Movies
TV: ‘The Walking Dead’ Pilot Gets Green Light at AMC!
It’s on, IT’S ON!!! One of my new favorite television dramas is AMC’s “Mad Men”, which features compelling character pieces on ad men (and the women around them) in the 1960’s. This show has given me such high hopes for what can be done with the live-action adaptation of Image Comic’s epic ongoing post-apocalyptic zombie series “The Walking Dead”, which is to be directed by Frank Darabont (The Mist). AMC has officially given the green light to shoot the pilot episode, meaning it’s one step closer to reality! Check out the story below.
AMC has given greenlights to two drama pilots, “The Walking Dead” and “The Killing.”
“The Walking Dead” is based on the graphic novel series about survivors of a zombie apocalypse by Robert Kirkman. Frank Darabont penned the adaptation and is on board to direct. Gale Anne Hurd of Valhalla Motion Pictures and David Alpert of Circle of Confusion will exec produce with Darabont.
“Walking Dead” revolves around a group of survivors, led by a police officer, who travel the country in search of a safe home.
Working with people like Frank Darabont and Gale Anne Hurd is the right way in for us to deliver a project of distinction in this genre,” AMC prexy Charlie Collier said.
Movies
’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – and possibly two more!
No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.
28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.
Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.
The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!