Zombies are roaming from the pages of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic book onto your television screen. The Emmy Award winning network announced that the series, which will debut Halloween 2010, will feature Frank Darabont’s direction. Frank Darabont is known for his work on The Mist and Shawshank Redemption.
The Walking Dead main character is Rick Grimes, a small-town policeman from Kentucky, who along with his family and other survivors have pulled together to try to survive after the world is overrun with zombies. The series uses the zombies more as a foil for the character development than as the main focus of the story. Ultimately, the story of The Walking Dead is about how human beings react and develop after life altering tragic events that changes their lives.
The Story
The story begins when Rick is injured in a gun battle. When he wakes up from a deep coma, he finds that the hospital and town are overrun with zombies. After finding his home abandoned, he sets out for Atlanta where survivors are told to go. He discovers the city is overrun by zombies and bumps into Glenn, a scavenger for a group of survivors. Deciding to follow Glenn, Rick finds his wife Lori and son Carl with the group of other survivors, along with Shane, his partner on the police force. Thinking Rick dead, Shane and Lori had been having and affair, and Shane isn’t exactly happy that his former partner has returned.
The group search for a safer location, settling in several temporary homes and camps, including a prison, which comes to the attention of an insane man calling himself the Governor. The Governor runs his local city, Woodbury, like a dictator and tortures Rick and other members of his group, finally assaulting the group at the prison. After the prison is made unsecure by the attack, Rick and the surviving members, leave with a new band of survivors to Washington D.C for a chance to cure the infection. Along the way they encounter cannibals and a township that is enclosed and safe, but holds a secret.
Fans of The Walking Dead have long anticipated the upcoming TV Series. On January 21st, 2010, AMC announced it had ordered a pilot of the series, which began filming in May of 2010. The internet has been in an uproar since the announcement, especially since AMC presented some series scenes at Comic Con. Fans have been flocking to their favorite fan site to countdown to the premiere.