Since a lot of movie production details don't register with me, I was shocked tonight to see the end credits for
The Green Mile roll up listing
Writer and Director Frank Darabont, then did my homework and found he also co-wrote/directed
Shawshank as well. Who knew? (Everybody but me, probably.)
Darabont being interviewed by TV Guide
http://http://www.tvguide.com/News/Frank-Darabont-Interview-1042003.aspx
TV Guide Magazine: What can you say about your departure from The Walking Dead?
Darabont: It was, for the sake of my cast and my crew, a tremendously regretful thing to face, to have to leave. But I was really given no choice. I don't understand the thinking behind, "Oh, this is the most successful show in the history of basic cable. Let's gut the budgets now."
So, in last week's episode, guess Dale was symbolically TWD's budget. Maybe that's what we've been seeing all season: veiled symbolism, where everything that happens in the zombie apocalypse is really a representation of the conflict between the AMC Suits and TWD'S Creative team.
Explains a lot about the contrast between TWD's last season and this. Especially, given some of the behind-the-scenes details in this fairly lengthy article about Darabont's firing.
http://http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/walking-dead-what-happened-fired-221449
One paragraph that really got my attention:
But this source says that AMC had its own ideas about how to make the show more cheaply. The show shoots for eight days per episode, and the network suggested that half should be indoors. "Four days inside and four days out? That's not Walking Dead," says this insider. "This is not a show that takes place around the dinner table." That was just one of what this person describes as "silly notes" from AMC. Couldn't the audience hear the zombies sometimes and not see them, to save on makeup? The source says Darabont fought "a constant battle to keep the show big in scope and style."
That's right, AMC. Let's have more taut dramatic moments like the time Herschel ate peaches, and all those myriad creative devices you've found to put one character or another in bed.
Here's a thought: since the zombies are dead, let's have them become
ghost zombies. Then they can be invisible. A few yards of mono-filament fishing line later, and the invisible ghost zombies can be tripping over chairs and spilling (oh, the tragedy!) Herschel's bowl of peaches.
AMC, you greedy idiots. And to think I'd actually forgiven you for trashing one of my favorite cable stations ten years ago when you went commercial. Well, it's official: I hate you again.
