is tackling what could be groundbreaking television.
This is the first of a two-part deeper look at The Walking Dead and I spent time with Darabont, Hurd, and Nicotero as they escaped from the clawing and biting zombies for Comic-Con to talk about adapting the comic to television.
Greg Nicotero and Frank Darabont at San Diego Comic-Con International (Image: BuzzFocus.com)
The story begins a year ago when Darabont and Hurd approached Kirkman and gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse, that The Walking Dead series would air within 18 months.
“That was a bit of a flyer,” Hurd said. “The amazing thing is we pitched the series in October of last year and got a pilot script order in November, AMC read the pilot and ordered five more scripts. When they read the second script they ordered six episodes, which is pretty nontraditional. Normally you shoot a pilot, people look at it and decisions are made. So it was a vote of confidence.”
“Standard broadcast television really does like formula because the general audience for most television shows like to watch the same show over and over again with the same beats. With AMC it’s no holds barred. Where else would see a show about a meth dealer?”
“AMC said, we want this and we will prove to you we’re the right network and we will make sure you will get on the air. You hear that a lot in Hollywood, and they have been true to their word.”
Once the news came out that a show was in production, speculation began as to how the comic would translate to a television series. The cast and crew confirm that the show will diverge at times from the comics, where opportunity allows, but the main structure will follow what Kirkman has laid out in the source material. Comics that are character driven lend themselves as a television series better because stories are not as compressed as they are on film, a quality that intrigued Darabont.
“The pleasure of doing any kind of serialization television that you can’t do in a feature is spend that incremental time to get to know those characters. Television as a medium has never been better than certain things we’ve had in the last number of years because all of the good writing is going into that. It’s not much welcomed in features anymore.”
“I’m not comparing us to anybody but if you look at The Wire, The Shield; if you look at Breaking Bad, which is currently my favorite thing, it’s that marvelous, serialized, you-get-to-know-these-people-over a-numbers-of-years thing versus telling a story in two hours or less. That’s one of the reasons I was so thrilled at the idea of trying to do this, because I love the idea of doing something long-term like this.”
Nicotero added, “The more you care about your people, the more horrific it is when something bad happens to them. On a show like this, you’ll get to know them so the horror is more real because you know them more deeply than if you just met them and they’re gone in an hour and a half. I think it’s really critical the more you learn about Rick, and on the first episode you’re on his journey with him, we’re discovering along with him what has happened to the world. You’re seeing it through his eyes. The more you learn about his search for his family, the more horrific it is because you can relate to it.”
Image Copyright: AMC
Kirkman has been brought on as executive producer of the show and has said he approves of there being a clear distinction between the comic and TV show and Hurd stressed that he has given his blessing and encouragement to Darabont and crew to mix things up as long as it remained to the truth of the comic book.
With all of the speculation of what changes will occur, I asked Darabont about what when re-reading the series and writing the screenplay, did he feel he could expand on with the television series.
“Oh boy, that’s a good question. You’ll notice certain things from the comic book where you say, ‘I know exactly where I am in Kirkman’s story.’ Getting out of the hospital and seeing the dead woman in the park, the first zombie he sees, those iconic Kirkman scenes are definitely in there. Morgan becomes a much bigger deal in the pilot for example. In the comic, they have a nice meeting they kind of take care of him and move on. I brought a whole idea of why Morgan hasn’t left and isn’t leaving yet that roots it in a more dramatic and painfully emotional thing. When I see an opportunity, I think, I want to know more about THIS guy, and when a storyline suggests itself, I work it in.”
Nicotero compared the first time he had read the comic and then Frank’s screenplay. “When the graphic novel first came out, I was shooting in Austin with Robert Rodriguez and we went to Austin Comics and Walking Dead was there and I remember buying two issues going, ‘Dude, look! A comic about zombies!’ We were so excited because he and I always talk about zombie stuff. I got pretty deep into it and then I hadn’t re-read it.”
“Frank and I have been talking over the past couple of years about the show and I’ve purposely didn’t re-read the graphic novel. When I read the first drafted script, the slight divergences Frank took, I didn’t remember if they were in the graphic novel or not. It was so true to the form, it made so much sense.”
“It’s like Stephen King talking about the ending of The Mist who said, ‘I would have ended it that way, if I had thought of it.’ Kirkman might have thought of these divergences if he had spent a little more time or gone back and reinvested in that character.”
Darabont replied, “He’s done that with some of his characters. He’s taken his own detours, which I think is fascinating. I did the same thing (as Greg), it had been a year or two since I had read it and suddenly we’re greenlit.”
“I just wanted to go to the first part of the graphic novel to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. I was curious because it was very far from my head because I’ve been working with the script. When I did read it, I said to myself, ‘Oh that’s not in the comic book?’ It’s become its own thing in my head now. It’s all one layer.”
Producer Gale Anne Hurd at San Diego Comic-Con International - Image: BuzzFocus.com
For those fearing a toned-down approach, The Walking Dead will continue the mature feel of AMC’s original programming and retain the language, feel, and tone of the comic. Darabont said he’s not getting much resistance in terms of what they can or can’t do. “It has not been an issue. I guess there are standards and practices but we haven’t run up against them. [Laughs] Really, I can’t say, “<expletive>!” and that’s pretty much it. That’s the only barrier I’ve hit.”
“The truth is we’re making our decisions on how we want to shoot something based on how it feels best. There’s the sometimes less-is-more approach, and the more-is-more approach, which in a zombie thing you need the more-is-more sometimes and we’re just not running up against those constraints. There’s not some standards and practices doomsayer that’s saying, “Oh my god, you can’t show blood!”
“The people at AMC are so excited about this; it makes our lives easier,” Nicotero reassured. “Even when we did Land of the Dead, George (Romero) was worried about the ratings and we came up with this great idea where we’ll shoot a bunch of zombies walking in front of a green screen walking left, and walking right, for the theatrical version, if there’s an objection to the rating, then they can add a zombie pass, strategically, to a specific point to distract a slight bit from the gag. Then in the DVD all of those were taken away. But George was always conscious of that. In the 70’s he was literally strung up for doing it.”
The visual style has Nicotero’s stamp all over it. His magic has touched an endless list of films and his effects are as tremendous as any zombie film done in the past with even more gruesome details. The cinematography is a bit muted, sun-bleached, but in color, which aside from the cover art of Tony Moore, is a departure away from the black and white art by Moore and Charlie Adlard in the comics. Based on the favorable response of adding a black and white version of The Mist on the DVD/Blu-ray, Darabont expressed to AMC to want to do at least the pilot in black and white as an additional supplement on the eventual home release.
“AMC has heard the question enough times from the fans that when I brought it up they said, ‘That sounds like a really good idea!’ I can’t absolutely vow, but I feel 90% sure we’ll have at least the pilot (in black and white) when the DVDs/Blu-rays are released. It’s just an extra treat for those who dig the black and white thing.
So with the uniqueness of what the show is trying to accomplish and set out to do, what was it that made the current climate perfect for zombies and a Walking Dead television show? With the numerous effects, makeup, set design, talented ensemble cast, hard language, this is not your average television show. “I think it’s definitely the zeitgeist,” said Hurd.
“Recently starting with unfortunately (because of the lives lost), Katrina, the tsunami (in India), the earthquake in Haiti and now the oil spill in the gulf. There’s this sense of the precariousness of life as we know it on the planet, and imagery is all around us. We find when we’re creating the world of the Walking Dead, how that imagery haunts us. You strip away to basic human nature and what happens when that pressure to survive is put on each of our ensemble cast.”
The hope is that the October Fearfest programming will help with the launch and a successful run by first six episodes could launch another 13 episodes, which is the typical cable network order. Results pending, the crew is already envisioning what the future will look like, “We have a general idea where the next 13 would end,” said Hurd. “Some people have been able to predict other things where other things like some of the blogs have been dead wrong.”
Shooting is halfway complete, well into the third and fourth episode. The crew flew in from Atlanta after en exhausting shoot that went through the night and well into Thursday morning. In recreating the first arc of the series, Days Gone Bye, “Atlanta is very much a character in the comic book,” Hurd said. “AMC asked us where we wanted to shoot. We said Atlanta, to scout locations, and we were ale to find many things from the panels of the comic book.”
“It’s very interesting coming from California, from what is essentially a desert to a place that fees like life after man. The kudzu has taken over. You can see how the remnants of our industrial and technological society can disappear very quickly and you really get that sense in a place like Atlanta.”
Every zombie story has own take on the genre. George Romero had the slow-minded zombies, in 28 Days they were like rabid land sharks. Even Shaun of the Dead had its own brand of brain-eater. With my confidence in The Walking Dead television show growing by the minute, the last thing I wondered about were the zombies themselves. What would viewers expect from the Walking Dead signature zombie?
Hurd succinctly replied, “There’s an homage to George Romero with the imprimatur of Frank Darabont as realized by Greg Nicotero, inspired by what Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard put on the page.” If that don’t make fans happy, I don’t know what will.
Stay tuned for Part II of our deeper look into The Walking Dead.
This looks GREAT!!!! I can’t wait to see it. Darabont is so correct when he says that television has become more of a true artistic medium than film in the last few years, at least in the mainstream. Movie studios are so afraid to take chances on anything that isn’t already a bonafide hit that sometimes TV is the only place to go for fresh entertainment. The Walking Dead looks utterly amazing from everything I’ve been able to see of it.