The Walking Dead MEGA News Roundup

So there is just a “little” bit of news this week. WOW. What happened? Comic Con happened so there was a SLEW of news on top of the already busy week of The Walking Dead news.

The Walking Dead Interviews

As usual there are so many Interviews I’ll have just a couple snippets from each and the link to where you can read the full one.

Interview With Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd

AMC: Frank Darabont directed the pilot, but other directors are helming the following episodes. Have you found it difficult to balance their visions with Frank’s?

Gale: No it’s actually been ideal since Frank directed the pilot adjacent to the subsequent episodes. Typically a pilot is shot months in advance, and there’s an intervening period during which the cast might lose the cohesiveness they shared while filming the first episode. In out case, the cast worked with Frank for our 14-day pilot shoot and then immediately began work on the next five episodes. In addition, Frank has spent a great deal of time on set, and is always available to us. Frank’s writing is both evocative in setting the tone and feel of each scene and quite specific vis a vis character, so it’s pretty easy for our directors to stay on the same page.

AMC: You’re known for producing blockbusters like Terminator and Aliens. How is The Walking Dead similar?

Gale: I think what our series shares in common with those films in particular is that the best genre films are character driven. And while they have an intriguing premise and terrific special effects, at the end of the day they’re rooted in complex characters and great stories. At the same time, neither compromises on production value: Every eight days we shoot a miniature version of a tentpole movie. What’s so wonderful about The Walking Dead is that we’re able to explore human nature in its most depraved as well as its most humanitarian in each episode. We strip each character down to their most basic survival instincts — or lack thereof. It’s actually the zombies who are the most predictable: You know what zombies are after. What you can’t anticipate is how one surviving human is going to interact with another. And that’s what keeps the series fresh and compelling.

[via: AMC.]

Commentary From Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grime)

What I’ve experienced from doing the scenes with him is that Rick is a very centered, serious, practical man. He’s also a simple man. He’s got a very good moral center; He’s like a moral compass. And what happens is this eroding of his moral center. He wakes up to find the world has irrevocably changed. His motivational forces are obviously to find his family and discover what has happened to them. And what I’ve realized in playing him is that he is willing to go to any lengths. He’s pushed into a corner and he’s fighting his way out.

[via: IGN.]

Interview With Michael Rooker

(Honestly this is an interview with him not about The Walking Dead so this is all you get.)

Dread Central: Now you’re shooting “The Walking Dead” in Atlanta with Frank Darabont as your director. Any info you can reveal right now?

Michael Rooker: I play a character named Merle…you know, the Southern name “Merle”…a new character to the Robert Kirkman graphic novel. And Frank is my new best friend. Actually, I’m currently on a break from “The Walking Dead” and am shooting an episode of “Burn Notice” in Miami with Bruce Campbell and lots of other friends, old and new. DAMN, but I love Miami!!

[via: Dread Central.]

Interview With Greg Nicotero

FEARnet: The Walking Dead has been a pet project’s of Darabont’s for quite a few years. When were you first brought on board?

Greg Nicotero: Frank and I have talked about The Walking Dead for years. He introduced me to Robert Kirkman three years ago. He was really dedicated to doing the show and being able to have Frank put his fingerprint on the zombie genre. Frank astounds me, his desire to really tell this story and be faithful to it. It makes me happy that he’s so dedicated to the material. When he went back to Los Angeles after directing the Pilot, he wanted to make sure that the level of quality of the scripts and the directors and everything stayed high.

FEARnet:In crafting the look of the zombies, what influences did you draw upon?

Greg Nicotero:We used the graphic novel as the starting point. I’ve done my share of zombie movies in the past. The idea of this is, some zombies will be fresher looking and some will have that kind of classic beginning of decomposition rot. Everybody has contact lenses. We’ve done pretty elaborate sculptures with dentures and hair pieces and that stuff to really simulate the fact that the lips are decomposing and peeling away, revealing gums and teeth. If you look at all the drawings in the graphic novel, there’s always a lot of teeth showing.

[via: Fear Net.]

Interview With Frank Darabont

This entire interview is well put together but I think this particular question and answer really says it all on why we can trust Frank.

HitFix:At what point did you realize you had the zombie gene? Was there a particular movie?

Frank Darabont: Well, we go back to the Book of Genesis – we go back to “Night of the Living Dead,” which I saw when I was 14 years old. That had to be, like, ‘73, and I was in junior high. The movie was a few years old by then, but it was a mythical, legendary movie. This was pre-video. Think back to the early Jurassic period when there was no video and you had to seek this stuff out. “Night of the Living Dead” had this weird vibe that was almost – it was like pornography. It was this talked-about, horrible thing that few people had actually seen, and that if you did see it, you might not survive the experience. It had this marvelously attractive, disreputable draw. So of course I sought it out with my friends. I loved it immediately. It was such a great sandbox, such a great conception.

I am surprised it’s become quite the cultural component it has in the mainstream. It’s far more now than it was even five years ago when I read the Kirkman stuff. I’m shocked at how much in the mainstream it is now, because it was always, sub-sub-genre stuff, most of my life, anyway. But what doesn’t surprise me is that other filmmakers and other authors and other artists have pursued playing in the Romero sandbox all these years. The first real glimmer of that was, there was a fantastic anthology, many years ago, edited by (John) Skipp and (Craig) Spector, called “Book of the Dead.” I recommend it tremendously. They just said, “Okay, it’s Romero’s world; write a short story.” And they threw this premise out to a lot of wonderful authors, and they got this response. The stories are very high-quality, and then they did a sequel anthology, “Book of the Dead 2”? Just knockout, great storytelling.

And that was really fun for the genre nerds like me who loved this stuff. We wanted more zombies. We didn’t know we were getting quite as many zombies as we’ve gotten since then. Filmmakers just keep being drawn back to it. And I understand the impulse. I’ve had it myself. I never really figured I’d want to do a zombie feature, because it’s been done, and done very well – sometimes in a very serious vein and sometimes a comedic vein. Both of which are valid approaches and both of which are welcome if the movie’s good. We all know which ones are good.

So I thought, “Well, I don’t know how I could do something that’s different,” until the Kirkman material came into my hands, and I thought, “Well, that’s how it’s different. You do it as an extended saga. You do it for television, where it’s never been done before, and you do it with conviction and with as much art to it as you can.” And that was very exciting, when that became a possibility.

And that was followed by five years of frustration – or four years, at least, of nobody at the various networks getting it, until AMC. AMC got it. And I have (“Walking Dead” producer) Gale (Anne Hurd) to thank for that. We’ve been friends for years, and she read the script. I can’t remember what the hell prompted her to read it, but she said, “Wow, I really love this pilot you wrote. What are you doing with it?” I said I’d been trying to set it up forever, since Moses parted the sea. She said, “Well, how’d you like to partner on it?” I said, “Great, why not?” She said, “I think AMC might be the place to take this.” She did, and then bam! They were immediately interested. I had to credit Gale, her insight into marrying the material and the buyer. It’s what it’s brought us here.

[via: HitFix.]

The Walking Dead Casting News

With it looks as it Michael Rooker is going to be playing Merle Dixon and Norman Reedus will be playing his brother Daryl.

Also there are a ‘few’ zombies survivors that have been seen in other shows and movies.

• Andrew Rothenberg (True Blood) as Jim
• Juan Pareja (The Mist) as Morales
• Jeryl Prescott Sales (The Skeleton Key, Vacancy 2) as Jacqui
• Melissa McBride (The Mist) as Carol
• Adam Minarovich (Exhibit A-7)

[via: Fear Net.]

The Walking Dead Pictures

[nggallery id=7]

[via: Bloody Disgusting, More Bloody Disgusting, Fear Net, Dread Central, and the one that was e-mailed in.]

The Walking Dead Videos

[via: MTV.]

[via: AMC.]

[via: io9.]

[via: Zombie Command.]

The Walking Dead Comic Con

The 4th Annual Comic-Con Zombiewalk is being held on Saturday, July 24th at 6:00PM on the corner of 4th & Broadway in downtown San Diego. AMC’s The Walking Dead will be handing out swag to zombies in attendance, as will several other groups

[via: Fear net.]

According to Frank Darabont “The Walking Dead” will have a worldwide simultaneous release in over thirty languages. Artist Charlie Adlard cameos as a zombie. Darabont says that they will take every interesting detour that they find but will still stay true to the storyline of the comic. They’re expanding the world and the events during the journey, and Kirkman says he’s blown away by the areas that they’re improving on.

Another cool bit of news is that Bear McCreary (“Battlestar Galactica”) has been confirmed as the show’s composer. Norman Reedus has joined the cast. When asked why he didn’t shoot in Los Angeles, Darabont said, “When LA gets its shit together and gives filmmakers tax incentives,” he’ll think about it.

FX artist Greg Nicotero said that AMC hasn’t objected to any of the show’s violence. In fact, the reel that they showed here at Comic-Con was edited because the powers that be would not let them show any of the gore. There will be lots of Romero-esque headshots.

Darabont says he cannot wait to get to Michonne and Tyrese in Season Two, which has been confirmed and is a go. When asked if any well known horror directors might one day come on board, Darabont hinted that he wants Romero to possibly direct in the future.

Darabont says that he wants a black and white version to be released on DVD similar to his release of The Mist.

[via: Dread Central.]

The Walking Dead Poster

100 of these bad boys are being signed and sent out for $500 a pop. If you have it hit the link below to get the size and ordering information!

[via: Those amazing guys over at Buy Zombie.]