The parade of new promo materials from AMC in regards to their upcoming zombie apocalypse tv series, The Walking Dead, continues with the release of 5 new production photos from the pilot episode (directed by series producer and showrunner, Frank Darabont).
From what I could gather from these five new production photos these shots were taken probably close to the end of the pilot as Rick makes his way into Atlanta in search of Lori and Carl, his wife and son. There’s no denying that I’m very hyped for this show to air. The comic book has been an obsession of mine for over 5 years now and going onto its 6th year.
If we’re to believe what Darabont, Kirkman and Hurd have mentioned before, during and after San Diego Comic-Con then AMC have been very hands-off about how to handle the violence and gore in The Walking Dead as a tv adaptation. While these photos doesn’t show much gore outside of the numerous zombie make-up effects there’s the 4th pic that shows what could be the series’ very first gore money-shot. The angle is all wrong in the shot, but if they sot it from a higher angle as well then here’s to hoping they show some of it. It definitely will show some sort of gutmunching.
One thing which was mentioned during the Q&A at the panel for The Walking Dead at Comic-Con was a possibility of the first season being shown as B&W just like Darabon’t B&W version of his own apocalptic-horror, The Mist. The series won’t be shown in B&W when it premieres, but Darabont is hoping that when the first season dvd comes out that a B&W version may just be included. Here’s to hoping that he does do what he’s hoping for.
Below are the same 5 pics from above but treated as if taken from a B&W airing.
This idea sprang from my other zombie post and the accompanying feedback.
Premise: A wealthy man is stricken with a fatal illness and is unable to find a cure in modern medicine. He turns to the occult for his salvation, particularly a necromancer. His brand of zombism is supernatural is origins. The series will center around his attempt to maintain a normal life and keep his secret his hidden. His employees helps him hide his illness as well as supply him with “live food”. There will be power plays by opportunistic friends and family members. It’s essentially Dynasty/Dallas with Zombies.
Symptoms: The infected will retain their intelligence and are effectively immortal (save a traumatic head injury or incineration). They are virtually indistinguishable from the living. The remnants need to consume flesh in order to retain their intelligence, stave off decomposition, and trigger regeneration. If a zombie goes too long without feeding he or she will revert to a ravenous feral state. The “illness” is spread through bites. The “sickness” infects every living thing bitten, so animals are not immune and the same symptoms apply to them as well. Scavengers will be infected if they feast on zombie flesh.
Masters of Horror has been good but very uneven in its execution during it’s two season run on Showtime. Haeckel’s Tale is the last episode for Season One (Takashi Miike’s episode never got an official airing) and it sure ends the season on a disturbingly kinky compilation of twisted grotesqueries. The story is from a Clive Barker short story that’s been adapted by Mick Garris (fellow Masters of Horror director and also its brainchild) and produced by George A. Romero to be directed by John McNaughton.
One wonders why Romero would be producing instead of directing the piece. Scheduling conflicts prohibited Romero from taking the director’s chair and he instead recommended John McNaughton (his one film which earned him Master of Horror status is one of the best horror films of the last quarter century: Henry – Portrait of a Serial Killer). The fact that Romero was originally chosen to direct Barker’s Garris adapted short story means there’s got to be zombies or some form of undead within. I, for one, was glad that Romero decided that he wouldn’t be able to direct and chose another in his stead. Barker’s short story does indeed include zombies but it also has a heavy sense of the old classic technicolor Hammer Films vibe to it. Haeckel’s Tale under the capable hands of McNaughton takes those Hammer Films conventions and ramps it up into overdrive.
Even though John McNaughton really has only one true horror film under his belt (he also directed a little-known cult scifi-horror called The Borrowers which had fledgling effects shop KNB EFX still doing things guerilla-style), but his work in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer more than earned him his horror creds. In Haeckel’s Tale, John McNaughton clearly has a bit of fun making the only true period piece in the whole Masters of Horror series. McNaughton goes for the classic Hammer Films look for this episode and it shows in the gothic, fog-shrouded atmosphere in the outdoor scenes. The look of the costumes and even the dialogue harkens back to those Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing Hammer Films.
The story is a mixture of the Frankenstein tale with a some Cemetary Man (aka Dellamorte Dellamore) mixed in. Haeckel’s Tale begins somewhere around the 1800’s and I’m assuming close to the end of it from the costume worn by Steve Bacic who played Mr. Ralston who arrives to seek the help of Miz Carnation who is purported to be a necromancer who can grant him his wish to have his dead wife brought back to life for him. Miz Carnation rebuffs Ralston, but after some begging she makes a deal with him to hear Haeckel’s Tale. If he still wants his wife brought back to life after hearing it then she would do so.
Ernst Haeckel (played by Derek Cecil)is a young medical professor whose obsession to conquer death mirrors that of a certain eccentric European scientist he so admires. Unlike his idol, Haeckel’s attempt to use electricity to put the spark of life back into a corpse fails dramatically. He’s soon investigating the rumor of a certain traveling necromancer who goes by the name of Montesquino (played by Joe Polito) who he thinks to be a fraud, but he soon finds out that Montesquino is all he says he is when Haeckel stumbles upon Wolfram (played by Stargate SG-1‘s own Maybourne, Tom McBeath) and his stunning young wife Elise (the drop-dead gorgeous Leela Savasta).
Haeckel quickly lusts after the young Elise, but as Wolfram will later tell him as the story nears it’s climax (in more ways than one), Elise cannot be satisfied by him or Haeckel. Her obsession with a dead husband she loves and cannot let go brings Haeckel to a scene that he cannot comprehend nor accept as something she truly wants. I must say that Leela Savasta’s performance as the dead-obsessed Elise is only surpassed by Anna Falchi’s own work as “She” in Dellamorte Dellamore. Leela’s pretty much spending most of her screentime fully naked and writhing around in an orgy not typical of most horror movies. It’s also in this orgy scene where we get the biggest Clive Barker feel to the story. Anyone how has read Barker earlier work knows the man can mix horror and sex like no other.
The ending of the episode brings to it a slight twist with Miz Carnation being more than she says she is. This Masters of Horror episode is not the best of the lot, but it is one of the better looking ones in terms of cinematography and it’s leads. It also doesn’t have much in terms of genuine scares. The story gradually builds up the dreads and disturbing images but never anything that will put a genuine heart-stopping scare on the viewer. Like McNaughton’s own foray into horror with Henry, Haeckel’s Tale lets the story’s own disturbing themes on obsession and the darker side of love put the horror in the story. It does have a nice gore-laden sequence courtesy of Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero and their KNB FX team.
In the end, Haeckel’s Tale is a very good episode which has its flaws like the rest of the Masters of Horror episodes. What sets it apart from the rest of the series entries is its unique Hammer Films look and the return of McNaughton back in the director’s chair as a horror filmmaker. It’s no Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, but Haeckel’s Tale will have enough disturbing images to burn itself to its audiences’ minds.
With Comic-Con over the hype surrounding the tv adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s zombie apocalypse comic book series has reached stratosphere status. The 6-episode first season was already one of the most anticipated new shows of the upcoming fall season from just the fans and geek community talking about it nonstop in the internet, but with it’s unveiling at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con the mainstream press has latched itself onto the series. The common reaction to the series at the panel in Hall H seemed to be a unanimous positive one.
Character photos, Drew Struzan posters and new trailers have added to the hype. The comic book series has hit it’s milestone 75th issue. Sales of the comic and it’s collected softcover and hardback graphic novels have seen a spike in sales. AMC has added to the series’ website a taste of the the comics for people to get an idea of what to expect from the series. This motion comic of the first issue of The Walking Dead really captures the horror and hopelessness of the world Kirkman has created and Daabont plans to show up on the TV screen.
It may be weeks before AMC puts up a much more high-quality version of this trailer, but until then this is the only one non-Comic-Con goers can watch. The trailer definitely shows enough of what Darabont and his writers are going for to assuage any fear I have that they’re straying too far away from Kirkman’s laid out plans and that they may be staying too loyal to the original source.
I really like how the trailer shows enough scenes from the comic book’s first couple issues that fans have memorized. This series (6 episodes in total) will definitely be the show to watch this coming tv season. That scene with the zombies swarming in, around and over the tank sent chills up my spine.
I also love how loud and well the panel attendees received the trailer. Now time for the series to impress the non-fans. If the series does that then The Walking Dead will join Mad Men and Breaking Bad in creating a trifecta of the best shows on basic cable and probably tv in general.
That name alone will bring big smiles and goofy grins to film geeks and comic book fanboys the world over. Struzan has been one of the go-to artists when a studio wants a beautifully painted poster for their film. He’s done poster artwork for some of the most iconic films of the last 50 years. He’s done all the poster work for the Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchise. Of late he’s done some great work on film posters for the Harry Potter and Hellboy franchises.
In 2007 he created some wonderful poster art for a scene early in Frank Darabont’s film adaptation of the Stephen King novella, The Mist. Struzan also created a poster for that film. He and Darabont have been close friends so it wasn’t much of a surprise that Struzan would end up creating a film-style poster for Darabont’s tv adaptation of the fan-favorite and critical darling comic book series, Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead. The poster below is being premiered and given out by AMC at SDCC (San Diego Comic-Con) 2010 as part of their promotion for the series to premiere this October on AMC. To see the image below in its HQ glory then head on over to AICN which got the exclusive to show it before SDCC.
In addition to the Struzan poster AMC has also released individual photos of each cast member as their characters in the show plus two pictures of zombies who will populate the series. The actors really do a good job of becoming like their characters in these photos. The zombie pictures really show just why Greg Nicotero and his KNB Effects are the preeminent people when it comes to creating zombie make-up effects. These zombies look great and definitely reinforces the point that AMC will not waterdown the comic book for tv. Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes for some reason really resembles Viggo Mortensen in his character photo.
If you’ve already clicked the YouTube video attached above then you can see that it has action, comedy, sci-fi, nature, and Godzilla-style city destruction. All of them delivered by actor Terry Crews who can and will destroy Chuck Norris and that’s without help from his human-eyed tiger.
It was a tough call for me to pick this as the best commercial since a past Old Spice commercial with God (Bruce Campbell) shilling their product was my previous pick for best and greatest ever. But God didn’t have a tiger or city destruction in his Old Spice commercials.
I love South Park and, when I decided to list my ten personal favorite episodes, I thought this would be an easy article to write. How wrong I was. It’s hard to narrow 203 episodes down to 10 when you happen to love 193 of them. As I struggled to settle on my ten, I did a google search to see what other South Park fans had listed as their top ten episodes. What I discovered was that a lot of people had a top ten list and no one seemed to be in agreement. I guess that’s why I love South Park. It’s a show that people either love or hate, often for the exact same reasons.
I first truly discovered South Park when I was 18 and the show, itself, was either 7 or 8. Don’t get me wrong. I knew about the show and I’d seen the occasional episode (though my mom would always promptly change the channel if she walked into the room and saw it on the TV). But, as far as becoming a true “fan” of the show, I arrived late. Perhaps as a result, my list of favorite episodes is pretty much dominated by the latter seasons of the show (though I did come very close to putting Gnomes on the list).
10) The List (Original Airdate: November 14th, 2007) — Okay, technically The List isn’t really one of the best episodes of South Park but it’s always made me laugh, largely because me and my girlfriends used to obsessively make lists like the one in this episode. We also always took it way too seriously, even though the police were never called and I don’t think anyone ever ended up pulling a gun on anyone else.
9) You Got F’d In The A (Original Airdate: April 7th, 2004) — Not only is this episode of perfect parody of You Got Served, it’s also full of priceless WTF moments like the duck dancing to a song about Ketamine, Randy Marsh dancing to Achy Breaky Heart, and Butters killing even more people than usual as a result of his dancing. It also features the Goth kids at their negative best. Speaking as someone who used to have an exclusively black wardrobe even while she was fantasizing about becoming a world-famous prima ballerina, this episode gives me the best of both worlds. It was also one of the 1st episodes of the show that I ever sat down and truly watched.
8 ) Ginger Kids (Original airdate: November 9th, 2005) — Cartman reveals that along with being a racist and an anti-Semite, he’s prejudiced against redheads as well. Then he’s tricked into believing that he is a redhead and promptly organizes all the “gingers” in town into a cult. Admittedly, one reason I like this episode is because I’m a ginger kid myself and, oddly enough, this episode was first broadcast on my 20th birthday.
7) Miss Teacher Bangs A Boy (Original Airdate: October 18th, 2006) — Cartman as Dog, the Bounty Hunter. What else needs to be said? (Well, let’s not forget Ike’s facial expressions as Kyle tries to warn his parents about Miss Teacher.)
6) Night of the Living Homeless (Original Airdate: April 18th, 2007) — The homeless invade South Park and the end result is a brilliant parody of both zombie movies and liberal good intentions.
5) Whale Whores (Original Airdate: October 28th, 2009) — I like this episode for a lot of reasons. First off, the TV show Whale Wars is one of those smugly, self-satisfied shows that just deserves to be ridiculed on general principle. Secondly, it brought attention to just how barbaric Japanese whaling really is and it did so in a far more entertaining way than the Cove. But, ultimately, it all comes down to Cartman’s performance of Poker Face.
4) You Have 0 Friends (Original Airdate: April 7th, 2010) — This is the episode that made me proud to have deleted my Facebook account years ago.
3) Pandemic and Pandemic 2: The Startling (Original Airdates: October 22nd and 28th, 2009) — Yes, a lot of South Park fans disliked the two Pandemic episodes but I loved them. Along with ridiculing the current “home video horror” craze (which would later be epitomized by the ludicrous Paranormal Activity), the show also worked as a wonderful commentary on the whole series itself. From the minute Craig said, “You know, this is why no one else wants to hang out with you guys…,” Pandemic had me. Of course, needless to say, there’s also nothing cuter than a guinea pig in a pirate costume.
2) Go God Go and Go God Go Part XII (Original Airdate: November 1st, 2006 and November 8th, 2006) — There’s a lot of reasons why I like these episodes but the main reason is that, speaking as a nonbeliever, I’ve always felt that a lot of comedies satirize organized religion (excluding, of course, Islam) because it’s an easy target as opposed to actually having anything interesting to say about it one way or the other. (Hello, Family Guy.) It takes more guts to satirize something like atheism, especially the Richard Dawkins brand of disbelief. Plus, the Sea Otters. You have to love the Sea Otters.
1) The Imaginationland Trilogy (Original Airdates: October 17th, 24th, and 31st, 2007) — I don’t know that there’s anything left to be said about Imaginationland so I will just say that the relevance of this trilogy — in which humanity’s imagination is threatened by a bunch of thugs and bullies — became all the more obvious after Comedy Central decided to censor South Park’s 201st episode to avoid hurting the feelings of terrorists.
Through the Shattered Lens 