The Walking Dead Interview With Executive Producer Greg Nicotero

Greg Nicotero, the Executive Producer and Special FX Makeup Designer for AMC's The Walking Dead, talks about new zombie tricks for Season 4 and bowling with Norman Reedus during the off-season.

Q: You directed the Season 4 Premiere episode. What is it like to be back?

A: What's nice about the first episode is that they always supersize it and give you an extra day, because they know that the script is going to be insanely filled with great drama and great action, and we certainly didn't skimp on anything in this one.

Q: Sounds like there's a lot going on in Season 4...

A: The story arcs and the script this season are astoundingly detailed, and every single nuance is there for a reason. It's really fascinating when you step back as a director and you deconstruct a script in your head. When you're shooting this scene because, for example, Hershel says one word, then the next cut has to feature what he's saying, that intent follows through.

Q: The weather has been really rainy in the South. How has that affected shooting?

A: As a matter of fact, one of the locations that I picked for the first episode, our first day of shooting, the place was underwater. So we literally had to scramble and pick a new location... They had Porta-Potties and all this stuff set up for where the crew was going to be, and I guess they floated away. [Laughs]

Q: What are the challenges of directing the Premiere?

A: For me, it's really about putting the ship on the right course in regards to getting all the actors to know where their characters are and giving them insight into what's coming down the pipe...

Q: What's been your favorite episode to direct thus far?

A: Each episode I love for a different reason. The first episode I did in Season 2, where Dale gets killed, is the first piece of television I had directed. And I don't think I told anyone else except Andy Lincoln, but I was scared s---less because I had one walker and this gigantic, huge, emotional episode... And then the second episode I did, 305, was so action-oriented. It was like four episodes in one because we had Rick going insane after Lori dies, then we had Michonne and Andrea's story, and then we had Merle, and then we had the arena fights, and then we had the walker pits. 305 was really, really exhausting.

Q: Do you still get nervous directing?

A: I thought I was very prepared [this year]. I storyboarded a bunch of sequences, and I had a great prep with my director of photography, and we went over the script over and over again... So I wasn't nervous until the first morning, and we were all setting up the first scene, and I looked around and thought, "Okay, now I'm nervous."

Q: When you hang out with the cast off-season, what do you for fun?

A: I went to New York and my family went with me, and we ended up spending half the time with Norman Reedus and going bowling and we went to the Empire State Building. Norman had never been to the Empire State Building, and they took us up to the wee, wee top where there's like eight feet above you and the rest is just terror.

Q: What new tricks do you have in store for the walkers this year?

A: In the first episode this season, one of the guys in my crew was like, "You did every gag that you ever did in three years of The Walking Dead in one episode." We had walkers. We had mummified corpses. We had puppets. We had zombie bites... There were even a couple of gags that we came up with on the fly -- there was a couple of sculptures that my guys in Los Angeles had done and I said, "Oh yeah, that's a great walker." Where people are like, "What are the iconic walkers for season four going to be?" I'm like, "Well, you'll just have to see!"

Q: Did you have a favorite zombie gag from Season 3?

A: I've got to say the burned walkers in Episode 14... where Bowman comes back after Milton burns the pit. What I really wanted when we shot that sequence was to make it look like there were 15 walkers that had just melted together into one writhing mass of burnt flesh... It really made me proud.

~amc.com

CHECK OUT THE LATEST ZOMBIEPALOOZA RADIO BROADCAST!

(Originally broadcast 6/28, this is now archived and available for your listening pleasure!)

1st HOUR 8-9pm EST Zombiepalooza Radio loves creative people and Jeff Riggan's an amazing full scale artist who brings amazing scenery to life.http://www.monsterartstudio.com/

2nd HOUR 9-10pm EST Zombiepalooza Radio is excited to have yet another Permuted contribution to our show; Author Derrick Goodman brings his brand of Zompoc "Reanimation of Edward Shuett."http://www.permutedpress.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=173

3rd HOUR 10-11pm EST Always a pleasure to have on the show welcome Author Gerald Rice he will be speaking on many topics of the writing process including his new edition entitled "The Dogs of City Hall."http://razorlinepress.com/2013/06/12/thedogsofcityhall/

4th HOUR 11-12pm EST you like him you asked for his return so here he is in all his ZOMTACULAR GORE please welcome Author of "Six Feet From Hell" Joseph A. Coley.http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Coley/e/B007YJLJT6 Not only is he an amazing author he is also an EMT. We will be discussing how to be prepared in a Zombie Virus Outbreak. Would you survive with what you know now? Listen in and be sure you will SURVIVE!

5th HOUR 12-1am EST You know you love race cars and Zombies come listen in to my favorite race car guys and see how they are doing in the racing stats for their class:https://www.facebook.com/ZombieResponseRacingTeam?fref=ts

                                       www.ztalkradio.net

SAD, BUT TRUE...

FROM FRIGHT-RAGS, COMES THE TARMAN!

                                COMING JULY 11, 2013...ONLY FROM FRIGHT-RAGS!

PLAY CATCH UP WITH 'THE WALKING DEAD' MARATHON!

'A Brain Is For Eating,' A Playfully Twisted Zombie Children’s Book

A Brain Is For Eating is a playfully twisted zombie children’s book written by husband and wife team Dan and Amelia Jacobs “that teaches the little walking undead how to find and enjoy their next meal.” It offers 40 pages of brain-consuming fun and beautiful illustrations by artist Scott Brundage. Published by Pale Dot Voyage, the hardcover edition of the book is available to pre-order online (expected ship date is July 9, 2013). Digital copies are available to purchase for the iPad and Kindle Fire from the official website and Amazon.

images via A Brain Is For Eating, Scott Brundage

~laughingsquid.com

I AGREE WITH THE ZOMBIES ON THIS ONE!

'The Walking Dead' Season 4 Spoilers, Episode 1 Premiere: The Death of Rick Grimes?

As season 4 gets closer for "The Walking Dead" , fans are outraged about the news that Rick Grimes may be killed off and his son Carl will be the main focus.

"The Walking Dead" comic book writer Robert Kirkman revealed that killing Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln) is not an issue, or any other character for that.

"We've been saying that no one is safe on this show, and I wouldn't rule out seeing the death of Rick Grimes at almost any point," Kirkman revealed while talking to fans on an AMC blog.

He also hinted one of season 4's central plot is actually going to be the relationship between Rick and Carl Grimes (played by Chandler Riggs), according to Enstarz.

"I will say that the dynamic between Rick and Carl is going to be a central focus of the season, and it is going to change in some startling and interesting ways."

CarterMatt.com said that fans would be shocked if Rick died, and " we see a Daryl death met with anger and a Glenn / Maggie death with hopelessness."

And they are definitely shocked, if not outraged by the disturbing news of the popular character. Most are even saying that they would stop watching the show if it happens.

Here's what some of them had to say in our comment sections:

"I will be very disappointed if Rick is killed off. Yes, he was a little looney and unlikable throughout season 3 but he is still the heart of the show."

"Killing Rick?!! You got to be kiddin me!! That will be the end of Walking Dead altogether."

"Kill Rick and you will lose a big part of your 12+ million viewers including me."

"If they kill Carl rick or derryl I'm out like I could barely handle merryl's death."

"You can't just kill Rick. Just cut off his arm. I would rather see Carl die."

"You kill off Rick, you kill me as a viewer."

"I will hate it if Rick dies! He's the main character, like the MAIN, main character! To be honest, I'd be annoyed and probably wouldn't watch it anymore."

"If they kill Rick its over like. wtf the show should follow the comics at least a little bit more. Rick dies we Riot same thing goes for Daryl."

"I will not watch the series if rick is killed off. You would have to be a stupid to get rid of what works."

~fashionnstyle.com

FIRST 'WORLD WAR Z' ACTION FIGURE PICS!

Here's the first look at the action figures from the zombie blockbuster 'World War Z!'

In the first set released, there will be four figures, one of our hero Gerry Lane and the other three are of different zombies that appear in the movie. Rumor has it that there will be variant chase figures, but at this time, nothing has been confirmed.

-- Sci-fi writer Richard Matheson dead at 87 --

CALABASAS, Calif. - Famed science-fiction writer Richard Matheson has died of natural causes at his home in Calabasas, Calif., his family said. He was 87. The New York native graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism and moved to California in 1951. He penned dozens of stories, many of which were the basis for movies or TV episodes, during his decades-long career. Films that sprang from Matheson's stories include "The Incredible Shrinking Man," "Somewhere in Time," "What Dreams May Come" and "Stir of Echoes." His novel "I Am Legend" was the basis for three different screen adaptations: 1964's "The Last Man on Earth," the 1971 Charlton Heston movie "Omega Man" and the 2007 Will Smith film, "I Am Legend," The Hollywood Reporter said. He also wrote for TV shows such as "The Twilight Zone," "Star Trek," "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour." "Richard Matheson's ironic and iconic imagination created seminal science-fiction stories and gave me my first break when he wrote the short story and screenplay for 'Duel,'" Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter Monday. "His 'Twilight Zones' were among my favorites, and he recently worked with us on 'Real Steel.' For me, he is in the same category as [Ray] Bradbury and [Isaac] Asimov." "Richard Matheson was a juggernaut of genre," said Damon Lindelof, co-creator of TV's "Lost." "But his writing never lost sight of the characters who inhabited the incredible worlds he created. Every time I fly, I look out at the wing, just in case," Lindelof said, referring to Matheson's classic "Twilight Zone" episode -- "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." "He will be profoundly missed." 

Kirkman to Celebrate 'The Walking Dead's' 10th Anniversary at San Diego Comic-Con

Fans of the comic series will be able to design their own custom zombie survival machine and other special events are planned for the San Diego convention.

Robert Kirkman will celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Walking Dead comic series with an array of interactive activities at San Diego Comic-Con International.

Kirkman's Image Comics imprint Skybound is partnering with digital media and content marketing group Future US with a dedicated booth at the event featuring the debut of a custom 2013 Hyundai Veloster -- dubbed the Zombie Survival Machine.

Starting Wednesday, July 17, visitors to the Future US booth will also be able to use WalkingDeadChopShop.com, a unique configurator application that will allow fans to design their own custom digital Zombie Survival Machine. Submitted designs will be entered into a contest with the winner constructed and unveiled at New York Comic-Con in October.

"I had so much fun designing last year's Zombie Survival Machine that I wanted to invite fans of The Walking Dead to share that experience and see their vision come to life at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con," Kirkman said. "It's hard to believe the growth and expansion The Walking Dead has undergone since I began writing the comic 10 years ago. This entire event is a thank you to fans of The Walking Dead universe."

Additional features at the booth will include TellTale'sThe Walking Dead video game, zombie costume contents, celebrity appearances and a zombie makeup station and other social media contests.

“It has been amazing to see the reception for Robert Kirkman’s vision brought to life at last year’s Comic-Con, and we're very excited to expand on that experience for 2013,” said Future US president Rachelle Considine. “With exclusive videos, contests and surprises,The Walking Dead experience will live far beyond Comic-Con.”

Comic-Con runs July 17-21 in San Diego. 

~THR.com

THE WAR CONTINUES...

‘Resident Evil 6’ Movie To Begin Filming Fall 2013

Some franchises just refuse to die, no matter how ramshackle they become. When said franchise is ostensibly about the undead, the irony is amusing.

Thus is the case with the Resident Evil series – a critically rejected franchise that has nonetheless made great deals of money with each new release. After securinga 2014 release slot and a director in series originator Paul W.S. Anderson (Pompeii), it looks as if the technically-untitled Resident Evil 6 will continue the series’ forward lurch when it begins filming this fall.

The Star has published an interview with Anderson, in which he announces that he will begin actively shooting Resident Evil 6 in the autumn of 2013. This puts the production roughly on track to meet its previously announced September 12th, 2014 debut.

The announcement is a clear ray through a cloud of confusion currently surrounding the film’s actual release date. This is largely due to recent tweets by star Milla Jovovich (The Expendables 3), which indicated that the next Resident Evil movie had been pushed back to 2015. Anderson’s comments seem to refute that assertion.

For the uninitiated, the Resident Evil films follow the badass adventurer Alice (Jovovich) as she navigates a zombie pandemic released by the evil Umbrella Corporation. Based (somewhat loosely) on the video game series of the same name, the Resident Evil franchise has always featured hordes of undead, but has also branched into mutant horrors, psychic powers, clone armies, brain-altering parasites, and all sorts of science fiction-horror weirdness.

While the Resident Evil movies have never been well-reviewed, they’ve also become increasingly crowded and nonsensical as the series has progressed. One need only read Screen Rant’s reviews of Resident Evil: Afterlife and Retribution to see that the series is more or less coasting.

As such, it’s difficult to decide whether to regard the news of Resident Evil 6’s production schedule with anticipation or dread. Will this installment finally put a nail in the series’ uneasy coffin? Or will Resident Evil 6 revive not only our faith in its franchise, but also help to evolve zombie horror as a whole? As Anderson states in his interview:

“I think the undead genre really plays to primal human fears… That kind of stuff never goes out of fashion. The themes of a zombie story are always good; they make for good filmmaking.”

We’ll have to wait until at least September of next year to find out whether Anderson’s assertion will pan out.

Resident Evil 6 is currently set to infect theaters on September 12th, 2014 – though this may change in the near future.

~screenrant.com

RICK GRIMES HAS JUST BEEN RICK ROLL'D!

SDCC 13 Exclusive The Walking Dead “Hershel’s Farm” Minimates Box Set

As has been the case for the past few years, The Walking Dead is sure to dominate San Diego Comic-Con 2013! So you know this SDCC 2013 Exclusive “Hershel’s Farm” The Walking Dead Minimates box set from Diamond Comics and Previews is going to be highly sought after. This comic book inspired 4 piece set includes Deputy Rick Grimes, Hershel Green and two “Farm” Zombies featuring the characters’ looks from when Rick and company were living on Hershel’s farm. For those of you who have read Robert Kirkman’s comics (or even if you’ve only ever watched the hit AMC television show), you know this was an important period in the lives of the survivors. It was also the lead up to the comic book series’ most monumental storyline ever!

The San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Exclusive The Walking Dead “Hershel’s Farm” Minimates 4 Pack has a limited edition run size of 3,000 pieces and can be purchased at the Previews SDCC booth #2401. For those of us unable to attend Comic-Con, you can pre-order one today at Entertainment Earth for just $19.99 here.

~theblot.com

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2013 STANLEY CUP WINNERS THE CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS!!

WORLD WAR Z: SEQUELS AND CHANGES

[WARNING: 'World War Z' Spoilers Ahead!]

Director Marc Forster and producer/star Brad Pitt’s globetrotting zombie outbreak thriller World War Z was released on June 21st, and despite the well-documented troubles with the film – including extensive re-shoots and bringing in three high profile screenwriters to write a new ending – the movie is getting pretty good reviews (check out SR’s review here) on top of a solid box office debut.

We’ve known for a while that the film’s original ending – an epic battle with the zombie horde in Russia – was scrapped and writers Damon Lindelof (Prometheus), Drew Goddard (co-writer and director of Cabin In The Woods) and Christopher McQuarrie (writer and director of Jack Reacher) were brought in to reshape the movie. Certain questions remained regarding who wrote what. Plus, Brad Pitt has indicated that sequels could be in the cards.

Everyone involved with the film agreed from the beginning that it would depart from the 2006 novel by Max Brooks, which is episodic in nature as an unnamed narrator recounts the “oral history of the zombie war” from multiple viewpoints.

The first pass at the script was done by J. Michael Straczynski (the Superman: Earth One graphic novels). When his approach was rejected, the producers turned to Matthew Michael Carnahan, who re-worked it into more of an action-adventure, which attracted Pitt to star (Pitt’s Plan B studio had won the rights to the book in a bidding war with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way).

By early 2012, things were apparently so tense between Brad Pitt and Marc Forster that the two had stopped speaking to one another. Damon Lindelof was brought in to view a rough cut and re-structure the ending. Lindelof brought in Drew Goddard, whom he had worked with on Lost.

According to a report from HuffPost Entertainment, the dividing line was the point when Brad Pitt’s character Gerry Lane boards a plane out of Jerusalem. Apparently, everything that happens inside the plane and everything that comes after was written by Lindelof and Goddard, with Christopher McQuarrie subsequently brought in to “sharpen” the new stuff.

Besides the ending, other scenes in the final film which did not exist prior to Lindelof and Goddard’s involvement include two near the beginning (you might want to skip this part if you haven’t seen the film):

‘World War Z’ opens with Lane and his wife, Karen (Mireille Enos), being awakened by their daughters, Rachel and Constance. The next scene finds the family in the kitchen eating breakfast as reports of the first ‘rabies’ (i.e., zombie) outbreak is announced on the television.

Two more scenes were added later:

In one, Lane, who is driving the family from Philadelphia to Newark, New Jersey, in a commandeered RV, has to pull over to treat Rachel’s asthma attack. In the other, Lane phones Karen during a plane ride from South Korea to Jerusalem.

Paramount has invested a hefty amount of time, money and resources into this project, and while the film has debuted at number 2 behind Monsters University, its first weekend is estimated at a healthy $60 million. So it’s not much of a surprise to hear early talks of a sequel – or even a trilogy. Indeed, this seems to have been the plan all along.

While attending a gala premiere for World War Z at the 35th Moscow International Film Festival, Brad Pitt seemed optimistic about the idea of continuing the story, telling The Hollywood Reporter:

“There’s enough to mine from the book. We could barely get a fraction of the book in. So we’ll see. We’ll see.”

Director Marc Forster did not directly address sequel possibilities, but did address the question of whether or not we would see Brad Pitt in any future installments, saying: ”Hopefully, but let’s see how things go.”

Now, Pitt’s statement about only including a “fraction” of the book is not an exaggeration. Besides the fact that the book takes place ten years after the zombie apocalypse has been quelled and is told from many different perspectives, the character Gerry Lane doesn’t appear at all and was added by Straczynski, one of the few holdovers in subsequent drafts of the script.

In theory, there is a huge variety of stories in this universe. One of the most arresting chapters in the book is how a famous filmmaker dealt with the crisis – he did so by making documentaries on how average people made a stand, then distributed them in any way possible to help morale.

That chapter alone could be a whole movie, and a way to do something innovative with the found-footage sub-genre. The chapter – and the book as a whole – contains stinging barbs directed at a soft and entitled North American population, who would be unprepared for a real life hostile invasion or a plague.

That’s a bit much for a straight-forward piece of popcorn entertainment, so unless the studio, producers and writers decide to take a chance and journey out of their safe zone, expect more of the same.

World War Z is now in theaters.

~HuffPost Entertainment & THR

ARE YOU AN IPhone ZOMBIE?

Nokia has taken aim at Apple in an advert for the Lumia 925.

In the ad, we see a man stumble upon a street full of zombies, shuffling with their inimitable gait. And they're all using iPhones, unlike the main protagonist, who's wielding a snazzy new Lumia 925 (and a rather dodgy undercut). Not only is Nokia labelling all iPhone-owners as braindead zombies unable to think for themselves, it's also having a poke at the Jesus Phone's photographic skills.

The tagline at the end reads: "The best pictures in any light. Even without the flash." So not only is Nokia saying iPhone owners can't think for themselves (and may well end up noshing on someone's brains for tea), it's also saying that any pictures they take will give their subjects severe red-eye and pale skin. Not unlike the undead.

Also in the ad, we get a glimpse of the 925's Glance Screen, which shows the time all the time.

The 925 is Nokia's latest flagship, and is on sale now. It features a 4.5-inch screen and 8.7-megapixel camera -- impressive, but nothing compared to what Nokia will launch next month. It's sent out a teaser for an event on 11 July, when it's expected to launch its Lumia EOScamera phone. With Nokia touting '41 million reasons to be excited', only a fool would bet against the EOS featuring the same 41-megapixel camera as found in the 808 PureView.

~crave.cnet.co.uk

Arnold Schwarzenegger to take on zombie tale ‘Maggie’

Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed on to star in what might become one of the most intriguing takes on zombies in recent memory. The film is titled Maggie and is set to tell the story of a little girl trying to understand that she’s turning into a zombie.

Variety first reported on the project, which would find Schwarzenegger as Maggie’s father. It is set just after a ‘walking dead’ virus spreads across the planet and Maggie has just been infected. The site notes that the production had been interested in casting Chloe Moretz as Maggie, but her schedule made it impossible for her to sign on.

Despite not having an actress for Maggie at the moment, production is set to start in the fall. Henry Hobson, whose credits only include commercials and working on designs for Rango and Snow White and the Huntsman, has signed on to direct.

John Scott 3 wrote the script, which was on the Hollywood Black List. Cinemablend notes that Scott was recently hired by Fox to adapt Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel.

Since leaving the California governor’s office, Schwarzenegger has not stopped agreeing to make movies, even though The Last Stand failed at the box office earlier this year. In October, audiences will see him with Sylvester Stallone in Escape Plan and in January, he’ll be in David Ayer’s Ten. He’s also going to star in The Expendables 3

Finally, there’s Terminator 5, which Schwarzenegger expects to shoot in January.

~danielslevine/thecelebritycafe.com