Thursday, January 21, 2010

Zombies Are Coming... To Your TV

Zombies, zombies, zombies. They're everywhere from books and comics to Hollywood hits like ZOMBIELAND. So why not on your TV?

CBS was ahead of the zombie curve a few years back with their pilot BABYLON FIELDS, which failed to get a pick-up despite a strong cast that included David Patrick Kelly and Jamie Sheridan. I've always wondered that if JERICHO, the network's stab at a post-apoc drama, had been a bigger success might we have seen this serial zombie drama, at least for one season?

Never fear, though. If we've learned anything since George Romero redefined our image of zombies with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD it's that you just can't keep a good zombie down. Now comes the news (via SlashFilm and Heat Vision) that AMC has picked up the pilot for Frank Darabont's adaptation of the long-running zombie comic THE WALKING DEAD.

I've never read this book (currently at 60 issues collected into 10 graphic novels!) but I do have a collected volume or two sitting in my office. With news that it's headed our way from the network that brought us the critically acclaimed MAD MEN and BREAKING BAD I think I need to get up to speed before the zombies get me.

1 comment:

Cinema Suicide said...

You should read The Walking Dead. I'm way over the zombie thing but that comic keeps me coming back for more every time. It's the most sadistic comic book I've ever read. Rather than be something like Dead World where it was more or less an action book, Walking Dead is a survivor story that's about the people. It's a seriously huge bummer and the tone only darkens as it progresses. Several times throughout I've given serious consideration to never reading it again but I always go back. I'm pretty excited about the prospect of this show but it's going to be hard to do on TV since some of it goes to very, very dark places.