Yesterday, following the news of “The Walking Dead’s” blockbuster ratings, I said it was only a matter of time until we had more zombie television series. In this case, “a matter of time” means “already in development,” as Vulture reports that the 2009 movie Zombieland is being adapted as a half-hour series by Fox, with original writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick onboard.
We hear talks are well under way with Fox Broadcasting and Columbia’s sister unit, Sony Pictures Television, to put the zom-com into development for the 2012-13 season. If it happens, it will actually be sort of fitting.
As Zombieland producer Gavin Polone noted, “The original plan for this was to make it as a TV show.” Indeed, CBS actually ordered a pilot script for the concept all the way back in 2005, “but they did what networks do, which is to take all the good stuff out.” […]
One good reason to think a series version of Zombieland could be killer is the fact that the writers have been working on story ideas for a show for years now. As Reese told MTV News last year, “We always thought [it should be a TV series]. If you watch the movie with that in mind, you will see some remnants of the television show. We have the ‘Zombie Kill of the Week,’ which was always intended to happen every week. The movie ends on a cliffhanger; it doesn’t have a real resolution.”
The original cast — Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin — obviously won’t be involved because they’re big famous movie stars, but I’d nonetheless be interested to see what could be done with this. I certainly enjoy “The Walking Dead,” but it’s largely devoid of humor and characters I care about. There’s room in my heart for another zombie show. Especially if it involves a zombie in a penguin suit:
Awww, poor Penguin Zombie. He just wanted to go home.
[Video via BuzzFeed]
