gmanca

Yeah but what the article is saying is making shows with the majority of the run time indoors. That means that the episodes after the pilot and before finding the CDC would have been different.

It's not about "surviving" by turtling because that would make for a boring show.

story

For people who say they won't watch the show now that Durabont isn't involved, is it because:

a) of the way Durabont was exited from the project?
b) the assumption is it won't be good without Durabont?
c) both?

Regarding "A," while that's noble solidarity does it change things for Durabont? As for "B," surely it's still worth watching at least once or twice if one enjoyed the first season story.

Fist of Doom

Seems weird that AMC is running off Darabont when this show was an enormous hit. Unless there's something else to the story, they come across as idiots.

sven

Did you read the whole thing? They are clearly idiots.

DJariya

I just read that story and if I were on the production crew of The Walking Dead, I would be pissed and frustrated. AMC owns the fucking show and it was an enormous hit last Fall and I'm sure sold alot of DVD and BD's. I'm surprised at the Penny pinching for season 2. Unless, it's partly because of how much money they are paying Lionsgate, Matt Weiner for Mad Men.

It seems to me that Darabont was given an ultimatum that he had to make the show and make it as good as season 1 with alot less money.

I guess nobody believes in the saying that you have to spend money to make money anymore.

DJariya

I agree. Studios aren't going to want to deal with AMC if they keep this up. Since Walking Dead is their own production, I can see how they would want to fuck Darabont over and not give him any leeway in making the show with less money. But, if I were FOX, Lionsgate, Sony or Warner Bros, who produced shows for AMC, I would tell AMC to kiss my ass.

GMan2819

The bean counters probably ran the projections and concluded they would lose money if the budget wasn't cut. The network has to make money or it will cease to exist.

Gunde

So how long before Greg Nicotero, life long friend of Darabont's, leaves too?

Thrush

Supposedly Mad Men was the reason the budget had to be cut. The deal they made to keep it broke the bank. Still seems like backward thinking, why cannibalize the budget of a show that has had the best ratings of any show to ever air on basic cable?

macnorton

After reading both links a page back, all I can say is I am not surprised by any of this.

AMC had a huge problem on their hands...they had three of the best and hottest shows on cable. What I thought was baffling is the treatment of Weiner and Gilligan.

You have two of the best showrunners in town on YOUR network...they are winning awards and bringing attention to the network. Pay the men!

By contrast, if things with those two don't get messy, there are probably no problems with The Walking Dead. People are going to watch in droves, regardless of what the quality of the show is*. Why you would fuck with that is beyond me. Like everything else, it all comes down to $$$. That being said, Glen Mazzara is a fine replacement (just be glad Tim Minear wasn't available) and I think the show should be fine.

*I thought the first season did have a couple of rough patches, but not nearly the catastrophe some have claimed it was.

Adam Tyner

The way I heard it -- and I have no idea if this is accurate or not -- Weiner didn't want to lose anyone in the ensemble and didn't want to trim the runtime. Everytime he'd meet with AMC about the renewal, those would be his talking points, and AMC would throw a little more money at him to try to get him to back off. Lots of meetings...he wouldn't budge...AMC kept upping and upping his payday. After enough meetings like that, AMC clued in that he wasn't going to relent on those points...but they'd already put so much money on the table for Weiner, and he wasn't gonna let them take it off.

The production values of The Walking Dead are absolutely the best thing about the show. (The writing, though...? Not so much.) Cutting back too much would be a pretty colossal blow.

GMan2819

Production costs are paid for primarily by the commercial time they sell so if the advertisers aren't willing to pay, their hands are tied.

islandclaws

Once he does it's REALLY dead.

DJariya

If an outside studio like say Sony or Lionsgate produces the show, they actually pick up the physical production costs. The network will pay the licensing fee.

anomynous

A zombie show without zombies? Come on AMC

Deftones

You certainly can not see the zombies but hear them for certain scenes (Rick's scene in the hospital comes to mind), but you can't do that consistently. that's not good storytelling at all.

Michael Corvin

AMC is gaining quite the reputation.

Maybe they can just bring in Matt Miller to bury the show for good.

wmansir

They've already departed from the comic quite a bit, but AMC must have loved the part where ...

PhantomStranger

Just another bad decision by AMC in a long line of them.

bluetoast

I have a few ideas for them to save money:

1. Stop saying "Previously on AMC's Mad Men/The Walking Dead/Breaking Bad."

Cutting out that AMC will save about 1 extra second per episode, giving us about 39 extra seconds of ad space per year, and that's just for original episodes. For re-runs, that could add up to several minutes! There. Several hundred thousand dollars extra AND you look less douchy. Win-win.

2. Don't show any "Next time on..." clips on TV, direct viewers to go online (where they already are, along with entire out of context scenes from the upcoming episode), thereby saving more precious minutes. There's some more extra revenue for you, AMC.

3: Don't hire Rudy Giuliani to host "Mob Week." Savings: About $39.

DJariya

To recoup even more money, they could always post Mad Men, Walking Dead episodes on their website or Hulu with commercials. I realize they want people to watch it on TV that week, but it's an easy way to recoup more of the production costs and you could always delay posting it 7 days after the episode finishes it's re-airs on AMC. It's better to have a non-cable subscriber watch it legally and make some money than have them Pirate the show and not make a dime.

Navinabob

Yeah. I don't get the "no indoors" stuff as MUCH of the comic takes place inside or huddled around camp-fires.

Thrush

Is it really that much more expensive to shoot outdoors?

Deftones

Netflix signed a huge deal to get Mad Men for streaming, so I'd imagine Lionsgate probably makes far more money from that deal than they would from a Hulu deal.

majorjoe23

Part of the problem with outdoors is weather. If they plan to shoot Saturday, then it's rains that day, they still have to pay the cast and crew for that day, plus the make up day.

Shooting outdoors can also cause continuity problems with lighting and shadows as the sun changes.