5. Zombieland
Network/Season: CBS/2005 Starring: N/A Description: Now here's an interestingly unique case. Back in 2005, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick had written their spec script for a Zombieland TV pilot. The idea was pretty much the same template the film followed: Tallahasee and Columbus, along with Wichita and Stillwater (yes, you read that right, Little Rock was originally Stillwater) would travel across the Zombified States of America. On their never ending field trip across these braiin...er, great states, they'll search for Columbus' family, discover a new Zombie Kill of the Week (as well as more rules to live by), and learn not only of Tallahassee's feud with Matthew McConaughey, but also Wichita's real name. (It's Krista.) Why We Probably Didn't See It: Keep in mind, this was before/around the time of the Twilight outbreak. Television was (and to a certain point still is) knee deep in procedurals and not really a genre friendly environment. Zombieland didn't have a chance because the Zombie craze hadn't started back up yet. Though if they'd pitched their efforts to SciFi instead of CBS, they might have had more luck. Why We Wished We Could See It: While the 2009 film was awesome in its own right, it was adapted from the spec script that was built for series television. There are gaps in "The Rules", there's a lot of potential for Zombie Kill of the Week, and above all there's plenty more laughs that can be had. In general, there's just a lot more stories that could be told in a post Outbreak Zombieland, and if the Pilot existed we'd at least be assured that there would be more of that on the way. Life After Death?: Kinda funny that the biggest success story in this department is a project dealing with zombies, but if you count a highly successful motion picture as life after death, then yeah. This girl's got a whole bunch of life in her, and there's plenty more where that came from as Amazon is looking to produce and distribute (a la Netflix's business model with House of Cards) the series itself. Which is good, considering the Hell that's been gone through to make a sequel is more than likely robbing us of another theatrical outing.
Mike Reyes
Contributor
Mike Reyes may or may not be a Time Lord, but he's definitely the Doctor Who editor here at What Culture. In addition to his work at What Culture, Mr. Reyes writes for Cocktails and Movies, as well as his own personal blogs Mr. Controversy and The Bookish Kind. On top of that, he's also got a couple Short Stories and Novels in various states of completion, like any good writer worth their salt. He resides in New Jersey, and compiles his work from all publications on his Facebook page.
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