Zombieland was originally conceived as a television series. And it might just be heading to the small screen after all...
Hot on the heels of the announcement that the season 2 premiere of The Walking Dead smashed cable viewing records, it has been announced that a TV version of Zombieland is currently in development at Fox.
This news comes two years after Zombieland won over audiences and critics, and went on to be a hit at the box office. It had a mighty fine cameo in it, too.
The film was one of my favourites of that year, and I’ve been following the news of a potential movie sequel with interest. But ultimately. it doesn’t look as though that will happen. I hope we're proved wrong.
Still, Zombieland was originally pitched as a TV show and was developed into a film when it failed to get picked up. So it makes sense for it to return to its roots, and see how it fares as a half hour comedy. There are hints of the original plans for the project in the film itself, with things such as ‘Zombie Kill of The Week’, which would no doubt be a major feature should this make its way onto our screens at some point in the future.
I can’t imagine that any of the original cast would return, but introducing new characters to the world established won’t be a difficult task. Maybe we'll get some more cameos, too.
Handled in the right manner I think this could be great, particularly as original writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are involved. But Fox has a record of handling shows poorly, and cancelling them before they have time to develop (although Fringe has been an obvious exception). This is concerning, as if the show does get made and turns out to be good, audiences will still live in fear of it getting axed. I guess that's the nature of the beast.
