This whole TV news thing is so confusing sometimes. This week there came word that Shaun of the Dead was being prepped as a small screen series - fantastic news, right? I mean, Zombies are in vogue again, if they ever weren't, and Shaun of the Dead was everything that Zombieland should have been, so with AMC's The Walking Dead covering the dark, dramatic, character driven aspect of the genre, Shaun would have been the perfect polar companion.
However, the
whole thing turned out to be somebody's creativity run amok. Shaun star and co-writer, Simon Pegg, was quick
to quash the rumor with a tweet; "Contrary to reports
there are no plans for a Shaun Of The Dead TV show. Thought you'd like to know."
But, this whole Shaun of the Dead series thing was literally everywhere -
How the hell does that happen?
The truth is NBC, who was rumored to be developing the series, and Shaun rights holder Working Title, ARE teaming up to develop television shows. Since Shaun of the Dead is part of their catalog, some overzealous
zombie geek got a wee bit excited and started connecting none existent dots. They call that "Apophenia" in the psychology
world, bucko - it's a DISORDER.
The positive side to all of this is that it really could
happen. The deal between NBC and Working
Title has spawned Working Title Television, with the sole mission of the new
entity to review its catalog of 90 plus properties and find films that could be
translated into successful TV shows.
The problem is, Working Title does not have unilateral rights on all of
the properties, so assuming Simon Pegg
or another Shaun producer engineered a smart deal, bringing the zom-com to the small screen may require a little more than some
programming exec's pen strokes.
Would you rather see Bridget Jones the series, or Shaun of the Dead? Quick, somebody - start a grass roots campaign; Pegg must see the light.
