It looks like Image’s The Walking Dead may be heading to small screens, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The Oscar nominated writer and director Frank Darabont ( Shawshank Redemption) has apparently been developing the idea of a TV series based on Robert Kirkman’s tales for some time and will be involved in writing, directing and executive producing the result. Given how the quite excellent Walking Dead (one of the most consistently enjoyable comics series of recent years, I think) uses the changing personal relationships among the group of post zombie holocaust survivors as much as it employs horror (like Romero’s classic zombie flicks Kirkman uses horror to explore what makes people tick and to create drama, not just for splatter-gore, fun though that can be) it would have made a poor feature film – probably be gutted and changed into a simple action zombie fest – whereas the dramatic, personal situations of the changing list of survivors would, I think, make for a good TV series.
And Darabont has a proven record of adapting books with deference to the original source material, so I’d imagine it would be in good hands with him. Since the company which won a bidding war for the rights (AMC, who also create Mad Men) had to fend off other interested parties let’s hope this means they are serious about making it and it doesn’t just end up as another might have been languishing in development hell (like the aborted HBO Preacher series). Coincidentally the latest volume of The Walking Dead, What We Become, hits shelves tomorrow.
Wed, Aug 12, 2009
Comics and cartoons, Film, TV and radio