When The Dead Walk The Earth… They’ll Be Dead.. And Walking..
The Walking Dead Interviews
News A Rama Interviews Robert Kirkman
News A Rama did a short but sweet interview with the man, the myth, the legend, the hottest name involved with the undead since Romero – Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead.
News-A-Rama: Going back and reading those early issues is also a chance to read a younger version of you writing. Is there anything in those early issues you would have done differently now?
Robert Kirkman: The earlier issues of The Walking Dead are a little more wordy than they probably needed to be. At the time, it was done on purpose as an experiment to see how much dialogue I could fit in the book. “Did the readers like having that?†It reads a little unusual going back – never in a million years would I think now that I could fit that much into a panel. There are certain things I’d do different; a few places where I say “I can’t believe I did that!â€
I don’t hold the work to be sacred or anything, and with the opportunity of doing this television series I often get questions from the crew saying “are you fine with the changes being made?†And I look back at the issues and I see mistakes and room for improvement. It’s fun to see them go back to that original material and see how they interpret it. In some cases, the changes they’ve done have had me wishing I had done it that way.
For the full interview check out News-A-Rama!
That’s not all though for interviews with Robert, Things from Another World also had a great chance to interview him as well! (Reading through it though I warn you if you haven’t read a lot of the series this could be thought of as being full of spoilers even though nothing in it is new the series is at 7 years at this point.)
TFAW: As the series continues, the zombies seem like less of a threat and other people seem like more of threat. Was this your intention all along?
Robert KirkmanAbsolutely. This book has never been about the zombies. There will always be periods of downtime and as our characters adapt to this new world, they’re naturally going to grow accustomed to zombies and learn to avoid them. Although I must say they’ll never get to the point where they pose no threat at all. I’m just trying to lull readers into a false sense of security right now.
For the full interview click through to Things From Another World!
Finally we have an interview with Director Michelle MacLaren who is primarily known for his work on AMC’s hit Breaking Bad who was able to get his hands dirty working on The Walking Dead as well!
AMC: Your episode has a lot of elements that are not in The Walking Dead comics. Was it strange to tread new ground?
Michelle MacLaren: We always had the comic in mind. I love to shoot wide, graphic shots, so we had many moments in shooting this episode where we’d make choices because it was like a graphic novel, or it reminded us of the comic. Even though we got some in, I would have liked to have had time to shoot more long lens shots — I know Frank really likes that look — but it does take longer when you’re in certain situations, and this episode really required a lot of action. So things were a little bit more frenetic and fast-paced. [Laughs] I’m laughing because I’m thinking about some of our days, and I’m thinking, “God, that’s an understatement!”
You can read the full interview at AMC (For the record. I am a HUGE fan of the style of Breaking Bad and the series in general.)
Comic Con
So thanks to Fear Net we have the lowdown of how much of The Walking Dead will be at Comic Con!
The Walking Dead panel, scheduled for Friday, July 23 at 11:30AM in room 6BCF, will feature series stars Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually), Jon Bernthal (The Pacific), Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break), Laurie Holden (The Mist), and Emma Bell (Law & Order). Joining the cast are writer, director, executive producer and three-time Academy Award nominee Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile); executive producers Kirkman and Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator, Aliens, Armageddon), make-up artist Greg Nicotero (George Romero’s Land of the Dead, The Mist); and Joel Stillerman, AMC’s SVP of original programming, production and digital content.
- Attendees will have an opportunity to get “zombified” by visiting “The Walking Dead” booth and putting themselves into a zombie scene from the series via a touch screen and AMC will email the photo to them.
- AMC will distribute limited edition The Walking Dead series posters from internationally recognized movie poster artist, Drew Struzan (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Blade Runner, Hellboy and more).
- An autograph session will take place with Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Frank Darabont, Robert Kirkman, Greg Nicotero and Gale Anne Hurd in the Image Comic Books booth.
- AMC will distribute limited edition The Walking Dead series buttons.
- AMC will have The Walking Dead walkers around the convention center and booth.
- The Walking Dead booth will be a semi-recreation of a scene from the pilot episode.
The Walking Dead will premiere this October during AMC Fearfest, the network’s annual blockbuster marathon of thriller and horror films.
Full Cast Photo
Thanks to io9 we have our first full cast image of The Walking Dead. This image had gotten a few mixed responses from The Walking Dead fans across the nation. I for one though am fully behind where this is going. Sure we can’t see a lot of the world quite yet in this specific image (lets be honest enough have floated around at this point to get a better idea of how the world will look.) Honestly, I dig it. It gives you a surreal look that fits with a black and white comic turned color and gives you that grim frame of mind that is needed for the comic.
