Frank Darabont Is Dead (But Walking)

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Sorry if I panicked you — although that was clearly my intention. Director Frank Darabont (of The Mist and a couple of other swell movies) has been signed up not just to direct a TV series based on Robert Kirkman’s zombie-riffic The Walking Dead comic, but also write it. And the best news? It’s going to be on AMC. From Variety:

Cabler is close to finalizing one of the richest development deals
ever with Darabont to write and direct a series adaptation of the Image Comics graphic novel series “The Walking Dead,” penned by Robert Kirkman. Gale Anne Hurd of Valhalla Motion Pictures and David Alpert of Circle of Confusion are also on board to exec produce.

Project is set among a group of zombie survivors of an apocalypse who are led by a police officer, Rick Grimes, in search of a safe place to live. Numerous editions of the “Walking Dead” graphic novels have been published since 2003.

Joel Stillerman,
AMC’s senior veep of programming, production and original content, said
the project appealed to the cabler because of “the quality of the
storytelling” in Kirkman’s work. The series will stay faithful to the
tone of the original novels, he said.

“This is not about zombies
popping out of closets,” Stillerman said. “This is a story about
survival, and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to
survive under these circumstances. The world (in ‘Walking Dead’) is
portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way.”

Whether you like zombies or not, Kirkman does pretty respected work, and for all that AMC airs shit like Crossroads nowadays, the channel’s two series — Mad Man and Breaking Bad — are two of the best on TV. In all honesty, an AMC TV series of The Walking Dead could end up one of the best nerd things on the planet. I really hope this makes it to fruition.