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The OTHER Zombies: Dead to (TV) Rights:

Written by (Editor) on 1st November 2014

Zombies and comic adaptations are all the rage. But move over Walking Dead and super-peeps... here comes The Other Dead!

The Other Dead's Obama coverLast month we got confirmation that the IDW comic, The Other Dead -  created by our old pal Digger T Mesch and Joshua Ortega with the added talents of people such as TMNT's Kevin Eastman -  was going to be turned into a drama for America's Animal Planet channel. It was an obvious fit... a story about a rabid animal plague and the threat to humanity that comes from once docile beasts turned monsters  rather than once apathetic neighbours turned brain-chompers....  

Impact will be watching as the project progresses and we asked Joshua to fill us in on the early days of the adaptation...

 

Joshua, let's start at the very beginning. For anyone who hasn't picked it up, can you describe the evolution of the original The Other Dead comic. What was the heart of that original 'pitch'

The Other Dead began in 2010 as a film treatment by my co-creator Digger Mesch. Originally, it was very wild and over the top and had both zombie humans and zombie animals. Digger and I wanted to work on a project together and I told Dig that The Other Dead would be perfect, as long as we could get rid of the zombie humans. Even in 2010, I felt the zombie humans genre had been done to... well... death, and only a zombie story with a unique twist would be interesting to for me to write. He loved the idea of just zombie animals, so I went to work on adapting the treatment and though I kept a lot of the over the top themes (Obama as a character, a hurricane hitting at the same time as the infection, etc.), I tried to balance it with more shock and horror and make it less comedic. There's still humor in there, but it's more along the lines of an Evil Dead 2 now, a blend of over the top concepts and horror.

What is it about the wider zombie genre that HAS struck such a chord with people?

I think much like vampires, zombies are a great metaphor for humanity. Everyone knows people who are bloodsuckers or brain dead to some degree, so there's some great parallels there for society and humanity! The fun twist with The Other Dead is now it's animals, so it re-jiggers a lot of conceptions that people have about zombies...the metaphors change, but it still taps into the fear of the undead.

The Other DeadCreatively, how did you see the 'Other Dead' story expanding? Was it initially one story you wanted to tell, or to create a bigger backdrop for more than one story?

The Other Dead as a whole story is much larger than just the first graphic novel. It's a rare zombie story where it doesn't begin after the zombie apocalypse has already occurred, it begins while things are normal, then you see society break down over the course of the whole story. The entire story will unfold through graphic novels, television, video games, and possibly even film...it's a full transmedia endeavor, and each media will tell a unique part of the story. It's a big story, very epic in scope.

Projects being optioned for television - and eventually being made - is a longer process than most people think...

It took a while for everything to come together and while we received a lot of interest from various producers and networks, Animal Planet and Discovery always felt like the best fit. The chance to be their first scripted show is an exciting one and the idea of zombie animals on Animal Planet is just too good to pass up!

How involved will you be in the Animal Planet show?

Digger and I will both be consultants on the show, and we've already been actively working with Kurt Tondorff and Karl Rodolfo at Animal Planet on the early stages of putting everything together...it's a fun process, and both Kurt and Karl have been great advocates of The Other Dead

You talked about the transmedia ambitions for the concept and you've both  been involved in multimedia for a long time now, actively courting ideas and concepts that bridge more than one format. How important is that becoming?

Incredibly important. Whereas multimedia was the big thing in the 2000's, now transmedia has taken over. Transmedia differs from multimedia in that a true transmedia property will tell different parts of the story through different media, all intertwined and carefully integrated, whereas multimedia was often simply spin-offs and adaptations into different media. Transmedia is everywhere now and it's something Digger and I have both been waiting for...we're both transmedia specialists, and now we have an opportunity to fully explore our ideas like never before. It's an exciting time, to say the least!

You can also follow all the latest developments at:  www.theotherdead.com

 

 

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Written By

John Mosby

Editor

John Mosby

Born at a early age, creative writing and artwork seemed to be in John’s blood from the start Even before leaving school he was a runner up in the classic Jackanory Writing Competition and began...

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