Skinnerbox: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: When and/or if this thing finally makes it to Woodbury, Ga, I’m camping out for a chance to play a zombie.
Humanity beware — the zombie apocalypse has a start date.
According to Bloody Disgusting, the pilot episode of “The Walking Dead,” AMC’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s long-running Image Comics series, is set to begin filming on May 15, 2010. Shooting will commence in Atlanta, Georgia, the setting for the first several issues of the comic book series.
Fans have been salivating for more news ever since the initial announcement that director Frank Darabont was adapting Kirkman’s horror series. Last month, AMC officially ordered a pilot episode, though that’s only one step towards bringing “The Walking Dead” to television. If the final pilot episode isn’t up to the network’s standards, AMC is not required to pick it up for further episodes.
But if an early script review is any indicator, fans of “The Walking Dead” have little to fear regarding the adaptation’s quality.
“‘The Walking Dead’ could even do for horror what the new ‘Battlestar Galactica‘ did for science fiction,” was the reviewer’s final assessment. “Cross your fingers and hope that the show comes together as well as it did on the page.”
“I’ve told Frank flat-out that I do not want him to follow the comic to the detriment of the show,” he said. “I think it will be 100-percent true to the tone of the series, but at the same time it will be an entertaining, secondary way of experiencing ‘The Walking Dead’ in a completely different light, so I’m excited.”
Tell us what you think of the news in the comments section and on Twitter!
There’s not much that surprises me, but I was taken aback that Paste Pot Pete is making a comeback via the Marvel Superhero Squad cartoon on the Cartoon Network. Is there a toy version? If so, I haven’t seen it. Gotta have it. Gotta.
Gotta tell ya, I’m pretty darn stoked about this one. I’ve shunned TV in the last year or so, but this could pull me back to the tube. Casting is crucial, of course, but the fact that Frank Darabont is writing and directing the pilot is promising.
Now if only I could convince them to shoot the thing in the REAL Woodbury, GA!
I’m up for playing a zombie. Woodbury isn’t too far of a drive for that!
Frequent contributor Freakengine hasn’t been contributing all that frequently as of late due to his commitment as creator/writer of and actor in Jupiter’s Ghost, an online series of Webisodes tracking the fate of the Heracles and its crew. New episodes are posted every week, so check in often for updates.
Christmas has come and gone, and it just occurred to me that we never posted a 25th toy of Christmas past. So, before the holiday season of 2008 is completely gone, let’s let our final toy be a tribute to one of the all-time greats – Major Matt Mason:
“Majel Barrett never had as much screen time as the other Trek actors, but she more than made up for it in “voice time” throughout all of the more recent Trek incarnations. I’m pleased to know that Majel’s voice will still feature prominently in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming relaunch of the Trek franchise. If Gene Roddenberry was the Great Phoenix of the Galaxy, surely Majel was the Great Nightingale.”
Majel Barrett, widow of Gene Roddenberry and the voice of the Enterprise’s computers, passed away today at 76. She was gorgeous and charming and awesome.
She had recorded the voice work for the upcoming Star Trek movie just two weeks ago.
This one’s not horror-themed, but it’s the Simpsons, and they’re wearing costumes, and it’s Star Wars, so why not? Check out Krusty at the back of the image…
Far be it for me to praise ANYTHING MTV does this days; however, they have managed to cobble together a fairly interesting blog at Splashpage. The idea is to post stories related to the development of comic book films. Seems decent enough at the moment. Check it out when you get a chance.
**Oh – and note that none of their RSS feeds seem to be working yet. Hopefully this will be rectified within a day or two.
Sci-fi blog io9 recently published their take on MTV’s media blitz regarding Robert Kirkman’s Invincible animated series. The plan is to take existing issues of Invicible, digitize them, animate them somewhat (something like what Marvel does with its cinema-style previews of big event comics) and add character voices. If they’re going to THAT much trouble, I don’t see why they just don’t go ahead and do a full-fledged animated series; the new Spectacular Spider-Man toon has more than proven that can work.
Most interesting in io9’s article is the argument that this is sending animation backwards, rather than forwards, so that comics fans are basically getting high-tech versions of cartoons like this:
Get the idea? So, I figure, if they’re going to go THAT far back to save a few bucks on animation, why not embrace the ultimate in animation cheese:
Cutting corners and overhyping your product – truly the American way. Hopefully Invincible will turn out ok, but then it could end up with creepy human mouths all over the screen. And that just doesn’t sound right, does it?
Humanity beware — the zombie apocalypse has a start date.
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