Sci-Fi Storm

AMC debuted the trailer for Season 4 of The Walking Dead at Comic-Con…but have no fear if you are like me and weren’t there…you can watch it right here!

Season 4 premieres October 13th, with 8 straight episodes…the remaining 8 will air starting in February.

Game Of Thrones was near the top of all Emmy nominations with 16, plus an “Outstanding Interactive Program” nomination for “Game Of Thrones Season Three Enhanced Digital Experience”, coming in second to American Horror Story: Asylum‘s 17.

Other genre-related shows with nominations:

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome – Outstanding Sound Editing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special, Outstanding Sound Editing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special, Outstanding Special Visual Effects

Defiance – Outstanding Special Visual Effects

Falling Skies – Outstanding Special Visual Effects

Once Upon A Time – Outstanding Costumes For A Series, Outstanding Makeup For A Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic)

Revolution – Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Supporting Role, Outstanding Stunt Coordination For A Drama Series, Miniseries Or Movie

True Blood – Outstanding Art Direction For A Single-Camera Series

The Walking Dead – Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series, Miniseries, Movie Or A Special

If you watched The Walking Dead return from it’s mid-season break, you definitely weren’t alone…12.3 million viewers watched the initial airing, with 7.7 million in the Adults 18-49 group – a record for a basic cable series, and despite the fact that it was up against the Grammy Awards.

Counting the three encores, a total of 16.6 million watched it – and that still doesn’t include DVR viewers over the next several days.

There are 7 more episodes remaining in the third season. The fourth season is expected to begin production in October.

The Walking Dead producer Scott M. Gimple has been promoted to showrunner, taking the place of Glen Mazzara, who chose not to return over creative differences.

Gimple has been working as a writer and producer on the show, as well as having created the animated Fillmore!, and wrote several episodes of FlashForward and the screenplay for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

Not to anyone’s surprise, AMC has renewed The Walking Dead for a fourth season. However, it appears that creative differences between AMC and producer and showrunner Glen Mazzara over the direction of that fourth season have resulted in the mutual decision to part ways.

According to TVLine, AMC said in a statement, “Glen guided the series creatively for Seasons 2 and 3. [We’re] grateful for his hard work. We are both proud of our shared success. Both parties acknowledge that there is a difference of opinion about where the show should go moving forward, and conclude that it is best to part ways. This decision is amicable and Glen will remain on for post-production on Season 3B as showrunner and executive producer.”

This echoes changes at the start of Season 2, when Frank Darabont was fired as showrunner for creative differences.

Even though the third season of The Walking Dead doesn’t start until next month, it seemed likely that AMC would still renew their highest-rated show. Now it seems they have, although there was no formal announcement – instead, it appears that you can win a chance for a trip to the set for season 4 in 2013…and if it wasn’t renewed, that would be hard to do…

As is typical, genre shows were largely ignored unless they have a HUGE following. Game of Thrones netted 11 nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (for Peter Dinklage). American Horror Story received a whopping 17 nominations, tying Mad Men for overall noms. Sherlock received 13 for “A Scandal In Belgravia”, including Outstanding Miniseries or Movie, Outstanding Lead Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie (Benedict Cumberbatch), and Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie (Martin Freeman).

But perhaps the most surprising is what wasn’t nominated – The Walking Dead, which received no major nominations, getting just Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series, Miniseries, Movie Or A Special, Outstanding Sound Editing For A Series and Outstanding Special Visual Effects.

Following yesterday’s announcement that the Silent Hill franchise would feature at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights in both Hollywood and Florida, an even bigger announcement – the hugely successful The Walking Dead franchise will also be part of HHN this year!

From the press release:

AMC’S “THE WALKING DEAD” BECOMES FIRST TELEVISION SERIES FEATURED AT
BOTH UNIVERSAL ORLANDO RESORT AND UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD’S
HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS EXPERIENCES

Guests Experience The Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Horror
of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” At Nation’s Best Halloween Events

ORLANDO, Fla., UNIVERSAL CITY, Ca. (July 18, 2012) — Caught in the middle of a high-intensity struggle for survival, you fight off hordes of flesh-hungry, growling “walkers,” or zombies. No place is safe as you make your way through a post-apocalyptic wasteland with horror at every turn. Will you survive?

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San Diego Comic-Con kicked off formally today (have I mentioned yet that I’m not there again this year? :() and so far, most of what I’ve seen is Twilight, Twilight, and Twilight. However, there are a few cool things to be seen. One of the best may be the “The Walking Dead Escape”, set up over at Petco Park.

THR has a video giving a glimpse of it before unleashing the “survivors” (and the walkers) in it (see below). It’s a post-zombiepocalypse obstacle course, where “survivors” can pay $75 and take a run at it, which could take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour to complete. Spectators can pay $15 just to watch. And it will include 650 “walkers” in full makeup done by The Walking Dead‘s own Greg Nicotero and his team.
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The bloody, gory season finale of The Walking Dead broke the series’ own records last night, with 9 million total viewers, and 5.3 million in the 25-54 demographic. This beats the mid-season premiere, as fans awaited the outcome of the carnage in the barn, where it had 8.1/4.4.

The third season of AMC’s The Walking Dead returns in October.