Robert Kirkman has a crucial but awkward role with The Walking Dead: As both creator of the AMC show and writer of the ongoing comic series, he has an up-close view of other screenwriters dismantling his old work in the adaptation process. Its me in a room with eight people, and Ill go, We did this in the comic, and they go, I dont know if thats going towork or It would be better if we did it this way,' Kirkman told Seth Meyers during Thursdays episode of Late Night. And oftentimes theyre right. But its eight people tearing apart work I did five years ago, so it can be awkward at times.
Most writers of TV or movie source material have the benefit of detachment, but not Kirkman. I dont get to be like Stephen King, like, Stanley Kubrick, you messed it up!' he joked, referencing the geniuses different approaches toThe Shining. I watch the show, like, I shouldnt have done that.'
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The Dead mastermind also told Meyers, one of the real fans, an early adopter, about his original vision for the series: making a zombie movie that never ends. Im a huge fan of zombie movies, he said. I love the [George] Romero movies, especially. But I dont like the way zombie movies end. Most zombie movies are about a group of interesting people doing interesting things fighting zombies. And then the time runs out. Theyre like, Well, that was a lot of fun. Were all gonna die now. Were gonna run off into the sunset. Youll never see us again. So I wanted to do a story about how these people continue to survive and find food and how messed up it makes them over a long period of time.
Kirkman, who also co-created the AMC spinoffFear the Walking Dead, also shared his mixed emotions about running across real-looking zombie extras on the Dead set. As close as we are now, they still look real, he said. Even though its all rubber and stuff, you dont see the seams it looks terrifying. But at craft services, they take the teeth out. So oftentimes its a horrifying, terrifying zombie but with a human mouth inside. Hey, how ya doin? Its like the old Conan skit with the mouths. Its terrifying and funny at the same time.