Last Friday we had a chance to talk with The Walking Dead executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, and learn a little more about her favorite parts of the show. This week we’ll be prepping for the midseason return of our favorite zombie show with a series of exclusive articles featuring our interview with Hurd.
Gale Anne Hurd, executive producer for The Walking Dead, has quite the resume. Hurd is CEO of Valhalla Entertainment, and her “production career launched when she produced and co-wrote The Terminator.” She has also been involved with other wildly popular films such as Aliens and The Hulk. Her involvement in The Walking Dead only adds to her success.
After becoming a big fan of Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead comics, she set in on producing them as a television series for AMC.
“I first read the comic book and became a huge fan, sought out the rights to the Kirkman series of comics, and found out that that was something Frank Darabont had been pursuing.”
Darabont was the original showrunner for The Walking Dead, and helped to bring the series to life with Hurd.
The two also worked closely with Robert Kirkman, since the comics were his original creation. Kirkman has also been heavily involved in the show’s production.
Hurd adds, “Robert Kirkman also obviously had retained the rights, so we teamed up.”
Photo credit: Flickr
Gale Anne Hurd has been a part of The Walking Dead from the show’s early development stages, and now with the midseason premiere of season 3 coming up on Sunday, she’s made quite the mark on the incredibly successful AMC series.
The Walking Dead was also featured in a Super Bowl ad last night for Time Warner Cable, and Hurd was excited to see Daryl Dixon get a little love in this commercial.
Though she wasn’t there with actor Norman Reedus during the filming of this ad, Hurd got a behind-the-scenes look before it aired on Sunday night.
“They are a lot of fun. I mean it’s a lot of fun, and I’ve just seen some of the behind-the-scenes making of, and I think people will really get a kick out of it. Norman brings Daryl to life just as memorably in the ad as he does in the TV series.”
Take a look at the Time Warner ad, which featured Daryl being the Daryl that we love.
We asked Hurd if she thought this prime placement during the Super Bowl would bring in any new viewers.
“I hope so. And if not, we’ll take everyone who watched the midseason finale back!”
Stay with us for the rest of the week to see more of our exclusive interview with Gale Anne Hurd!