AMC Greenlights Zombie Comic Book Adaptation

Variety reports that AMC has greenlit a TV series based on the Robert Kirkman comic book, The Walking Dead, with Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont having written the adaptation and set to direct.

The show will follow a police officer and his family as they band together with other survivors in search of a safe haven in a world that has been taken over by a zombie apocalypse. Despite its rather ordinary (by horror standards) premise, the comic book was acclaimed for its realistic depiction of how real people would adapt, psychologically, to a world overrun by the living dead.

Gale Anne Hurd, producer of hits like the first three Terminator films, and misses like The Punisher and its reboot, will be executive producing with David Alpert. It will be interesting to see how this subgenre of horror will adapt to an episodic nature, given that viewers are likely to tire of enduring brisk runs through empty cities upon which movies of this type usually rely to get the adrenaline pumping. I'm just holding out hope that the show doesn't inspire fantasies about dreamy, shirtless zombies. Then again, I don't think zombies care about how you look - it's all about your braaaaaiins!