Culture Blues

Is Gale Anne Hurd a Moron?

Just like everyone with a brain, I'm very excited about AMC's upcoming The Walking Dead series, adapted from the stellar comic book. But maybe they should put a muzzle on producer Gale Anne Hurd before she starts dampening enthusiasm. Hurd, a former James Cameron collaborator (and former James Cameron spouse), has produced everything from the first three Terminator films to Tremors to the last two Punisher movies to a bunch of shit you've never seen. In a recent IGN article, she was quoted as saying the following about the continued popularity of zombies:

What's not to love about zombies? I think there is a fascination with the idea of if after you die you come back, but you're still decomposing at the same time. You're no longer bound by the rules of decorum and essentially all you want to do is eat people. It's a way of dealing with cannibalism and a lot of the taboos in an entertaining way.

Who the fuck thinks that is responsible for the ongoing popularity of zombie narratives? Who cares about the zombies? Or the fact that they used to be people? I think it's becoming really obvious that the actual zombies are one of the least important and interesting aspects of zombie narratives. They hardly even need to be onscreen at this point. Christ. The whole (relatively uninformative) IGN article can be found here.

And in case you missed the announcement of the writers and directors for the first six episodes, you can check that out here. It's a list full of people who have worked on great television shows in the past (and The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman). Even Hurd can't fuck this up (I hope).