Posted in: Movies, san diego comic con, TV | Tagged: Adam Davidson, amc, entertainment, fear the walking dead, television

SDCC '15: Interview With Fear The Walking Dead Director and Executive Producer

Hey Gang!  I love San Diego because I get to make so many friends.  Today, I made a new friend.  His name is Adam Davidson.  He is the Executive Producer and Director of the new Walking Dead prequel series, Fear the Walking Dead (premiering August 23, 2015 on AMC).  I got a chance to sit with him and ask him some questions about this new series.

Will Romine: Thanks for sitting down with me.  I'm interested in the concept of a prequel to The Walking Dead.  To my non geek friends, I always sell this show as a psychological drama first, where the walkers are nothing more than window dressing.  I don't really want to know where they came from or how they emerged. Characters like Wolverine and the Joker had stronger character development specifically BECAUSE they had an unclear background story.  How will you maintain this mystique in the new series?

Adam Davidson:  That's a great question and I think one of the great things about this series is that this story starts with this family on the backdrop of this apocalypse and the origin of the walkers is seen through their experiences.  My hope is that the audience experiences it as this family experiences it for the first time.  It's just happening and their discovering it as it goes.  This is a family who is an every day family.  It's happening as it is.  Do we keep the kids in school? When should we get the sink fixed?  These are the problems of everyday life, plus a zombie apocalypse.  Who needed that?

Will Romine:  I'm from South Florida originally, and your description reminds me of when hurricane season approaches, everyone handles the warnings in different ways.  Some stock the shelves ASAP, whereas others take a wait and see approach and are left unprepared.

Adam Davidson: It's just that same way.  Some people treat (the zombie apocalypse) like a category eight, while others think "oh, it'll blow over."

Will Romine: We all know how the series will end.  We've been watching the aftermath for a few seasons now. Do you have any idea how you'll pace that show towards the inevitable status quo?

Adam Davidson:  I love that you're going to come to this series with all of the expectations from the original series.  It's that same kind of fun that you have watching a horror movie, knowing that the bad guy is in the closet.

Will Romine:  AMC seems to be going heavy into the prequel game, with Better Call Saul, and now your show.  Do you ever see the Walking Dead franchise building a show that looks at the world decades in the future?

Adam Davidson: (laughs) I was teasing Dave Ericson, the showrunner, that we should start the next series five years ahead of the original, but that'll never happen.

Will Romine: Will this series film in Atlanta, like the original?

Adam Davidson: No, this show is set in LA and will film there.

Will Romine:  So, a purely west coast production.

Adam Davidson: For now.   They start in LA and try to survive all along the west coast.  I can't speak for future seasons.  The promise going into it is that you won't see any woods.

Will Romine:  The Georgia setting for the original series facilitated the use of characters with a back woods upbringing who are better suited to survive the apocalypse.  However, LA isn't really suited for those types of characters.

Adam Davidson: Yeah, but you have people who are used to surviving on the streets.

Will Romine: One last question.  I've been following the development of this show and I remember that at one point, it was called Cobalt.  Was this a filming title a la Blue Harvest, or does the word "cobalt" play into the mythos of the show?

Adam Davidson: All will be revealed.  (Biggest non-answer ever, likely a yes.)

Well friends, I hope you enjoyed the interview.  Follow me @notacomplainer.

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