Demarest Films has announced that they are developing a television adaptation of the newish Marvel comic Empire of the Dead from Zombie filmmaker George A. Romero. This comic has come in, at this point, three short miniseries, putting itself into the universe of the “Dead” movies, including Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead. The series itself looks more directly at New York City and how the urban environment is affected by the zombie hordes. The series itself actually breaks from much of Marvel’s line first in that it is not a part of the regular superhero Marvel universe, and second, that it is explicitly for adult readers only because of the graphic horror violence.

What gives this series such great hope is that Romero himself will be scripting the series with Peter Grunwald, and they will both be exectuive producers on it. It will also be a relatively true adaptation, rather than just taking the property and doing a more conventional television series. A network has not been set yet, but many people are actually guessing that HBO or Showtime may take it on to compete with AMC’s Walking Dead, or one of the online networks like Netflix or Amazon.

If you are interested in reading the comic series you can actually go directly to the first two trades, which are broken up by “Acts.” The third “Act” is coming out right now in single issue form, and will be collected in trade shortly. Click below if you want to pick them up while they are still on discount!

George Romero’s Empire of the Dead: Act One

George Romero’s Empire of the Dead: Act Two