In comics, Robert Kirkman writes books that span a variety of genres, from his zombie apocalypse smash ‘The Walking Dead’ to super heroes with ‘Invincible’ to crime thrillers with ‘Thief of Thieves.’  But TV watchers know him only for the hit adaptation of ‘The Walking Dead‘ but his latest project will hopefully enlighten them that he is no one trick pony.

His horror series ‘Outcast’ is coming to Cinemax and the trailer for the 10-episode show, which premieres in 2016, debuted to ignite interest.

‘Outcast’ stars Patrick Fugit as Kyle Barnes a man plagued by demonic possession, seeking to discover the cause of his curse.  The show also stars Wrenn Schmidt as Barnes’ adopted sister Megan Holter and Phillip Glenister as Reverend Anderson, an alcoholic preacher.  Chris Black serves as showrunner and Adam Wingard directed the pilot.  All five attended the panel to debut the trailer.  Kirkman was absent due to recent throat surgery.

But even sans Kirkman, those in attendance gave the audience some insight into the show’s development.  Black revealed the challenges they faced crafting the show, which is based on a new comic that is currently being written.

“We didn’t have 200 issues of ‘The Walking Dead’, so we were waiting on Robert a lot of times.  We would sit in the writer’s room telling him we have this idea or that and he would say, ‘Well, the next issue is out on Friday.’ In adapting a comic to a television show it needs to become its own thing. There are simply not enough ideas in one comic book to fill 60 minutes of a premium cable show and you end up burning through the story pretty fast. Beyond that, on a creative level, you want it to take on a life of it’s own. You don’t want to just transcribe it. It needs to be transformed from a comic book into a TV show because they are different mediums.”

“The great thing about working with Robert is that he is so respectful of that process. He’s committed to the stories he wants to tell, and if you stay true to those characters, that’s what is very important to him. When he pitches something, he wants to do what he pitched. But on the other hand, if you pitch something that he didn’t think of, he’s totally open to that. But we tried to respect Robert’s clear narrative track that he wants to tell. He knows where the story is going and he knows the mythology that he wants to tell. He is one of the most collaborative guys that I’ve ever worked with.”

Watch the trailer below:

Actor Patrick Fugit discussed acting based on a comic book story:

“When I first got the script I had three or four issues of the comic out. Comics have to communicate a lot with just very little. The words and the images have to go together for a very specific reason.  Whenever they put a panel there, that shot is telling you something that you have to pay attention to. So I got a lot of ideas from the comic about physicality and the choices that Kyle makes. But really, Robert has created the characters through his writing, and if you are paying attention then you can instinctually feel what is going on. Its really cool reading the comic, watching the pilot and reading the scripts because you get these little moments in the comics and there is all this new material behind those moments on the show. But it’s really Robert’s storytelling and his writing that is fun to create a character with.”

With the pilot completed, the cast and crew will reconvene next month to shoot the remainder of the series.

Are you excited to see a supernatural thriller from the mind of Robert Kirkman?

Source: Crave Online