Every year on The Walking Dead, Greg Nicotero and the talented team at KNB EFX raise the bar for makeup effects and Season 4 was no exception, with the Tree Walker being one of their most impressive zombies to date. When it came time to decide on the Season 4 Collector's Edition Blu-ray case, it was an easy choice to go with the Tree Walker and Greg Nicotero told me how it started with Robert Kirkman's script and ended up in Todd McFarlane's hands:
"The Tree Walker was an amazingly descriptive piece of writing by Robert Kirkman. You don't see a lot of the walker in the episode, but Robert described him as being in the woods and a tree fell over and landed on his legs. The tree pinned him there, so he's been sitting there with vines and moss growing over him for the last year. I just loved the visual of it and, for the actual makeup itself, we dug a hole, buried the actor, and put fake legs and a chest prosthetic on him.
A lot of people don't realize that we dig holes and hide the actor's body for gags like this. I have a really funny picture of Scott Wilson standing next to the walker with police tape around it because we didn't want people stepping on the actor that was in the hole underneath.
Each season, I work really closely with Todd McFarlane and talk about what the iconic moments and that was a really iconic walker that was featured in the Comic-Con trailer and the episode. A sculpture of that particular walker sitting against the tree was the wrap gift that I created for the crew. I gave McFarlane a copy of that sculpture for them to scan. McFarlane and I share that passion of making it something we'd want to buy and we had to make it as close to the show as possible. That's why his toys are so successful and I was excited to see that character become the Blu-ray case. Who wouldn't want that? It's awesome!"
To Learn more about The Walking Dead Season 4 on Blu-ray & DVD and to see photos of the Tree Walker case, visit our recent coverage at:
After spending more than 10 years as a consultant in the tech and entertainment industry, Jonathan James launched Daily Dead in 2010 to share his interest in horror and sci-fi. Since then, it has grown into an online magazine with a staff of writers that provide daily news, reviews, interviews, and special features.
As the Editor-in-Chief of Daily Dead, Jonathan is responsible for bringing the latest horror news to millions of readers from around the world. He is also consulted with as an expert on zombies in entertainment and pop culture, providing analyses of the zombie sub-genre to newspapers, radio stations, and convention attendees.
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