"Our pilot show ends right as Rick gets into Atlanta and that's actually not that many pages into the comic," the director told IGN TV. "That's an hour of what we're doing. We're giving it a lot of room to breathe is probably the most accurate way to say it."
The writer did however go on to insist that Robert Kirkman's work will continue to be a basis for the shows storylines. "I like to say that the long-range goal is to follow Kirkman's path that he laid out, which is a tremendous template. That's the path of what we're doing, but we're going to take as many detours along the way as we can."
"Robert's been very encouraging and very sweet about it," he confirmed when asked whether the comic book writer had a problem with the changes from the source material. "He said from day one, 'Use what I've done as a jumping off point and stick as closely or as loosely as you wish'. And that's a tremendous blessing."
The Walking Dead will air in October on AMC.