Movie and TV production and finance company Demarest is developing a TV series based on the George A. Romero’s Empire of the Dead 15-issue comic book series from Marvel that debuted in January of 2014 and is slated to end in August of 2015 (see "'George A. Romero's Empire of the Dead'").  Demarest, which has produced films as varied as A Most Wanted Man starring the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Kevin Smith’s Tusks, has an AMC series, an adaptation of John Le Carre’s The Night Manager starring Hugh Laurie, in production now.  George A. Romero basically reinvented the zombie movie with his groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead in 1968.

According to Variety, Romero and his longtime partner Peter Grunwald will write the TV series, which will be based on Empire of the Dead, which adds vampires to provide some interesting narrative twists on the traditional zombie epic.

The Empire of the Dead series will have Romero’s pedigree, but it will also enter a small screen marketplace increasingly packed with the ever-shambling legions of the undead.  In addition to trendsetter The Walking Dead, there is the clever iZombie, which just got renewed by the CW Network (see "Geek TV Round-Up"), plus The Walking Dead spin-off series Fear the Walking Dead, set in Los Angeles (see "Female Lead Cast in 'Walking Dead' Spin-Off"), and the 13-episode Z Nation series that is set to debut this fall on Syfy.