As many of you know, Frank Darabont has been making like HBO — offering Season 2 episodic directorial opportunities to many zombie enthusiasts, despite what criticism he may have received over Season 1 of The Walking Dead. One of the most recently anticipated offers has gone to Edgar Wright, director of the beloved and just-too-popular-to-be-cult classic, Shaun of the Dead.
SXSW 2011 has turned up a little gem this year in an interview that Edgar Wright had with Collider. In it, Wright announced that he was honored to be asked to helm an episode of The Walking Dead. That nugget of information will have fanboys blowing up the forums, but those in favor need to hold their horses. He claims that “I really enjoyed the first season, and I wouldn’t want to be the guy that comes in and f*cks it up.” I couldn’t for one moment believe that would ever be the case, though Wright’s friend and collaborator (and star of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) Nick Frost quipped “he probably would, too.” Wright also mentions that “with something like that…you wanna be in on the ground floor.” This gives me the sneaking suspicion that the issue may lie more in the idea that Wright doesn’t want to be labeled as a “zombie guy,” so he’d rather take his abilities to other projects. We’ll just have to wait and see if Wright thinks he would like to tackle a more serious version of the zombocalypse.
Darabont has really got this zombie thing down, and one has to wonder what his true intentions are with all these efforts to get fresh blood on the show. Simply mentioning the possibility of Edgar Wright working on the highly loved zombie show is enough to give a decent buzz to The Walking Dead marketing department, whether it’s all a ploy or not.
