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exclusive news

Exclusive: A review of the pilot script for The Walking Dead TV series

Posted by Patrick Sauriol on Sunday, January 24, 2010

Is there such a thing as having too much dead people in your entertainment quota?

The answer to that question will only be known if AMC decides to give a greenlight to a TV series based on Robert Kirkman's ongoing comic book series about life after the zombie apocalypse, The Walking Dead. If you haven't been paying attention, the 2000s saw the zombie finally rise to mainstream status with a horde of well-received movies in this monster genre: the Resident Evil films (with a fourth now in production); a remake of Dawn of the Dead; 28 Days Later and its sequel which gave the idea of a slow moving corpse a twist with its fast runners; zombie comedies Zombieland and Fido; and the return of the father of modern zombie cinema, George A. Romero, with two new ghoul films, Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead (and there's a third forthcoming, Survival of the Dead.)

With all of that box office success one would think that television executives would be looking to cash in on the zombie hype and get a TV series on the air. Actually, one network did try: back in 2007 CBS ordered a pilot called Babylon Fields which could be best described as a drama set after the dead return from the grave. After viewing the pilot the network decided that the show didn't fit in with the network's fall schedule, and so a series was never ordered. So much for zombies on the tube, right?

Well, not really. Just like any good zombie it's hard to keep the idea of a zombie TV series dead and buried. Last summer the rights to Kirkman's Walking Dead were sold to AMC. Fans of the book may have felt somewhat reassured when it was also mentioned that Frank Darabont would be directing the pilot, as well as writing the pilot's screenplay and serving as an executive producer on the show. The director of The Shawshank Redemption, The Majestic, The Green Mile and The Mist, Darabont was also a producer on a proposed sequel to The Thing, the 1982 John Carpenter movie. Unfortunately that four-hour mini-series never got further than the screenplay stage, but when I reviewed it last year, I found the script to be an outstanding idea for a continuation of The Thing. If Darabont could bring some of that quality found in the Thing mini-series sequel to The Walking Dead TV show, then AMC's Mad Men audience may be in for a real ride.

Only as recently as last week did AMC order a pilot to be made from Darabont's Walking Dead screenplay. If the cable network likes what they see then there'll be a Walking Dead TV series coming as soon as this fall or perhaps around the start of 2011. So, here is the big question: does Darabont's Walking Dead pilot have the necessary ingredients to be not just a decent horror TV series but a good drama?

The answer: Yes, it does.

Contained in Darabont's 60-page pilot script are all the elements to make the show a success. There's plenty of horror that happens in those 60 pages. The director's script covers the broad range of the zombie horror emotional spectrum, such as giving us moments of extreme gore (hey, any zombie TV show wouldn't be a zombie show if it didn't have folks being munched on!), moments of shock value (hey, you didn't think that there was a zombie hiding behind that car, did you?) and the moments that I believe are the best indicator that The Walking Dead TV series has what it takes to transcend the boundaries of being simply labelled a horror show, the psychological horror scenes. Those scenes are the hammers that you're going to remember and the ones that are going to propel this show to be viewed as something more important than just a scary show.

If you're familiar with the beginnings of the comic then you'll be on familiar ground when you watch the pilot episode, even though it would appear that Darabont isn't interested in making a direct adaptation of the comic book's origin story. Our hero is Officer Rick Grimes, a deputy for a small Georgia town outside of Atlanta. About 15 pages into our story Grimes is involved in a police incident where he receives a near-fatal injury. After being taken to the hospital and falling into a short coma, our law enforcement man awakens to find the hospital empty and the telltale signs that something very bad has gone down while he was out. The way that Darabont chooses to introduce Grimes to the post-zombie world is nearly identical to the opening moments of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later but it's forgivable; the impact of the changed world is that much more heightened with Grimes serving as our introduction to it.

From there Grimes tries to find his family, his wife Lori and their young son Carl. He returns to his home and finds the neighborhood deserted, his wife and son gone. Still not fully comprehending what's happened, Grimes is saved by another father and son who have taken up shelter in a neighbor's house. From these two survivors Grimes learns about the zombie plague and the rules of life: if you're bitten, if a zombie so much as scratches you, you become infected, you die and then you become a zombie yourself. We're also shown some of the rules of the game that the Walking Dead zombies adhere to: there are "walkers", the ones that slowly come up to you. The walkers are slow and a head shot will take them out. That said, there's a lot of walkers out there and if they decide to come at you at once, save that last bullet for yourself, you dig?

From his new neighbors Grimes is told that his family may have decided to head into Atlanta where the government was setting up a safety zone. With that info, Grimes heads off by himself and makes his way into the city. What happens in the next 20-or-so minutes is pretty intense for our hero and I want to leave it for Darabont to show to you.

I'm not sure if Darabont is the kind of guy that puts in camera effects into all of his screenplays but in his Walking Dead script there are a couple of places where he describes the visual tricks that he wants to do to heighten the surreal nature of a scene. There's a moment where Grimes is in a tough situation and has to fire a pistol at close quarters at a zombie. In the environment that he's in, Grimes is momentarily deafened by the blast. In Darabont's script, the description of what we the viewer should experience to communicate the deafness is in there. Reading that sort of scene as well as a few others like that made me more interested in seeing what Darabont's visual style is going to be in this show.

If you were a fan of the comic book before, now you know that the pilot's set-up of the Walking Dead story follows a similar arc as the comic's but it's not exact. I'd guess that about half to two-thirds of the first two issues are contained in the pilot episode but there's also new material. For instance, we now get to see the incident that brought Grimes to the hospital (the comic begins with him coming to in his deserted room) and there's some changes with what happens when he is in Atlanta that differ with the comic's depiction of events. [Editor's Note: the comic book does have a single page showing why Rick came to the hospital. See the comments section below for more explanation.] Darabont seems to know what he's doing and in the places where he chooses to include new material, with his changes/additions better serving the story and bring more characterization (at the beginning and middle) and intensity (at the end). In particular there was a new revelation concerning the plight of the other father that Grimes finds living in his old neighborhood that's not in the comic. This new material really underscored the sense of what kind of deep and unsettling world the survivors are now living in.

Darabont's also done a solid job of knowing what works from The Walking Dead and sometimes reproducing it exactly in his screenplay, such as the case with the bicycle Grimes comes across and the reaction of its former owner to the officer's arrival.

The Walking Dead pilot doesn't sell out its concept for the sake of finding a wider audience. This is a show set in a world where families have died and the survivors haven't had the time to cope with their losses, much less come to terms with civilization collapsing around them. Knowing the course that Kirkman's comic book takes and now after seeing how Darabont's chose to make the pilot more of a drama than a flat-out horror action show, AMC's Walking Dead has fantastic potential. The Walking Dead could even do for horror what the new Battlestar Galactica did for science fiction. Cross your fingers and hope that the show comes together as well as it did on the page.

The Swollen Goi...
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Posted: 14 years 41 weeks ago

Good scoop, Patrick. I'd love to have gotten my mitts on this.

I've read a few Darabont scripts. He's often pretty thorough with staging cues. Which leads me to a question: was there any indication that he wants to shoot it in black-and-white? I've spoken to other fans of the comics (other people like me who have to get their Walking Dead fix one frustrating month at a time), and it seems one of the reasons folks are most excited about having Darabont on board is that he showed so much enthusiasm for black-and-white with The Mist.

The comic has kept away from color despite being one of Image's best-selling titles, so it's definitely a stylistic choice. (Also, Kirkman has maintained this from the start.) I think it serves the book well.

One thing that sets Walking Dead apart is that it is possibly the longest sustained zombie narrative anyone has attempted. Zombies were an almost entirely cinematic monster until recently (at least in the public consciousness; there are literary "zombie classics" out there like "The Monkey's Paw," but the zombie was and is more the movies' game than literature's game), which means that there haven't been many attempts outside of Romero movies to explore the long term effect of a zombie infestation.

With recent books like World War Z the Marvel Zombies series, that's all changing. Then there's the zombie-plus-classic-text trend, where the undead are even invading the belles lettres. I'm guessing this last one is a bad thing, and I'm guessing that because it apparently gave Natalie Portman another reason to insult our ears with another soul-shredding stab at British accent.

Zombies are in. Walking Dead is among the current crop's cream, so I hope it gets itself out there before lesser material drags it down.

wereviking
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Posted: 14 years 41 weeks ago

That's fantastic news. It's one series I haven't actually read, but prime time TV is ripe for a good & thoughtful zombie series along the lines of the intellectualism of The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

W Zephyr -- a superhero webcomic in prose http://wereviking.wordpress.com
Constantine
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Posted: 14 years 41 weeks ago

I'm not as big a fan of the comics or the pilot as you, but I wouldn't knock the whole Grimes-awakens-from-coma-as-intro-to-scenario bit. That's a classic archetype of "how to get your hero dropped tabula rasa into a bad place" that goes bad to DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, if not before.

Already plotting revenge...
mckracken
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Posted: 14 years 41 weeks ago

i started reading this book at issue 55 i think... cool book, really doesnt spotlight on the zombies, it really is a Drama.
darabont seems to have some pretty good ideas on the walking Dead, both me and Luke Mullock are fans of the book and are eagerly anticipating this series!

my question is: will it be a mini-series like The Prisoner or will it be an on-going series?

sofaking812
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Posted: 14 years 41 weeks ago

One major problem with this review that the fanboy in me can't let slide.

"I'd guess that about half to two-thirds of the first two issues are contained in the pilot episode but there's also new material. For instance, we now get to see the incident that brought Grimes to the hospital (the comic begins with him coming to in his deserted room) and there's some changes with what happens when he is in Atlanta that differ with the comic's depiction of events."

That is 100% incorrect. The first page of the comic is the incident that puts Rick in the hospital.

Other than that I'm very glad to have read this review, but will definitely take how closely the author thinks it follows the comic with a grain of salt.

Jakester
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Posted: 14 years 41 weeks ago

So you're expecting it to be good, but not Sofa King good?

Richard Gozinya, Harold Snatch and Wilbur Jizz. Together we are the law firm Gozinya, Snatch and Jizz.
Patrick Sauriol
Location: Canada
Posts: 20119
Posted: 14 years 41 weeks ago

Sofaking812:

The first page of the comic is the incident that puts Rick in the hospital.

I checked my TPB of the first WALKING DEAD comic and you're 100% right. I referred to the comic when I wrote my review but I didn't see that first page when I thumbed through it. I thought that the first page was Rick waking up in the hospital.

Looking back now at it, I realize that I made the mistake but I understand why. In the script the lead-up to Rick's shooting incident is way longer than the single page devoted to it in the comic book. You see Rick and Shane on duty, they respond to a car chase call, there's a lot more action and the shooting that follows is unexpected, unlike in the comic. Like I said, I totally forgot about that page in my memories of TWD comic and when I looked back for reference, it seemed that the story began at the hospital.

Thanks for the post.

No matter where you go, there you are.
sofaking812
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Posted: 14 years 41 weeks ago

Patrick:

Thanks for responding! I'm so freaking pumped for this show; I really hope it takes off.

I also really hope that when the "zombie rules" are explained to Rick by the neighbor (Morgan is his name in the book) they are wrong.

*Slight spoiler for comic readers*

The part about "if a zombie so much as scratches you, you become infected, you die and then you become a zombie yourself" is not how the infection works in the book. In the comic everyone turns into a zombie once they die; no bite required. Turning into a zombie this way has some major implications for characters later in the comic.

*Even bigger spoilers*

It would be a shame if we don't get the scene of Rick hacking off someone's leg (Allen or Dale in the comic) after they are bitten to stop the infection (via bacteria, not some sort of zombie virus) from killing them. Also, the first time a character pops up after dying without having contact with a zombie was an awesome surprise that I think would translate great to the screen.

I'm aware that Kirkman doesn't want the show to be a page-by-page recap of the comic, which is welcomed in my opinion, but these are two things from the comic that I would like to see in the show.

Anyways, great review Patrick! I'm looking forward to more news coming out about the show! Any chance you could give more information about the script? Does Rick make it to Atlanta and meet up with his family? Are there more characters form the comic included in the pilot? I'm sure you need to be tight lipped about the script, but can't blame a guy for trying.

mckracken
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Posted: 14 years 41 weeks ago

sofaking812 wrote:

*Slight spoiler for comic readers* The part about "if a zombie so much as scratches you, you become infected, you die and then you become a zombie yourself" is not how the infection works in the book. In the comic everyone turns into a zombie once they die; no bite required. Turning into a zombie this way has some major implications for characters later in the comic.

this has been a long standing argument in the Romero films, in Land of the Dead (theatrical cut) unbitten people who die are NOT shown rising from the grave... however in the extended DVD cut of Land of the Dead, Cholo enters a room in Fiddlers Green to find a lady and the body of her husband who has hanged himself (an apparent suicide) and he turns into a zombie from suicide.

This was the first time I'd ever seen or heard of a suicide victim (or any character that dies of natural causes) returning to Zombie-life without being bitten.

sofaking812
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Posted: 14 years 41 weeks ago

@mckrachen

I think the first time that happened in The Walking Dead was around issue #14 (released Nov. 2004). I thought it put an interesting spin on turning into a zombie and added an extra element of danger for everyone in a "secure" place (Grandpa had a heart attack; oh shit, now he's a zombie!).

I never noticed that about Land of the Dead. I'll have to watch for that next time I watch the film.

Filthy Richard
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Posted: 14 years 40 weeks ago

Cannot wait for this. really enjoying the book.
Not sure if this has been released state-side, but Dead Set is an excellent mini series made here in the UK about 2 years ago, based around the tv show 'big brother'. The zombies are runners, theres a mix of comedy and horror / gore, and comments on todays celebrity trash tv cult.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dead-set/4od

Daltons chin dimple
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Posted: 14 years 40 weeks ago

Dead Set is on 4 OD??? Sweet! I know where I am going tonight.......

....says "Kill Bond, NOW!"
animatronica
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Posted: 14 years 21 weeks ago

AThe way that Darabont chooses to introduce Grimes to the post-zombie world is nearly identical to the opening moments of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later but it's forgivable; the impact of the changed world is that much more heightened with Grimes serving as our introduction to it.

I'm sorry, but to state that is being just lazy - it's even on wikipedia. The accident/hospital/recovery/realisation process isn't a Boyle (28 Days Later) original - it was lifted off John Wyndham's "The Day of the Triffids" which was written in the 40s.

There are so many errors on this article that's it's pointless to point them all out - and attention has been brought to them by the comments but there still hasn't been any correction to the article.