There were rumors about this last month and it was briefly mentioned during Comic-Con last week, but now it is official. The Walking Dead will be one of the featured mazes at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort for Halloween Horror Nights. Continue reading for the press release and announcement video:
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?
This fall, Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood are joining forces with AMC’s “The Walking Dead” for their Halloween Horror Nights events. Visitors to both theme parks will be able to experience the horror of AMC’s blockbuster original series, “The Walking Dead,” in elaborately themed, haunted mazes. It marks the first-time Universal Studios has featured a television series at Halloween Horror Nights on both coasts.
The Golden Globe-nominated, Emmy Award-winning, series “The Walking Dead” is based on the comic book written by Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics. The series tells the story of the months and years that follow after a zombie apocalypse. It follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, who travel in search of a safe and secure home. “The Walking Dead” is the number-one drama series in basic cable history for adults 18-49 and adults 25-54.
Universal Studios’ Halloween creative teams are working with AMC and “The Walking Dead,” to create an authentic experience that is true to the Emmy Award-winning hit series. The haunted mazes on both coasts feature eerily authentic, elaborately designed, movie-quality sets that include some of the most iconic locations and scenes from the show. Mobs of undead walkers bring to “life” the vicious, hungry, zombies from the show.
“We want people to experience the same terror of the walker-filled reality our characters faced in seasons one and two - and will continue to face in our third season,” said Greg Nicotero, Co-Executive Producer and Special Effects Make-up Artist for the series. “Our collaboration with Universal Studios’ creative teams is exciting as we work to truly capture the essence of the show.”
“The collaboration with Universal Studios’ creative teams is a fantastic cross-promotional opportunity and a great way to capture the spirit of the series, which makes its season three debut on AMC this October,” said Linda Schupack, AMC’s Executive Vice President of Marketing.
“‘The Walking Dead’ puts real people in incredibly horrific situations where they experience true, raw fear, and guests at Halloween Horror Nights experience the same thing,” said Jim Timon, Senior Vice President of Entertainment at Universal Orlando Resort. “We can’t wait to merge the two powerful concepts together.”
“With ‘The Walking Dead,’ we want to make fans of the series feel like they are literally walking in the footsteps of the show’s characters, experiencing all of the horrific events from the series just as they experienced them,” said John Murdy, Creative Director at Universal Studios Hollywood. “The goal is to make guests of Halloween Horror Nights feel like they are trapped in the world of ‘The Walking Dead,’ using all of the attention to detail and movie-quality production values that Halloween Horror Nights has become famous for. You’re no longer sitting on a couch, watching a show…you’re living it!”
Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights® events have a more than 20-year history of creating incredibly entertaining, horrifying Halloween experiences that are consistently rated the nation’s best. The events on each coast feature highly-themed, disturbingly real, haunted mazes based on everything from film to nightmares -- and streets filled with hundreds of specially trained “scareactors.”
For more information about Halloween Horror Nights at both Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood, visit www.HalloweenHorrorNights.com. Watch The Walking Dead announcement video on both Universal Orlando Resort’s YouTube Channel and on Universal Studios Hollywood’s YouTube Channel.
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A Silent Hill maze was the first announcement from Universal's Halloween Horror Nights last week. For more details on that maze, visit our recent coverage at: http://dailydead.com/video-silent-hill-is-coming-to-universals-halloween-horror-nights/
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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