Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I showed up to The Walking Dead panel over an hour early only to find the line extended down the hall, out the door and around the building. There were easily 500 people in line to get into a hall that was already packed for the Hawaii 5-0 panel. Keep in mind they don’t clear the halls, so there was no guarantee any of the line would get in.
I tried to weasel my way in through publicist channels to no avail. Even the awesome powers of super producer Gale Anne Hurd couldn’t help me, the demand for this panel was so crazy.
On one level I was very proud to see a visual representation of the eager fanbase waiting for this show (and I’m sure the AMC people were, too), but… damn! Those fuckers kept me out of the panel!
I lowered my head in shame and sadness and made my way down to Hall H where I began watching the Drive Angry 3-D presentation… it looked kick-ass, by the way. Total cheesy exploitation the likes of which we haven’t seen since RACE WITH THE DEVIL. William Fichtner as a Satanic lackey hunting down an escapee from Hell (Nic Cage) trying to save a baby from a cult. With a ton of car crashes.
After the footage played I got a txt from the AMC publicists thinking they could sneak me into the back area for the remainder of the panel.
I got there with about 20 minutes left and from where I was standing I couldn’t hear anything due to the echo and location of the speakers. But luckily they did run the Walking Dead sizzle reel one more time.
Before I give my impressions, I ran into a reader named Justin Quizon as the panel ended. Since I wasn’t there for the Q&A I asked if he would be willing to write up the panel stuff and he graciously accepted.
Here’s his stuff:
Fans of Kirkman’s book...get ready to be VERY happy.
Before we got to seeing some footage, we were first introduced to the creative team to the show.
Director/Writer Frank Darabont, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, Producer Gale Anne Hurd, Make up efx master Greg Nicotero, and head of AMC SVP of original programing Joel Stillerman.
A quick roundup on some of the information we got:
-Gale (having a hand in a few comic-to-movie properties) got involved after hearing the popularity of the series and then reading the book.
-Darabont, a huge horror fan, discovered the series at his local comic shop. Upon reading it he realized that the story that series was telling was the approach he wanted to do for a zombie movie, a genre he's been trying to figure out.
-Stillerman loved the idea of the series, BUT he loved the talent that was already involved (i.e. when your script says it's written by Frank Darabont and when you find out that the producer is Gale Anne Hurd, you might want to make that show happen.)
-They also annouced that the score of the show would be done by Bear McCreary, the composer for Battlestar Galactica.
Soon, they finally showed the reel.
The first scene we get is the first scene from the comics. Sheriff Deputy Rick Grimes and his partner Shane have a blockade in the middle of the road, as a run away car comes straight towards them.
The police blow out the tires and soon the car is tumbling over to the side of the road.
A shoot out with the criminals erupts, ending with Rick getting shot and knocked out.
Suddenly, Rick wakes up alone in a hospital (yeah, yeah, we know, we know “Just like 28 Days Later...”)
We soon see the nightmare that Rick as woken up to.
The reel shows scenes with Morgan (played by Lennie James) a survivor that finds Rick, a few quick scenes with Lori, Carl(!), and Amy in the survivor camp, Rick walking around dead bodies stacked on top of each other, Rick riding a horse in the middle of Atlanta...oh, and ZOMBIES. Tons, and TONS of zombies
Great stuff, and the look as this classic cinematic feel to it.
After the footage was shown, some of the cast came to the panel and joined the stage...
Andrew Lincoln (who plays Rick Grimes), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Laurie Holden (Andrea), and Emma Bell (Amy). Michael Rooker was hanging in the audience as he will be playing Merle Dixon (a new character made for the show I believe).
Here’s a quick breakdown on the Q and A:
-Andrew Lincoln (who’s British) got wind of the project after his agent gave him the sides. He went to his local comic shop in England and found out that the comic is the store’s biggest seller.
-Lincoln auditioned his scenes with Jon Bernthal (who had his dog with him) in Frank Darabont’s garage! Lincoln credits Bernthal’s dog for getting him the part.
-Sarah Wayne Callies blames Greg Nicotero for ruining her life! She points out that up until recently she had no scenes with the zombies yet. After finally sharing screen time with the undead, she's had nightmares since. Funny moment during the panel was that a few Zombies (or Roamers) were walking near the stage, Callies was freaking just a little.
-Darabont hopes that some legendary horror directors (::coughGeorgeRamerocough:::) could work on the show in it's second season.
-Fan favorites Micchone won't show up in the show till the second season. (Though Darabont is DYING to bring that character to life)
-The show is shot on Super 16mm, giving it that classic grainy look.
-The character of Tyrese will show up in second season, too. Darabont, while auditioning actors for Morgan apparently saw plenty of guys he would be great for the part (Kirkman jokes that the show would have 3 Tyrese's)
-The show will follow the series pretty closely, but “veering off the path” to introduce new ideas, Darabont says they will make sure that they will go back to the path that Kirkman left.
-The DVD could have the option (at least for the pilot episode) to watch in black and white!
A great panel for sure.
The Walking Dead comes out in October on AMC.
You can read more of Justin’s stuff at his blog. Thanks for the save, dude.
Of that information, I only caught the Bear McCreary scoring, the idea that Frank wants to involve classic horror directors in future seasons and that he’s pretty much talked AMC into allowing him to re-time the pilot episode for a Black and White version on the DVD (and possibly the whole series if the fans are vocal enough).
The footage was something else. I was there with Kraken, an equally big Walking Dead fan and he told me going in that he just wanted it to be good. It didn’t have to be the book, just something good. And what we got was something great.
Shooting in 16mm makes all the difference in the world. The stock has evolved and the grain looks looks more like 35mm. Add to that the keen eye of David Tattersal and you get a look that’s both intimate and cinematic.
Since the big moments of the sizzle reel were described above, I’ll leave you with my general feelings. The characters feel right, the tone seems perfect, the emotion is there, the acting seems to be nail-on-the-head perfect and the scope of the project seems just right.
I have this weird feeling, a feeling I’ve had since I saw what they were capturing onset, that this could be a perfect storm project, one of those magical moments when the right people fund the right story with the right creative team at just the right price.
There was a shot in the sizzle reel that had Rick on horseback riding through downtown Atlanta that was perfect… actually a series of shots, but the one that caught my eye first was a dolly that tracked with Rick on the horse as he passes a broken down bus. As the camera moves past one of the corpses moves, noticing the living, but then the camera has moved past. It’s just a slice of this reality at this point.
There was also another great moment as Rick, on foot in the streets, being overwhelmed by the zombie hordes, ducks under a car. You can see hundreds of feet surrounding the car, but he doesn’t have a moment to breathe as zombies start crawling after him on their hands and knees. He shoot at least three in the head with his revolver.
The next shot we saw was Rick jumping into a deserted tank, barely escaping the grasping hands of the undead, slamming the hatch shut just in time. There’s a crazy great overhead shot that pulls back showing hundreds of zombies, three or four deep surrounding the vehicle trying to pound their way in.
The budget is big enough to get shots like that, but Darabont’s focus on character and character moments (as well as the original book’s emphasis on these elements) was evident even in this 4-ish minute long teaser.
I really hope they release it online. It’s such a nerve-calmer/attention builder that I can’t see how they can resist for too long.
Making a joke on my Twitter feed, I commented on the footage saying it was brilliant and that this show will likely cure cancer. Of course that was meant as a joke, but I’m deadly serious about my expectations for this series. Based on the source material, the talent involved, the footage I’ve seen and what I’ve heard from the creative figureheads of the show I think we could be in for some classic material.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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