It appears as if Amazon’s venture into genre programing will be short lived indeed as word has dropped that their pilot episode for their TV adaptation of ZOMBIELAND appears to be DOA.
Show writer Rhett Reese logged into TWITTER and posted the following:
Our Zombieland series will not be moving forward on Amazon. Sad for everyone involved.
I’ll never understand the vehement hate the pilot received from die-hard Zombieland fans. You guys successfully hated it out of existence.
Anyway, we did our best, and we’re very proud of our team.
Yeah, well I don’t know about it being hated out of existence but it certainly wasn’t embraced by the horror crowd but my personal opinion is it had nothing to do with the material, it was just that it was only available on a very limited platform and although the film did pretty good in theaters, the whole idea behind the show would likely get pretty stale pretty quick visiting it on a weekly basis.
Kind of like putting down a beloved pet, it’s sad but better that then watching it suffer.
“…the whole idea behind the show would likely get pretty stale pretty quick visiting it on a weekly basis.”
Exactly. Because Walking Dead hasn’t been able to crack that code, no reason why Zombieland would be able to either.
“I’ll never understand the vehement hate the pilot received from die-hard Zombieland fans”
My own personal feelings and in almost every review I read had the same criticism. It was a bad move to recast the same characters from the film. I didn’t think the pilot was that bad but this was it’s downfall. I wasn’t expecting the same actors but I hoped for new characters.
If failed because of horrible production value and horrible acting. I believe it is pretty obvious that Amazon was simply trying to cash in on the success of the movie. It had potential, but Amazon’s half-assed execution ruined it.
Agree on the less than quality product, but surprisingly, it was actually offered that way to broadcast networks first, but they didn’t pick it up.
Also agree with those suggesting they should have picked new characters, as it would take a super level of chemistry & charisma to make you forget the actors who first played these roles. Plus, we SAW the original characters story… time for some fresh blood (pun intended).
And maybe if the makers created a QUALITY pilot and not some placeholding CRAP episode, the fans would like it more. They need to understand that we ALREADY have a zombie show… we need something a bit different from Zombieland. That opening sequence with the two actors that die, and (barely) Tallahassee, was probably the BEST scene in the pilot.
Instead of trying to do a “funny” version of WALKING DEAD, they need to parody the hell out of the zombie genre, and apocalypse-slash-folx torn from their regular lives- genre for that matter. Make fun of WALKING DEAD, REVOLUTION, LOST, etc. Meet up with different, weird groups, that are absurd in their own way.
E.g., Find the farm where people are resorting to caniballism, but have your leads discover that in the first five minutes… and make the rest of the episode about something else… like a fight amongst the leads as their tied up and through their eventual escape. When the villains make the big reveal, their deflated that the leads already knew and don’t care.
Or incorporate some common sense stuff… ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE style… why a glock or machete may be better than big-ass gun you’re not familiar with… how to save yourself in a house just by destroying the stairs (as zombies can’t climb [depending on the writer, of course]). MORE RULES! No way the ZSG can sue for ripping off what’s basically common sense stuff!!
The ONLY think I thought was neat about that pilot was the OnStar lady that decided to man her post. Otherwise, they turned in a filler episode as a HORRIBLE pilot… the fans didn’t fail the makers… it’s the other way around.