It’s only been 2 weeks since the last episode of The Talking Dead, but with the shooting date fast approaching there has been a surge in Walking Dead news. In the last few days we’ve got some official casting, some rumoured casting, and a big announcement from AMC. Jason and I sit down to run through the following items:

– Robert Kirkman delivers the keynote speech at the ComicsPRO annual members meeting.

– Rumor: Jonny Lee Miller is the front runner to play Rick Grimes.

– Jon Bernthal has been cast as Rick Grimes’ partner Shane.

– AMC officially orders 6 episodes of the show, and plans to air it in October during FearFest.

Please listen and leave comments in the space below. You can also email your feedback to talkingdeadpodcast@gmail.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:48 — 15.0MB)

News came out a few days ago that Jon Bernthal has been cast as Shane in The Walking Dead. You may know Bernthal from the ABC series Eastwick, or the Spielberg/Hanks co production The Pacific that’s currently running on HBO. Bernthal has also graced the big screen in Night at the Museum 2, and The Ghost Writer. In AMC’s The Walking Dead, Jon has been cast as Shane, partner and friend to the main character Rick Grimes.

Tune in to the next episode of The Talking Dead to hear our thoughts on this casting news, as well as some other Walking Dead developments. That episode should be coming out this week.

Hey everybody,

I’m happy to bring you episode 5 of The Talking Dead. On this episode Jason, Dave and I discuss a casting rumour I came across on Twitter, plus do some fantasy casting of our own (mostly Dave’s actually). Open up a window to Renerd.com where you can find Dave’s full casting post and follow along as you listen! What could be more fun than that?

Some highlights include: Kate Kelton (@katekelton) as Lori Grimes, Michael Jai White as Tyreese, and Emma Caulfield (@emmacaulfield) as Carol. Tune in to hear the rest of our list, including who we think should play the lead role of Rick Grimes.

I am also happy to announce that talkingdeadpodcast@gmail.com is finally up and running. Please contact us there if you’d like to, or of course feel free to leave comments on this site. We’d love to hear your input on who you think should play the major roles.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:57 — 30.9MB)

Hi folks,

With some new Walking Dead news, it’s high time we record another episode of The Talking Dead. Jason and I discuss the filming date for the pilot (as reported by Bloody Disgusting) and the actors rumoured to be up for the role of Rick Grimes (as reported by BigShinyRobot).

Thanks for listening, and please leave your feedback in the comments below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:31 — 16.9MB)

Word came out this week that The Walking Dead pilot will begin filming May 15th in Atlanta, GA. Bloody Disgusting brings us the news, which you can read right here. Those familiar with the comic will know it takes place in and around Atlanta, making it an obvious place to shoot the live action TV version.

Also this week, Bigshinyrobot.com brings us some casting rumors that they seem to be fairly confident about. According to the site the top three contenders for the title role of Rick Grimes are:

Jamie Bamber, who you’ll probably recognize from Battlestar Galactica in role of Lee “Apollo” Adama;

Mark Pellegrino, aka Jacob from LOST; and

Stuart Townsend, who I haven’t seen in anything.

We’ll be recording a new episode of The Talking Dead tomorrow, so please tune in for our thoughts on these rumors.

It’s been a while since we’ve recorded an episode of The Talking Dead Podcast, but I’m happy to say that we’re back with Episode 3! There’s been a bunch of news lately so it’s high time we got back behind the mics.

Jason and I welcome our good friend Dave to the show this time, and we cover the following news:

• AMC green-lights the production of a pilot episode for The Walking Dead.
• Corona Coming Attractions post a script review of the pilot.
• MTV moves ahead with a zombie show based on Dawn of the Dead.

Please subscribe to the podcast, and if you want to contact us you can post comments here or send an email to renerdradio@gmail.com (that’ll change soon).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:07 — 17.3MB)

Hi Folks (if there are any of you still reading this site),

I’m happy to report that we’re planning on recording a new episode of The Talking Dead Podcast this week. It should be up by Saturday if all goes well, and will cover all the recent Walking Dead news, including this latest tidbit (or should I say huge development!)

Corona Coming Attractions has posted a script review of the upcoming Walking Dead pilot ordered by AMC, and they have nothing but positive things to say about it. Here’s an excerpt:

Contained in Darabont’s 60-page pilot script are all the elements to make the show a success. There’s plenty of horror that happens in those 60 pages. The director’s script covers the broad range of the zombie horror emotional spectrum, such as giving us moments of extreme gore (hey, any zombie TV show wouldn’t be a zombie show if it didn’t have folks being munched on!), moments of shock value (hey, you didn’t think that there was a zombie hiding behind that car, did you?) and the moments that I believe are the best indicator that The Walking Dead TV series has what it takes to transcend the boundaries of being simply labelled a horror show, the psychological horror scenes. Those scenes are the hammers that you’re going to remember and the ones that are going to propel this show to be viewed as something more important than just a scary show.

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Hi Folks,

There hasn’t been much Walking Dead TV show news lately – hence our lack of updates or a new episode of the podcast – but today marks an important milestone in bringing our favourite comic series to the small-screen. AMC issued a press release informing the world that they’ve officially ordered a pilot for the upcoming series. According to the Spash Page blog over at MTV, Robert Kirkman will Executive Produce the episode, with Frank Darabont writing and directing.

Read more at MTV here.

The original press release can be found on AMC’s own site, amctv.com.

Also please stay tuned for a new episode of The Talking Dead podcast very soon.

Hey Walking Dead fans,

Here’s another quick note lot let you know that The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman has been interviewed once again, this time by the AMC TV blog Horror Hacker. You can check out the interview here. It mostly focuses on his influences for The Walking Dead comic series, but ends with a couple of questions about the upcoming TV series.

Again, not too much new information here but it is interesting to hear about his favourite zombie movies. In this quote, Kirkman is talking about the decision to do the comic in black and white:

We thought it would be neat to just go out and do a comic book series that takes place in that world [Romero’s Night of the Living Dead], and do it in black and white. In the end, we decided to do something completely different, but to keep the black-white thing because you could get away with more gore.

Check out the full interview over at the AMC TV blog Horror Hacker.

The Wall Street Journal blog Speakeasy, has published a new interview with Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. It focuses primarily on the upcoming TV series, but also touches on his relationship with Todd McFarlane and their new colaboration “Haunt”.

The interview doesn’t provide too much new information about The Walking Dead TV series, however it does shed some light on the events leading up to a production deal with AMC TV.

From the interview:

I heard from a lot of people who wanted to put in ninja zombies and superpowered zombies and whatnot. I wasn’t looking for somebody to adapt the material without any changes, but I wanted them to keep it true to the original themes of the series.

Read the full interview here.