In case you didn't know, AMC will air the Walking Dead television show this upcoming October, and we got into San Diego Comic-Con's Walking Dead panel. What will it contain? Who will be there? Will the internet work? Stay tuned for the live blog to find out more!
11:34 Joel Stillerman comes to the stage, creative guy. Greg Nicotera, make-up artist, comes up. Robert Kirkman rushes up to the stage. Frank Darabont comes up.
11:35 Ep104 was written by Robert Kirkman himself. Darabont talks about how Kirkman's zombie work is great and he has an expanded universe. "I wanted to do something bold for television that deals with the genre I love." They've been working on this for roughly 5 years. Stillerman says they're in partnership with Fox to release, and the show will release in October of this year.
11:40 Kirkman thought originally that the show was a tough sell, and feels great that AMC really got behind it, and we will see some sort of footage. He feels blessed. Talking to Greg abut zombie make-up. They tried to pull visuals from the actual comic. They had a zombie school in Atlanta to audition zombies. They went with really thin people mainly. Charlie Adler was on set quite a bit. He got to be a zombie on set.Kirkman didn't want to be a zombie because he didn't want t shave and "it was too sticky."
11:44 "It feels like 6 one hour movies" says the producer. Moderator asks Frank Darabont about adaptation. "The breadcrumbs left by Mr Kirkman are great ones." They "take ever interesting detour they can" which Kirkman has been great about and he approves of Frank's work. "It'll surprise the hardcore fans of the comic... but the stuff they know will be there too..." Kirkman: "I don't want anyone who reads the comics to watch the show and say 'I know what happens next' I think you guys will all be blown away."
11:47 Composer: Barren McCrerry. (Spell check) He did the work on Battlestar Galactica. and clip...
11:55 Holy f'n "a" this show looks "f'n awesome. It's essentially exactly what I was hoping for. I'll explain more later... here comes the cast.
11:58 Cast introduces themselves. They are super excited about the clip we've all just witnessed, since it's the first time they've seen it as well. They hope to please the fans more than anything else. Cast continues introducing themselves.
12:00 2 new additions to cast: Norman Reedis... Michael Rooker... Question from moderator: Where they familiar with the comic before the show? Lincoln: No, but he was intrigued by the story, so he went to his local comic store and started reading it. Andrew Lincoln loves everything about this. Lincoln went all the way to Hollywood to audition in Frank's garage. Sarah, who plays Grimes' wife, never read a comic before the show, but now she reads comics, and has the fear of the zombie apocalypse in her.
12:11 Internet slow, sorry. Long talk about shooting in Atlanta and how hot it is. Short discussion about prostetics and heat. Now other cast mates are praising Andrew Lincoln. Lots of people leaving... Why? There must be another big panel... Ok, back to the clip. It was nothing more than a 5 minute trailer for the show. It was dismal and thematically dark. There's actually panels of the comic in the trailer. Floor open to questions. He asks why Georgia? I have answer: That's where the comic takes place. Frank Darabont says exactly what I said. Darabont then disses California on their taxes when filming. He's swearing up a storm by dissing L.A. I love you Frank Darabont.
12:17 Guy who asks question gets booed off for back-tracking on his question. Question 2: How will you film Carl? Darabont: "He's animatronic." That's a joke. Everyone wants huge spoilers.... Kirkman: "This thing's going to be chalkfull of dead children, watch out." Same woman: What about the gore with AMC? AMC doesn't pull-punches, and the team has not had to edit anything as of yet. AMC has NEVER said to pull it back. They had to cut back on the reel for the convention because this is a family convention. Darabont is angry about this. Kirkman mocks him.
12:24 Lots of fans ask questions about characters was too far into the book. People want to know who will play the Governer... Too far sirs. Good question time: Did you guys ever think about shooting in B&W? Producer Gail says they used many different types of cameras but they ended up using super 16, really grainy, old school, nice film stock... Gail says MAYBE we'll see something along those lines on DVD. Crowd seems to want it.
12:28 Only a couple more questions allowed. Now one more... How will you handle what happens netween carl shane and rick... audience boos. Darabont says they're following Kirkman's work, but it will take a while to get there. Kid who plays Carl will be amazing according to everyone on the panel.... they're going to show the reel again... AWESOME! Coming out in October. ALL DONE
