Posted in: AMC, TV, Walking Dead | Tagged: amc, Clovis Weil, norman reedus, robert kirkman, The Walking Dead, the walking dead: daryl dixon

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon PD on Bringing the Apocalypse to France

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon production designer Clovis Weil spoke with us about how setting the series in France expands the franchise.

There's no question how popular the world of The Walking Dead has become since its premiere on AMC in 2010. When the series finally ended in 2022 after 11 seasons, we barely scratched the surface with its several spinoffs that include Fear the Walking Dead, the anthology spinoff Tales of the Walking Dead, Dead City, the upcoming series The Ones Who Live, and now Daryl Dixon that expands the series internationally to France. Played by Norman Reedus, Daryl was an original creation of the TV series based on the Robert Kirkman comic sharing the spotlight with series star Andrew Lincoln, who plays lead Sheriff Rick Grimes. Created by David Zabel, the Daryl Dixon spinoff features a new cast to join Reedus – though the rumblings are pretty loud about TWD co-star Melissa McBride reprising her role as Carol Peletier for the second season. Production designer Clovis Weil (Marie Antoinette, Paris Police 1900) spoke to Bleeding Cool about how he became involved in the series, balancing the narrative between life before and during the apocalypse, transitioning from art director to production design, and his favorite sequence.

Expanding The Walking Dead Zombie Apocalypse to France

Bleeding Cool: How did you get involved with 'The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon?'

Weil: I work on a show about 'Marie Antoinette,' so quite far from the universe of 'The Walking Dead.' The line producer from 'Marie Antoinette' [Laurent Cavalier] was in touch with the team of 'The Walking Dead' when we came to France, and he got me in contact with them, and we were a few production designers to be presented to the producers and to [creator] David [Zabel]. We had an interview, presented my whole portfolio, he projected his ideas, I shared what I had in mind and it worked [out] for me.

When it came to just designing the look of the show, did you take inspiration from what was already previously established from the franchise, or did you look elsewhere?

To be honest, my inspiration didn't come from the previous seasons [from the 'TWD' universe]. I haven't seen all the seasons of 'The Walking Dead' and I have watched some, but it was quite some time ago. I didn't want to be driven too much by what I had seen and wanted. The production and David wanted to have a different feeling since it was France. There are a few things that you can't avoid visually. It's been 12 years since the apocalypse, so you have decay everywhere. You have destruction and vegetation that has grown a bit everywhere. There are some things you can't avoid. Obviously, there was this period in the first seasons of 'The Walking Dead,' but every time it was possible, I tried to get inspiration from contemporary artists or to go with strong graphic visuals from elsewhere to get inspiration for the sets.

How do you explain your transitioning from art direction to production design since 'The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon' is your third as a production designer?

To be honest, the transition was easy, and it came quite naturally. I've been working in the art department for some time. I've been a setter most of the time. I was a drawer before and a draft man. I am good and at ease with the artistic part and then with the technical part. As the supervising art director before, I had experience with working under a budget. The transition was easy and was quite fluent.

When it came to the worldbuilding, was there anything particularly difficult with the overall vision and execution of it? A sequence that stood out?

The most difficult part for us usually is that there are so many sets. The difficult part is [that] usually, in a TV show, you have recurrent sets when they come again. Here, the difficulty was that it was a real movie for six episodes. You don't go back to the same set all the time. We had all the time to use sets to deliver, and the real difficulty was the amount of it. Most of the sets were a lot of work. We needed tons of things to bring everything to life, and we needed, at the same time, to be prepared for the next one. Time is always the most difficult part of it. We never have enough time since we have so many things to do. I had three different set decorating teams at the same time, and the logistics of it all were difficult, but the artistic part was not the hardest.

How do you compare the present-day chaos to the pre-apocalypse scenes?

It's good to have a before and after. The flashback [sequences] are today and the only moments when we can use electricity and see night lights in a city. In our 'TWD' world, you sometimes have a little bit of electricity, and each time we had to justify it. Otherwise, it's candles and lanterns. Electricity is scarce, and we had one set that was literal before and after, which was Isabelle's [Clémence Poésy] apartment. When we had the version before the apocalypse, and then the version 12 years later, the courtyard was wholly overgrown everywhere, and with this little kid…a prisoner up the vines and everything.

Was there a particular favorite sequence or scene of yours in the season?

The other flashbacks we had that were after the apocalypse were great to build. It was the cargo sets, the cargo ship because this was a 2000 square meter set on stage near Paris. The whole escape from Daryl and there is a flashback where he remembers how he came here and what he needed to escape to come here. It was a difficult one, and we managed to build a big set which was not cheap, but we played a lot with containers, and it allowed us to build a big set with reduced means on stage. This one was quite fun to do.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which also stars Louis Puech Scigliuzzi, Laïka Blanc-Francard, Anne Charrier, Romain Levi, and Adam Nagaitis, airs on Sundays on AMC.

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