It's already well known that Academy Award nominated director Frank Darabont is hard at work bring the Images Comics series
The Walking Dead, based on Robert Kirkman’s novels, to the small screen. The AMC network has ordered five episodes, in addition to the pilot, and the lead roles have already been filled: Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori, Jon Bernthal as Shane Walsh, Steven Yeun as Glenn, Laurie Holden as Andrea, and Jeffrey DeMunn, as Dale.
For those of you unaware of the series' story line, here's a brief synopsis:
'The Walking Dead is centered on Rick Grimes, a small-town police officer from Cynthiana, Kentucky, his family, and a number of other survivors who have banded together in order to survive after the world is overrun with zombies. As the series progresses, the characters become more developed, and their personalities shift under the stress of a zombie apocalypse, most notably Rick's.
In the beginning of the series, Rick and partner Shane are in a firefight and Rick is shot and enters a coma. Upon waking in a hospital, he discovers the undead are in the building and town. Rick returns home and shortly decides to go to Atlanta, where the survivors were told to await help, to find his wife Lori and son Carl. He discovers the city is crowded with zombies and bumps into Glenn, a scavenger for a band of survivors. Following Glenn, Rick discovers Lori and Carl are okay along with Shane, who is less than happy that his former partner has returned.'
The Walking Dead production crew will begin filming on location in Atlanta, GA, this Tuesday, June 2nd. OnLocationVacations.com has received an inside scoop regarding what will be filmed within the first few days:
One of the scenes they will be filming in the Fairlie-Poplar District neighborhood includes a main character arriving in a post-apocalyptic Atlanta. The city seems to be void of life when he arrives but he soon finds himself surrounded by the living dead and is quickly engaged in a tense fight to save his own life.
The final scenes of the pilot episode and scenes for the second episode would be filmed during daylight hours over the course of two (2) weekends. The first weekend would be scheduled for June 11–13; the second weekend is scheduled for July 2–4.
In order to film these scenes, the production will need to close Walton, Forsyth and Poplar Streets. The closure on Walton Street would extend from Cone Street to the west to Broad Street to the east. The closure for Forsyth Street would extend from Marietta Street to the south to Luckie Street to the north. The closure of Poplar would extend from Fairlie Street to the west to Broad Street to the east. The closures would begin at 7PM on Friday, June 11th through 5AM Monday, June 14th and from 7PM on Friday, July 2nd through 5AM, Monday, July 5th.
Now it's your turn to get in on the action! The production is looking for many extras with flexible schedules between June and September to appear as zombies for the series. All extras selected must attend 'Zombie School.' The 'zombies’ who have been chosen so far have already been attending class all week. They’ve also been told they cannot discuss anything about the production and may be fired for even the slightest hint about the production on Twitter, FaceBook or any other Social Networking outlet.
If you're interested in this opportunity, email your information to
The Walking Dead casting office:
[email protected]
Information courtesy of OnLocationVacations