Frank Darabont’s Walking Dead show skips pilot, goes right to series

Filmmaker Frank Darabont (THE MIST, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION ) has been hard at work developing the popular ongoing Image comic THE WALKING DEAD as a potential series for cable channel AMC. While the network initially greenlit a pilot, they’ve since changed their mind… and pushed a full order into the pipe.

AMC has given a six episode commitment so far to the show, written and directed by Darabont and produced by Gale Anne Hurd (ALIENS, T2). The show begins production in June in Atlanta and will premiere during AMC’s horror marathon Fearfest in October. Jon Bernthal (“The Pacific”) is the only actor officially linked to the show at this point, but casting should roll out soon.

Robert Kirkman’s bleak book is set in a post-apocalyptic zombie-populated world, and follows a revolving group of survivors led by a former policeman. The despondent humans try to find food, shelter and some small indication of hope while avoiding the flesh-craving hordes. The cinematic series is perhaps best known for how these remaining people interact, and how regular characters are shockingly dispatched without warning.

THE WALKING DEAD joins AMC’s edgy acclaimed shows “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad”, plus the upcoming new series “Rubicon”, which stars James Badge Dale (THE DEPARTED, “The Pacific”) as “an analyst at a national think tank who discovers that his employers may be part of a secret society that manipulates world events on a grand scale.”