UPDATE: We now have an interview with Kirkman on the mothership, containing a bit more information, so head on over and check it out!
MTV has a nice interview up with Robert Kirkman, discussing the television adaptation of The Walking Dead with AMC and director Frank Darabont.
The question that really caught my attention was why Walking Dead — which has all the gore and swears you’d expect out of a comic with zombies — was on AMC, rather than a no-holds-barred station like HBO or Showtime:
I had no concerns about that whatsoever, because one of the concerns I have about zombie fiction is when they rely too much on the shocking gore aspects. That’s not really the point of “Walking Dead,” so to a certain extant, I think it will work better at AMC—because it forces people not to rely on that stuff. As far as “Walking Dead” not having teeth on AMC, if you’ve ever seen [certain episodes of] “Mad Men” or “Breaking Bad,” they push a lot of boundaries as far as content goes.
In fact, I just had a meeting with a bunch of the executives at AMC, and Darabont, and Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert at Circle of Confusion, and the executives were talking to Darabont about his script and they said, “You can’t use the F-word.” That was the only limitation they gave him. We were all stunned.
Considering Kirkman is an executive producer on the show, I doubt it’ll veer too far off his own creative sensibilities, even as he has said that the show doesn’t have to follow the comic’s trajectory to the letter. And if AMC is really only saying “no F-words,” this zombie show might have some teeth. What do you think?
September 30th, 2009 at 9:23 am
I’m really excited about this series. It’s probably my most anticipated new television show. I just hope that the quality of the story isn’t watered down by it being on AMC. I know Kirkman says it won’t but I’ll still have to see it for myself to judge that.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:27 am
As long as they replace all the uses of “fuck” with “CUNT-SHIT!”, I think we’ll be fine. lol
September 30th, 2009 at 9:38 am
my current “reason to live” is this series (comic) and waiting for the tv show. without that, i’d take the gaspipe.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:50 am
The Kirkman says: “I had no concerns about that whatsoever, because one of the concerns I have about zombie fiction is when they rely too much on the shocking gore aspects. That’s not really the point of “Walking Dead,” so to a certain extant, I think it will work better at AMC—because it forces people not to rely on that stuff.”
Really? Now granted, I think a whole lot of Kirkman’s success with Walking Dead and to a lesser extent Invincible relative to his general poor showings at Marvel are because of the excesses he can take in both plotting and content, but the gore and extreme content is ALL over the page of Walking Dead, and yes, as much as I hate to say it, I think it does attribute partially to the popularity of the comic. It’s just a very weird thing for him to say. Either I’m way off (which I admit is possible) or it shows a real lack of self-awareness for his own work.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:54 am
No f-words and no frontal nudity, otherwise a cable station like AMC is free to push the threshold as long as its got the proper rating.
Frankly I’m tired of censorship, in today’s day and age TVs and cable & satellite boxes come with parental locks. Parents should learn to be parents and actually use the technology.
Not all TV needs to be acceptable for children and nuns.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Sounds good to me.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:04 am
So dead people walking around eating other people is ok but using the word “fuck” is not?? I’m sure the bigwigs have actually taken a look at the material but come on.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:05 am
That sounds awesome I’m not much of a Zombie anything guy, well not anymore. So, everything Kirkman said sounds interesting to me. Hmmm, AMC FX they’re really stepping up there game. I always thought the only way some good comic to Tv adaptation were going to happen would be on British TV. It make me happy to feel I was wrong.
On another note cuss words are completely irrelevant to me. This just sound like the adult themes and proper context for said themes will be maintained throughout this production of this series. As a Comic fan who has not touched The Walking Dead this is great to hear.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:14 am
This is going to be amazing….I can’t wait!
Casting Calls, anyone?
September 30th, 2009 at 10:16 am
they should make it in black & white….
September 30th, 2009 at 10:22 am
They could always use “Frak” in place of Fuck – al la – Battlestar Galactica…
September 30th, 2009 at 10:31 am
I don’t think you have to worry too much about it being watered-down by virtue of being on AMC. Breaking Bad is a great show and goes pretty far content-wise, so I worry less with AMC than I would with a lot of other, non-subscription channels.
September 30th, 2009 at 11:13 am
@ Mike
I already said that with Frank Darabont on board, Tom Jane should come on to play Rick. However, with “Hung” being a success, that’ll probably never happen. Still though, if “Hung” is only 12 episodes a year and I’m guessing “The Walking Dead” will be the same, I’m sure Jane could play both shows. Wishful thinking.
September 30th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Only on basic cable can you dismember bodies, kill people in horrific ways, and show all kinds of violence (and that’s just on the evening news) but if someone says the word “fuck,” IT’S THE END OF CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT.
Insanity.
September 30th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I agree that parents should do the job of censoring and not the television stations. Are we really still at the point of social maturity when certain combinations of letters, that happen to create a sound from our mouths, make us freak out and tell everyone else that they aren’t allowed to hear them? Also, they better be making this in black and white.
October 14th, 2009 at 1:19 am
Hey, I’m a huge Walking Dead fan. Been one since issue 1 – - – If the tv show is half as good as the comic – then I’m excited.
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