Continuum creator bringing Stefan Petrucha’s Dead Mann Walking to CBS

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It makes sense to me that CBS would take an interest in author Stefan Petrucha's 2011 novel Dead Mann Walking, since it combined detective work and crime solving, which are things the network that brought you CSI and NCIS clearly loves, with a type of horror that is hugely popular right now, the zombie sub-genre. The network is hoping that viewers will find that these are two great tastes that taste great together, as Simon Barry, creator of the recently wrapped Syfy series Continuum, is now developing Dead Mann Walking into a series for them.  

Barry is writing the script for a pilot that he will also be executive producing with Stephen Hegyes under the banner of their genre production company Reality Distortion Field.

Dead Mann Walking imagined a near future in which zombies exist, but they're called chakz. While they have issues and some occasionally turn feral, the living dead are really doing their best to be part of normal society again. Within this world, Petrucha told the following story: 

After Hessius Mann was convicted of his wife's murder, suppressed evidence came to light and the verdict was overturned. Too bad he was already executed. But thanks to the miracles of modern science Hessius was brought back to life. Sort of. 

Now that he's joined the ranks of Fort Hammer's pulse-challenged population, Hessius attempts to make a "living" as a private investigator. But when a missing persons case leads to a few zombies cut to pieces, Hessius starts thinking that someone's giving him the run-around – and it's not like he's in any condition to make a quick getaway…

Hessius Mann has only returned in one other novel so far, 2012's Dead Mann Running, but if CBS gets their way the dead P.I. will have a lot more adventures ahead of him. 

Dead Mann Walking sounds like an interesting idea to me. I don't typically like detective shows, but CBS got me to watch one in 2007 by making the investigator a vampire on a show called Moonlight, so we'll see if they'll have the same luck with me by putting a zombie detective on the air. I mean, a chak detective.

Continuum's Rachel Nichols