Staff writers are apparently the latest victims of the zombie apocalypse.
In a surprise move, "The Walking Dead' showrunner and executive producer Frank Darabont has released all of the staff writers from "The Walking Dead," according to Deadline. This comes off the heels of "Walking Dead's" consistently high ratings which earned it an early pick up for the second season. Last Sunday, the fifth episode reached a series high audience of 5.5 million viewers.
Among the notable cuts was Charles Eglee, who was also one of the executive producers on "The Walking Dead." The story on Deadline also notes that this kind of creative overhaul is unusual, especially this early in the life of a series.
Additionally, Darabont is reportedly considering using only freelance writers for the second season, which is similar to the model used on BBC shows like "Torchwood" and "Doctor Who." However most British TV seasons are just six episodes in length, which makes them relatively easy to manage. The second season of "The Walking Dead" will be 13 episodes and may be considerably more difficult to produce without a writing staff. There is also some question as to whether this will be allowed under the rules on the Writer's Guild of America.
In the first season, Darabont wrote two episodes while "Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman wrote one as well. Eglee & Jack LoGiudice, Glen Mazzara and Adam Fierro wrote the remaining three scripts.
"The Walking Dead" stars Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Chandler Riggs, Steven Yuen and Laurie Holden. The final episode of the first season will air this Sunday at 10PM on AMC
Source:Crave Online
Well, according to those sources there must be something oddly wrong with that writing staff: Frank Darabont not only wrote 2 episodes but he also co-wrote or re-wrote the other 4!
ReplyDeleteI don't know much (if anything at all) of script writing, but if I hired a team of writers to put up 6 episodes and in the end had to write or re-write everything myself, I sure would fire them all...
This news makes me nervous for this show. I loved it so much this season. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
ReplyDeleteCrikes. He musn't have been impressed with their work this season. At least he's setting the bar high! :)
ReplyDeleteD'oh!
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere else they were released because they were not going to be doing any show related writing for something like 9 or 10 months and the showrunner/production team did not want to pay them for time they were not writing for the show.From what I gathered most would be back at the start up of pre-production of next season.
ReplyDeleteWhat ever happened to "If it ain't broke don't fix it"?
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that you mention Doctor Who and Torchwood, and then go on to say that 13 episodes would be difficult to manage in this format, seeing as both of those shows typically follow the 13 episode format. I just hope that Robert Kirkman, the author of the original graphic novel, gets to return next season, as his episode was outstanding.
ReplyDeleteI trust Darabont completely and after reading some other opinions and arcticles on this subject it might not have been the worst idea. And I love that Darabont isn't just satisfied with good ratings but still wants to improve the show and make it even better for us viewers.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Darabont will keep him involved as much as possible. Those 2 guys seem to have great chemistry and love each others work.
ReplyDeleteThis is wrong...
ReplyDeleteWow. That's outta left field. Hopefully the quality of the show won't decline or be noticeably different due to the staff changes... this has me worried.
ReplyDelete