Movies
TV: Meet ‘The Walking Dead’s New Showrunner
I took a harsh beating from you guys after openly declaring my disdain for the first season of AMC’s “The Walking Dead”. My thoughts were misconstrued as all I was trying to say was “we deserve better.” AMC took a leap of faith and brought us the horror show we’ve been begging for, and because of us its ratings were through the roof. The last thing I wanted was the show’s success to imply that everyone was happy with the direction it had taken. Being that it’s the only show of its kind, and that we’ve frantically been begging for it for years, I think it’s worthy of celebrating — but that doesn’t mean I’m going to sit back and proclaim it the most brilliant show on TV. Frankly, next to award winning television like “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad”, “The Walking Dead”‘s visual style looks like absolute garbage, and the episode cliffhangers did nothing to make the week-long wait for the followup strenuous. Don’t get me wrong, I love the works of Frank Darabont, but I am still celebrating his exit from what should be the best horror show on the small screen… ever.
A new area begins NOW as “The Walking Dead” executive producer Glen Mazzara is taking the reins of AMC’s undead series following the exit of creator/executive producer/showrunner Frank Darabont, reports Deadline. Personally, it doesn’t excite me that the shift is staying in house, as I’d rather see a fresh face move into the fold. Hopefully some of the behind-the-scenes tension was about what Mazzara wanted to do. All I know is that AMC better bring this up to the level of “Mad Men” or “Breaking Bad” becase WE DESERVE THE BEST!
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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