later in talks with Darabont to possibly guest star on the series as of fall 2010; however, with Darabont's departure, it is unknown whether the guest spot will happen or not. Holden also appeared in the 2001 film The Majestic, which Darabont also directed. DeMunn has appeared in several of Darabont's films; in addition to The Mist and The Majestic, he appeared in The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999). It was planned that Witwer (Private Jessup in Darabont's The Mist) would reprise his "Days Gone Bye" role in the original conception of the series' second season premiere and in a webisode, but both plans were discarded. Production Development On January 20, 2010, AMC officially announced that it had ordered a pilot for a possible series adapted from The Walking Dead comic book series, with Frank Darabont and Gale Anne Hurd acting as executive producers and Darabont writing and directing. The entire series was pre-ordered based just on the strength of the source material, the television scripts, and Darabont's involvement. In January 2010 a review of the pilot episode's script attracted further attention. The pilot began filming in Atlanta, Georgia on May 15, 2010 after AMC had officially ordered a six-episode first season. The series's remaining episodes began filming on June 2, 2010 with Darabont serving as showrunner. On August 31, 2010, Darabont reported that The Walking Dead had been picked up for a second season, with production to begin in February 2011. On November 8, 2010, AMC confirmed that there would be a second season consisting of 13 episodes. He would also like to include some of the "environmental elements" that take place during Volume 2 of Kirkman's book. Crew The first season writing staff consisted of series developer and executive producer Frank Darabont (who wrote/co-wrote four of the six episodes), executive producer Charles H. Eglee, executive producer and creator of the comic book Robert Kirkman, co-executive producer Jack LoGiudice, consulting producer Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara, all of whom contributed to one episode each. Along with Darabont, who directed the pilot episode, the remaining five were directed by Michelle MacLaren, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Johan Renck, Ernest Dickerson, and Guy Ferland, respectively. On December 1, 2010, Deadline Hollywood reported that Darabont had fired his writing staff, including executive producer Charles "Chic" Eglee, and planned to use freelance writers for the second season. Kirkman called the announcement "premature" and