AMCTV.com has a new interview with make-up FX specialist Greg Nicotero, talking about the work he did on Frank Darabont’s upcoming adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s zombie comic The Walking Dead. Nicotero is a legend in the industry, having worked on classic horror movies going back to the mid-’80s. He also worked extensively on Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal’s upcoming Predators and Alexandre Aja’s Piranha 3D.
Here’s a sample of the interview:
Q: You’ve been creating zombies for George Romero for years. What made you want to tackle The Walking Dead?
A: I’ve been best friends with Frank Darabont since before he directed The Shawshank Redemption, and we share a similar interest and nostalgic devotion to George Romero and Night of the Living Dead. We started talking about this project probably three or four years ago, when Frank was talking about wanting to do something different with zombies, and what we could do to make these guys look fresh and original. And from then on, it’s just been like, Hey man! We get to create zombies!
Q: How do these zombies differ from the ones you created for Romero?
A: We used the graphic novel certainly as inspiration. We’ve always tried to push the envelope, and because I’ve done so many other projects it’s always one of those things where you finish a movie and go, "Oh man next time I know how we can make it better. And after that I know how we can make it even better than that." We’ve taken everything that we’ve learned on all these other projects, and applied them in terms of using new materials and new techniques – even something as simple as a zombie getting shot in the head: We really sat down and worked through the best way to make that look realistic and practical.
And you can read the rest over at AMCTV.com.
