By now we’ve all seen the finale to season three of The Walking Dead. And it was, how should we say it… less than expected. While the season was praised for it’s direction, the promised battle of the prison and departure of David Morrissey’s Governor really left fans with fleeting expectations. So what kind of “improvments” are on the way in the upcoming fourth season?

-Warning: The follow contains spoilers to this October’s upcoming season of The Walking Dead, if you’re ok with knowing what’s to come than read on!-

Fans of the series will be happy to know that Morrissey will return as a series regular, having become a fan favorite over the past season. Also, when speaking to IGN, Walking Dead creator and writer Robert Kirkman dished on the finer details of season four.

According to Kirkman, while the prison will remain the primary setting for the next season, new showrunner Scott Gimple will be bringing us something vastly different from what we’ve seen in the past. Ideally, there will be more people and more conflict on the way and some new characters will be introduced, but Kirkman described season 4 to IGN as:

“A bigger group brings with it bigger problems. They are certainly going to need a lot more resources, and they already have a lot of rebuilding to do, just from the things that happened in this battle between Woodbury and the prison. I don’t think there’s going to be a shortage of conflict and danger coming into the fourth season, despite the fact that they are still in the prison…

I’ll say that there are a lot of familiar elements that are remaining. Michonne is still around, Rick and his group are still in the prison, the Governor’s still out there… so there are a lot of things that are carrying over from Season 3 to Season 4, but I can’t stress how different things are going to be.

There are going to be some radical changes to those elements that are going to bring in a lot of new storytelling. While [Season 4] does seem somewhat familiar, it’s going to be vastly different from Season 3.”

The promise of “radical changes” is nothing new. The same thing was promised previously with season 3 and it felt like everything peaked at the mid-season finale. Although, since they’ve branched off from what readers of The Walking Dead comic already know, the material that’s developed will be original and unexpected, just how everyone wants their dramatic television series these days.

As long as Kirkman and company can step up to meet the expectations of viewers, season four should be an astounding success (knock on wood).

Source: Blastr

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This week on The Bastardcast, Jeremy and Jason welcome Nerdbastard and Blastr word pooper-outer Mathew Jackson to venture out into the super unknown and discuss the burden in Jon Hamm‘s hand (wordboy means his dick, “Hamm Dickgate Part 2″), the majesty of Zombie Time Traveling Dragon Weekend, aka Time Traveling Dragon Zombie Weekend, aka… you get the picture… Doctor Who and Game of Thrones are back! The Walking Dead is going away! We’re talking about it!!

Also on the show!

Can Independence Day 2 and Independence Day 3 outshine the original while blowing up the outside world? Ash Williams has been away too long, will the rumored Army of Darkness sequel live to rise? Not enough for you? How about Jason becoming a born again Nerdist fan and the mystery of Heisenberg’s stolen script, bitch!?

Holy great pillowy boob-resembley cloud in the sky! You want more? Fine, how about we talk about a great innovation in sexy time? A bacon condom that both looks and tastes like bacon when you have bacon-y big dumb sex? How about that slice of butter fried greatness? We don’t even care that the Vandelay Industries pastrami flavored condom never took off, this is better!

C’mon folks, WRAP YOUR HAMM IN BACON AND DELTA YOUR BURKE!!! (Listen to the show to get that reference.)

The Bastarcast: We really like Soundgarden and exclamation points!

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Getting tired of zombies hoarding the airwaves?  Vampires just ain’t sparkling your imagination like they used to?  Wizards and witches don’t have that same old magic?  Well, how about a good old fashioned demon-themed television show for a change?  If that’s what you’re looking for, than look no further, for The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is looking to bring these Biblically old-school bad guys to a television near you.

The new show, as of yet untitled, is to be based upon a comic book, that too untitled, that Kirkman is putting together.  Though the titles are not known, a little bit of the story is thus far.  It apparently revolves around one Kyle Barnes, victim of demonic possession.  In an effort to figure out what’s going on with him, he ends up stumbling across something big and bad and mean enough to destroy life on Earth.

To get the new project rolling, Kirkman has Walking Dead ally and executive producer David Alpert helping it along.  He’ll be looking at airing the show via Fox International Channels and fishing for a U.S. network from there.  FIC expressed their interest in Kirkman’s new baby in these PR friendly words:

Exorcism has captivated movie audiences all over the world but has never been explored on television. Robert Kirkman, who forever changed the scope of cable TV with The Walking Dead, possesses an unparalleled talent of telling big-concept stories in a smart and incredibly genuine way. We couldn’t be more excited to be working with him on this project, which we see as a reinvention of the genre.

So there you have it – a “reinvention of the genre”.  Robert Kirkman + demonic possession in the near future.  What do you folks on the other side of the Internets think?  Sound interesting enough to watch?  Does Kirkman’s name being attached make it more desirable?

Thanks to Screenrant for the heads-up.

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AMC has officially confirmed that Walking Dead writer Scott M. Gimple will be picking up the baton left by Glen Mazzara and taking over the writers’ room as showrunner of the cable net’s highly-rated zombie drama. AMC also announced that Greg Nicotero and Tom Luse were being promoted to executive producers.

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I don’t know why they didn’t call this episode “Broken”, because both sides of the divide are clearly in a state of disarray following the first real dance of combat and bloodshed between Woodbury and Team Rick.

For the Governor, he’s merely mopey and withdrawn thanks to the death of his zom-daughter, his missing eye, and the invasion by the Rickers, an attack that has spooked Woodbury’s supply of sheeple into trying to jump out of the frying pan and into the zombie filled oven.

For Rick, it’s much worse. He’s seeing ghosts, Oscar is dead, Michonne has splintered off from the group to destroy the Governor’s aquarium, and Daryl ran off and got caught, forcing Rick and Maggie to rescue him and his brother. Something that might have been a bit more exciting had the promos not completely blown that for us.

Of course, the central conflicts this episode aren’t between Rick and the Governor. They’ve backed off that a bit to show the repercussions from “Made to Suffer” and to show the similarities between these two leaders who have been made anew by the awful transformation of the world. Two leaders who have put too much on their shoulders.

This time around, the big conflict is between Rick and himself as he struggles to keep it together while seeing more ghosts, driving away Daryl (who chooses Merle), and keeping his distance from Michonne and Tyrese — warriors who could be vital for the coming firefight with the Woodbury folk that is likely brewing.

Now, I can’t speak to how far down the rabbit hole the show plans to take Rick before his inevitable resurrection, but I welcome the change, provided that  the show can deliver some consistency — something they have struggled with before. Rick has endured too much to not experience a break like this, and if Rick is down, they need to let him stay down for awhile while Glenn and Hershel take the reigns in the name of showing us something different.

Best:

- As always, Melissa McBride steals every scene that she is in. Her bond with Daryl has always been sweet and obvious since last season, but after she processes Daryl’s departure, her remarks about the similarities between her and Daryl as abused people and her fears about what she would do if she saw her husband again hit the right note. Carol is quickly becoming my favorite character on the show, which means she’ll be dead by next week.

- Darryl grabbing the crossbow. Nuff said.

- Rick silencing Merle. It bordered on slapstick humor, but it was a nice throwback to season 1.

Worst:

- Andrea’s speech to the Woodburyians. These people barely know her and she’s supposed to quell an uprising based on fear and the sudden disappearance of their leader with 30 seconds of oratorical empty calories? More than a bit ridiculous. “When they write about this…” good lord…

- Ghost Lori/Wolverine Shane/The telephone. I love the phone device in the comic and I was thrilled when they brought it into the show, but the further they take this, I almost wish that Rick’s insanity were allowed to manifest itself with only his actions, rather than these big, “Now Entering Crazyburgh” signs. Lori was just another example of that, though I’m glad they did it right and brought back Sarah Wayne Callies — even if we couldn’t really see her.

- This isn’t about the show so much as it’s about the promos. I know AMC has to try and get eyes on the show, but they’ve got to strike a balance and preserve some of the shock factor for viewers by not blowing big reveals in their previews.

- Though I should expect nothing less, I really thought there might be some humanity from Merle upon being rescued. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I’m also surprised that there wasn’t more of a conflict between Merle and Rick. Producers went down the middle instead of delivering either of these extremes, and the end result was a profane jackass that foolishly left behind an offer of shelter to go it alone with Daryl.

Overall, I give “The Suicide Kings” a 3 out of 5. Coulda done it better, but at least it wasn’t just a bunch of mindless violence and worthless character culling.

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The countdown for the return of the second half of season three for AMC and Robert Kirkman‘s The Walking Dead is in the final stretch, so expect to see more teasers, clips, commercials, and production stills as the marketing machine kicks into overdrive. It’ll all culminate with a recap marathon of The Walking Dead season three just hours before the February 10th premiere at 9PM on AMC. It’s the perfect opportunity to catch up on anything you’ve missed so far or just refresh your memory.

First off we’ve got a clip featuring a look at the new arrivals to the prison and their introduction to the baby.

That awkward pause at the end is fantastic, did you notice Hershel, well everyone, looking back toward Carl? Even the most innocent questions become conversational land mines in the Zombie Apocalypse.

In case you missed it, (I sat through the whole Superbowl just waiting to see this commercial and then found out it was only aired on Time Warner Cable. Go frack yourself, AMC Marketing Manager that buys ad space.), here’s the entire Superbowl ad that only aired on Time Warner Cable.

It’s a great little commercial, although that family keeps a lot of fresh meat around the house. I wouldn’t recommend that for the average Zombie Apocalypse Survivor family. Seriously though, AMC could have had a whole Superbowl marketing campaign, imagine sending a Zombie Reporter to Superbowl Player Media day, or two zombies, one wearing a Ravens jersey, one wearing a 49′ers, fighting over a human head in a mock Zombie football game.

Another group of production stills have come out from the first episode of the second half of season three, The Suicide King. We get a look at what kind of madness we can expect from The Walking Dead for the remainder of season three. All indicators point toward a manic, bloody, insanely gory thrill ride, you’ll know where to find me on Sunday nights at 9PM.

Via: AMC, Comicbookmovie

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There’s only a couple of weeks left until the February 10th return of AMC and Robert Kirkman‘s The Walking Dead and this latest trailer for the series is making all kinds of promises that they had better keep. Promises of action, difficult choices, self doubt, and lots and lots of zombies.

The series season three mantra, “Fight the Dead, Fear the living” is about to come to full fruition and this NerdBastard can’t wait. There are a ton of new images and character quotes in this trailer, check it out in the video below and let us know what you think in the comments section.

Can the series live up to all this hype? Can this show-runner survive past one season?

Via: comicbookmovie

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The premiere of the back half of season three of AMC and Robert Kirkman‘s The Walking Dead is fast approaching and AMC is pulling out all the bells and whistles to get returning fans and new viewers to tune in. A $4 million dollar 30 second Superbowl ad and a slew of television spots will be making the rounds on the Internet soon.

In addition we’ve got the episode titles and air dates for the second half of season three. You can check out the full schedule below:

Episode 3.09: “The Suicide King” – February 10, 2013: The Governor (David Morrissey) plans an assault on the prison, but Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and the other survivors might just attack first! Written by Evan Reilly; directed by Lesli Linka Glatter.
Episode 10: “Home” – February 17, 2013
Episode 11: “I Ain’t a Judas” – February 24, 2013
Episode 12: “Clear” – March 3, 2013
Episode 13: “Pale Horse” – March 10, 2013
Episode 14: “Killer Within, Part II” – March 17, 2013
Episode 15: “This Sorrowful Life” (directed by Greg Nicotero; written by Scott M. Gimple) – March 24, 2013
Episode 16: “Welcome to the Tombs” (directed by Ernest Dickerson) – March 31, 2013

Which of those episode titles intrigues you the most? “I Ain’t a Judas” is the one that really jumps out to me. Could this be the big Meryl and Daryl episode? I doubt their going to have much time for a reunion considering the teaser trailer below, it looks like they will have their hands full just staying alive.

The network has also released a new teaser trailer for the season three:

Via: Blastr

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After burning through Frank Darabont and ditching Glen Mazzara, AMC’s The Walking Dead is set to promote supervising producer and writer Scott Gimple to the role of showrunner for the 4th season of the show. No word yet on who will replace Gimple for the show’s 5th season.

So, who is Gimple? A lover of dog’s and fine wine, he likes long walks on the beach, and he wrote the script for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, a film that Peter Travers called:

“Horrifying. It felt like I was pissing broken glass. I contemplated lighting myself on fire before the half way point. Oh God, oh God, I’ll find a way to pay Nicholas Cage’s tax bill if he never makes a movie again. This is why kittens get cancer.”

Correction: Apparently, Travers did not say that.

In addition to EXTREME Ghost Rider, Gimple has also written for Flash Forward and he’s penned 5 episodes of The Walking Dead, including this season’s 5th episode and the upcoming 15th episode.

Mazzara’s exit — which won’t be seen until the end of the 3rd season — was presented as “mutual” when news broke on the 21st of December, but numerous reports have indicated that Mazzara clashed with producer and source material creator Robert Kirkman, and that there was a lack of film-able material in the show’s second half.

Despite those reports and assertions that AMC had cause to oust Mazzara, the veteran producer and writer has had his share of defenders, with Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter saying:

AMC is run by small-minded, bottom-line thinkers who have no appreciation or gratitude for the effort of its creative personnel. Time and time again we see events like what happened today with Glen Mazzara. They continue to disrespect writers, sh*t on their audience, and bury their network. Mazzara took the work-in-progress that was Walking Dead and turned it into a viable TV show with a future. Without him, that future is dim. Showrunners are not development executives, we’re not cookiecutter douchebags that you plug into a preexisting model. TWD will suffer. Even Zombies need consistency.

A week later, Sutter continued his word attack on AMC, when he said:

The show has tremendous following, has legs. They’re going to plug somebody else, some poor soul, in there…my sense is they won’t even hire a show-runner. They’ll throw a s—load of executives at it and [elevate] a poor sap on the writing staff…And that poor sap will ultimately be just expediting the notes and the vision of non-creative people, or at least non-creative TV people.

That’ll work for a minute. In Season 4, when this will all happen, the numbers will be big, and people will show up. Will it continue to do well? No. My sense is that without somebody like a Glen Mazzara running that show, eventually it will lose focus and the narratives will run out of steam, and it won’t be able to build off of itself, and it will suffer.

Harsh words, but clearly incorrect. Scott Gimple isn’t some poor sap from the writing staff — he’s a poor sap who was already a producer and someone from the writing staff. I bet Kurt Sutter feels pretty foolish now, huh?

Sources: Coming Soon, Screen Crush, THR, Uproxx

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