Sometime ago it was reported that Frank Darabont and Gale Anne Hurd were prepping an adaptation of zombie comics series The Walking Dead for cable channel AMC. "Prepping" has now turned into "actually making", with the news that the pilot episode has officially got the go ahead.

In print form, The Walking Dead is by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore, and has been running since 2003. It currently stretches to eleven volumes in the paperback collections, and basically involves Zombiegeddon survivor Rick Grimes and his family making their way to a possibly apocryphal Last Safe Place, and getting into agreeably visceral scrapes and adventures along the way.

AMC's Charlie Collier said that "working with people like Frank and Gale is the right way for us to deliver a project of distinction in this genre." Which is suit-speak for "the guys that made Shawshank and The Mist and Aliens and Terminator are gonna put zombies on TV and it's gonna kick ass and be awesome!" Or something similar. Shooting schedules and casting have yet to be announced.

/Empire Online/