My oh my, those zombies... they do get about!
Earlier this year, we started hearing that Robert Kirkman's acclaimed long-running comic book The Walking Dead would be coming to television in the form of a six (or is it eight?) episode miniseries from AMC and Frank Darabont, fan-favourite director of some of the greatest films of all time - no shit.
Well we don't have long to wait for it now, do we? Would that I were in the States on Halloween to catch the premiere episode of the show - what better way to spend the night, I wonder? Alas. I'll be watching on (remember, remember) the 5th of November instead.
Still and all, the show looks and sounds a treat; I've high hopes and a great deal of excitement for it. And now the cross-media machine has stepped up its game again: Tor UK just issued a press release announcing that they'll be bringing a trilogy of The Walking Dead novels to this side of the Atlantic in 2012. New stories, even, based on the comic book mythos, not just novelisations. I want!
Here's some of the spiel:
"Tor UK recently pre-empted a trilogy of zombie novels based on Robert Kirkman’s successful and critically acclaimed The Walking Dead comic book series. The books were acquired in a mid-Frankfurt deal by Julie Crisp, Editorial Director of Tor UK, from Thomas Dunne books in the US. A TV series based on the comics will be released in the US on the AMC network on 31st October 2010 and on the FX channel in the UK on 5th November 2010. The series... directed and produced by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile), follows small town sheriff Rick Grimes as he travels across a post-apocalyptic US plagued by zombies in an attempt to find his wife and son.
"Based on entirely new stories, Robert Kirkman is co-writing the books with horror novelist Jay Bonansinga, author of Perfect Victim and Shattered. The first book, The Walking Dead, will be released in November 2012 alongside the second season of the TV series."
Which sounds fab, doesn't it? No idea who this Jay Bonansinga fellow is, nor whether Kirkman's undeniable prowess in one medium will necessarily translate to another (and another), but hell with it, I'm in.
November 2012, though... that's a ways away, isn't it? I wonder if Tor UK don't mean 2011 - if the stated date is correct, that'd translate to a two-year break between the first and second season of The Walking Dead TV series, and that's not exactly the norm.
I've got my fingers crossed there's been a boo-boo made somewhere, but one way or another, bring them zombies on!
I'm going to have to be the lone voice of dissent on this one. Though I love Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption is one of my favorite movies), I think the zombie genre is so tired and cliched that it needs a long, long rest. A rest that even the undead could appreciate.
ReplyDeleteDanny Boyle re-energized the genre with 28 Days Later, and then the Simon Pegg vehicle, Shaun of the Dead, even managed to make a smart satire of the genre, while staying true to the form.
But it's tired now.
Let's let zombies and vampires rest for a while. Let's find something else to carry on about, shall we? I propose that we move our interest to Hobbits. I haven't had my fill of Tolkien's little people quite yet. How about leprechauns and trolls? At the very least these subjects would create jobs for lots of little folk. What sort of jobs do zombie films create? The undead don't need jobs. Little people do.
And who doesn't love little people?