29 | March | 2010 | Through the Shattered Lens

It looks like Frank Darabont’s TV adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s award-winning comic book title, The Walking Dead, just got closer to it’s production start. Shock Till You Drop has confirmed with Greg Nicotero of KNB EFX will be part of the AMC horror tv series. Nicotero (w/ co-founder Howard Berger) and the KNB visual effects house has done many of the horror, sci-fi and action films of the past decade. They last worked with Frank Darabont in the 2007 film-adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, The Mist. They’ve also been the premiere visual effects house when it comes to bringing the classic Romero zombie look and gore on the big-screen. Romero’s last three zombie films having been done by KNB.

This news makes me even more hyped to see how The Walking Dead translates onto the small-screen. With zombie films starting to reach a plateau when it comes to quality (Romero’s latest Survival of the Dead being mediocre at best) it will be interesting how a series centered around a zombie apocalypse and the travails of the survivors would be seen by the general audience. Having KNB EFX will at least appease the zombie fans who will flock to see this series. The question now is whether AMC will allow enough of the graphic violence from the comic book series to be shown. I’m guessing they will if their other critical-darling drama series Breaking Bad is a way to measure how far AMC will go.

Here are some of the films KNB EFX have worked on.

Kill Bill, Vol. 1-2
Land of the Dead
Hostel
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Bubba Ho-Tep
Vanilla Sky
The Faculty
Sin City
The Cell
Men in Black
Ray
Casino
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
Serenity
From Dusk til Dawn
Dances with Wolves

Source: Shock Till You Drop

The gents at Latino Review have reported that Matthew Vaughn may have another superhero project in his future. This time it looks like Vaughn may bring to the big-screen a live-adaptation of Valiant Comics’ very own Bloodshot. This title was part of the Valiant Comics resurgence of the early 90’s during the Golden Age of Comic Book Speculation. Bloodshot was one of the more popular titles of that particular comic publishing line which also could be seen with its total sales number of 7 million. An unheard of number for a title not part of the Big Two (DC and Marvel).

Bloodshot the character was an assassin by the name of Angelo Mortalli who was killed then resurrected using advanced nanotechnology. It was these very nanites who brought him back to life who also imbue him with powers like enhanced reflexes and strengths, a healing factor, increased perception and cyberkinesis. During the process of Mortalli being revived with the nanites he loses his memory and the character now known as Bloodshot goes on a journey to find out who he was and how he got to where he is now.

To say that the comic book was violent would be an understatement. With Kick-Ass already being talked about as ultra-violent both in its print form and it’s upcoming film-adaptation it is only logical to conclude that Matthew Vaughn will keep the ultra-violence of the Bloodshot comics intact. If that is the case then I am definitely putting a watch on further developments on this potential project.

Source: Latino Review