Q&A with David Alpert, Executive Producer on The Walking Dead Season 4

2013/08/21 16:04:22 +00:00 | Jonathan James

AMC features executive producer David Alpert in their latest "Dispatches From the Set." In this Q&A, we learn about changes to the prison, tourists visiting Senoia, and the most difficult character for him to see killed:

via AMC- "Q: If Season 3 was about the human threat, what would you say Season 4 will be about?

A: What we really have here in Season 4 is we dangle the carrot that civilization can be rebuilt… The notion that there’s civilization and the notion that there’s the possibility of there being laws and a sense of normalcy. I think we’re going to see an evolution in the walkers — there’s a whole bunch of new walkers — and we’ll see an evolution of the threat of human-on-human. Dangling the possibility of civilization will make people much more desperate and willing to do things that would have previously been unthinkable.

Q: How’s the location scouting going? What can you tell us about new locations?

A: There’s been some real changes in the prison itself, so seeing how it’s evolved from the last episode of Season 3 to the opening of 401, the prison looks totally different… We’ve also been looking at woods and a couple stretches of highway to find some interesting angles to showcase some unique action sequences that I can’t tell you anything about.

Q: Now that The Walking Dead is in its fourth season, has the production been attracting more attention from local Georgians?

A: It’s interesting. Robert Kirkman and I went into Senoia to grab a bite to eat, and there was probably about 15 or 20 people walking around the streets and every single one of them was clearly a tourist there for The Walking Dead… I hadn’t seen that before. There’s the Woodbury shop on main street. There’s the Woodbury town hall and there are all these things we shot last year that are actual places. And I saw everybody walking up and down the street taking pictures in front of it, posing, and putting on a Sheriff’s hat, doing the whole thing.

Q: When you look back over the past three seasons, what are you most proud of?

A: There are various moments that really stand out… Episode 207 when Sophia comes out of the barn and she’s a walker. Just thinking about it I get chills. I’m not joking… It’s a pure genre moment, but if someone didn’t have their heartstrings tugged by Carol seeing her daughter turn into a zombie and Rick having to put her down, you’re not human, right? And in 304, Carl having to shoot his mom after having just delivered Judith is another perfect example, where it’s an absolutely emotional, intensely involving moment. The genre element is used to heighten the emotional intensity of the scene.

Q: What’s been the toughest character for you personally to lose from the show?

A: The great thing about this show is that literally every character is on the table… We have no one that is untouchable… One of the hardest things was killing Shane. In the comic, it happened much, much earlier, and Robert had said he wanted to give that character a little bit more space to breathe. So trying to figure out what was the right place to kill Shane was really difficult… In the screening room here in production, there’s a wall that says “Our Grateful Dead,” and it’s got pictures of all the characters who’ve been killed off over the seasons. It’s kind of insane: One, it’s kind of touching, and, two, we’ve killed a lot of people on this show. [Laughs] It’s hard to say which one was the toughest."

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To read more from this Q&A head over to the official website for The Walking Dead on AMC. The 16-episode fourth season is currently filming in Georgia, with the first episode airing on October 13th. Catch up on our recent coverage by visiting the following links: