Frank Darabont's WALKING DEAD TV Pilot Gets the Green Light!

It looks like Frank Darabont's zombie TV series based on the comic book Walking Dead is actually going to to happen! We reported on this new project back in August of last year, and I so hoped it was going to happen. The last we heard  creator Robert Kirkman gave a great interview in which he talked about what Darabont had planned for the series, but we haven't heard anything since. It looks like AMC was more than happy to jump on board. The show is currently prepping up to shoot the pilot episode which has been giving the green light. 

The comic book has had a pretty solid run since 2003. The story 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 for his family, the process they go through some pretty crazy scrapes and adventures. 

Darabont has written and will direct the TV series adaptation. Here we have a fantastic director heavily involved with developing a awesome new zombie TV series thats being based off a great comic. In case you don't know, this is the guy that brought us the incredible films The Shawshank Redemption, the Green Mile and The Mist. Walking Dead has all of the right ingredients to be an incredible TV series.

AMC's Joel Stillerman says the project appealed to the station because there is great quality of storytelling.

This is not about zombies popping out of closets. 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. We've got an audience that loves this kind of material.

I'm one of those people that loves this kind of material, and I'm excited as hell that this is actually going to happen! The creator of the comic talked about how he doesn't want the TV show to be a replica of the comic book, he wants Darabopnt to play with the world and take it into different directions. He went on to explain,

Frank understands the material 100 percent. It's always been shocking to me, doing Hollywood meetings over the years, just how easy it is for someone to come in to the meeting and say something like, "We want the zombies to have super powers." Knowing that, I'm really excited about it, because from my discussions with Frank, he likes the right things about "Walking Dead."

I've told Frank flat-out that I do not want him to follow the comic to the detriment of the show. I encourage him to veer off if he has something that will work really well on TV that wouldn't work in a comic. I don't want people who enjoy the comic to be watching the TV show and going, "Oh, this is leading to that one thing I already know about from the comic."

I think it will be 100-percent true to the tone of the series, but at the same time it will be an entertaining, secondary way of experiencing "The Walking Dead" in a completely different light, so I'm excited.

So what you all think of Frank Darabont's Walking Dead series getting the green light?