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Frank Darabont writing and directing 'The Walking Dead' series for AMC

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The Lamonster said:
bhahahaha they're actually filming in Atlanta?? Fuck yeah!
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The first season should (mostly) take place there.

I wonder if they'll move around when Rick and Co. do...



Great bit Whitta :D .
 
Costanza said:
Holy fuck the opening scene is some LOST level shit. This is gonna be amazing.
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Oh wait, I love the opening of the first season of Lost! ;)

EDIT: Wait, are you refering to the opening of Lost or the general style of the show?
 
itsinmyveins said:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Oh wait, I love the opening of the first season of Lost! ;)

EDIT: Wait, are you refering to the opening of Lost or the general style of the show, i.e. tons upon tons of unnecessary and pandering plot twists?
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The opening. Sorta.

ChoklitReign said:
I can't wait to see zombies in Atlanta. How much of an idea for an air date do we have?
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October.
 
Costanza said:
The opening. Sorta.
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Hah, that's fine then. I edited my last post too, didn't want to start debating that again :)

I really hope they'll go for the feel of the comics and not for a cliffhanger ending to each and every episode.
 
The hype got to me so I bought the Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1. I'm like 200 pages into it and ... it's starting to get somewhat interesting. When does it get awesome? I have the feeling this will work much, much better in film form for me.
 
Zabojnik said:
The hype got to me so I bought the Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1. I'm like 200 pages into it and ... it's starting to get somewhat interesting. When does it get awesome? I have the feeling this will work much, much better in film form for me.
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What's happening right now?
 
Costanza said:
Finished the script.

OH

MY

GOD.

Absolutely incredible. My hype is at impossible levels.
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Aside from that amazing opening, two words:
hospital stairwell
:o

Only halfway through it, will finish up tonight. So far though, awesomeness = total.
 
Costanza said:
What's happening right now?
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They arrived at the prison. The two teenagers commited (well, tried) double suicide. The deaths in this are all pretty tragic. Problem is ... they are all happening before I'm able to get sentimentally attached to the characters.
 
Gary Whitta said:
Aside from that amazing opening, two words:
hospital stairwell
:o

Only halfway through it, will finish up tonight. So far though, awesomeness = total.
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Yeah, those 2 scenes are going to be so awesome. :D
 
Alright so I just finished the script and it was excellent :D

If you've read at least half way and on, SPOILERS:

-I have to say that having some sort of resolution to Morgan and Duane early on was so fantastic. I imagine the scene in future episodes between him and his wife is going to be immensely tense and heart breaking.

-Shane actually being a fleshed out character! OMG greatest thing ever.

-Kind of annoying that they had to keep hidden that laurie and carl are still alive. I mean it's fairly obvious I'm sorry. As I was reading the radio scene I could hear my mom going "Oh I bet it's his wife that wants to go out there, all wives of cops are like that!"

-The uh, Horse eating scene shall be interesting...

-Like it was said earlier the staircase scene shall be awesome. Kinda bummed they got rid of the wide shot of the cafeteria from the comic. I really loved that image, but the fingers are just as creepy.

-The end is great. Just a fantastic way to end a first episode and really ending on a good beat.

Non-Spoilerish thought that came to me. Darabont was describing a lot of color in the script. Should we take this as a colorized show now?
 
gdt5016 said:
God, I haven't, and won't, read the script but these impressions are awesome.
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Read it. It's honestly nothing that will take away from your experience of watching the show.

It's just going to get you more excited.
 
gdt5016 said:
It doesn't come out tomorrow...
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I wish I read this before going to the comic store yesterday :(

I can't believe some of you guys, I mean reading the script when you've already read the comic...are you guys trying to prematurely ruin the inevitable gaftv threads while simultaneously ensuring that you will have no "omg surprise moments" while watching the pilot. Also the script being leaked makes me appreciated whatever voodoo magic sacrifices Damon/Carlton do to keep the LOST scripts secret.
 
jeffrey_demunn_the_green_mile_001.jpg


He kind of looks like the part, but man, I know nothing about most of the cast :lol
 
So the comic for this is good?

I read the first issue because it was free on Comixology, but I didn't like how it wasn't colored in :(
 
RubxQub said:
So the comic for this is good?

I read the first issue because it was free on Comixology, but I didn't like how it wasn't colored in :(
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:lol :lol :lol

It's black and white, like the old zombie movies.

And yeah, it's fantastic. Absolutely perfect for TV too.



Good casting for Dale.
 
http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2010/04/19/darabont-wants-simon-pegg-to-walk-with-‘the-dead’-again/#
Darabont wants Simon Pegg to walk with ‘The Dead’ again
By: Todd Gilchrist


On Saturday, April 17, Frank Darabont appeared at the Landmark Magnolia Theatre in Dallas, TX, to host a screening of The Shawshank Redemption. Darabont was honored the previous evening at the Dallas Film Society Honors, where he received the Star Award for his ongoing contributions to cinema, and brought in his personal print of Shawshank to screen for fans and Dallas Film Festival attendees. Prior to a q&a following the screening, Hollywood News caught up with Darabont in the lobby of the Magnolia, where he offered a few hints at some of the guest stars he wants to appear on his zombie-themed TV series The Walking Dead, including Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg.



Unfortunately, we were unable to record Darabont’s exact words regarding Pegg and his other would-be guest stars. But the writer-director said that he thinks Pegg is an incredibly under-rated dramatic actor, and think he would be ideal to appear on the show. Additionally, Darabont said that he hopes that actor William Fichtner will be able to guest star on the show, indicating that he has a role that would be good for the Armageddon and Date Night co-star in the script for the sixth episode.

Darabont added that he’s about six weeks away from the start of production on the first episode, which he plans to shoot in Atlanta. Although he has yet to cast the show’s female leads, Darabont has cast previously announced choices Andrew Lincoln and Jon Bernthal as Rick Grimes and Shane Walsh. Behind the scenes, Darabont plans to reunite with his Majestic cinematographer David Tattersall, and is collaborating with production designer Gregory Melton and First Assistant Director K.C. Colwell, both of whom also worked on Darabont’s last film, The Mist.
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Yes. Yes. YES.
 
BattleMonkey said:
night of the living dead is the only one that was in black and white.
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Meh, whatever, I was just repeating comments by Kirkman.


BTW, I couldn't give two shits about zombie movies.
 
Shanadeus said:
I wonder if they'll stay true to all the gorey bits, thinking about
slow decapitation of the cool black dude.
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Yeah, I think they can more or less stick to that.

That can't stick to the infamous torture scene though :lol .
 
A few days old, but don't think it was posted...

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

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. K.C. Colwell 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.
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Cool beans.
 
That's fantastic that not everyone is sucking on the Digital power teat.
Film is going to be such a great direction to go with the show.
 
Yeah, in my mind's eye I'm seeing alot of dirt, grey, grit, and grain at times. Just generally depressing and raw when it comes to the cinematography.
 
I was also thinking a very children of men style greys and black palettes. I don't know if I want the shakey cam for it, but I think the still shots might lend more to the "comic" feel and it helps with the slow pacing that the book has.
 
I haven't read a page of the comic but being a big Darabont fan and a huge zombie-anything fan, this has my full attention, front and fucking center.
 
wenis said:
I was also thinking a very children of men style greys and black palettes. I don't know if I want the shakey cam for it, but I think the still shots might lend more to the "comic" feel and it helps with the slow pacing that the book has.
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I'm seeing shaky and hand held FNL style cams for more action/horror stuff with still shots used for most anything else.

I don't know if the whole show would work FNL style...
 
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