TACOMA FILMMAKER IS OFF AND RUNNING WITH PHOENIX RUN WEB SERIES >>>

I love some of the conversations I get into with filmmakers. Like one last week I had with Tacoma's TJ Walker - when I erroneously labeled his current project, Phoenix Run, a "zombie" Web series. He quickly reclaimed it as a work dealing with infected people. We then delved into theories on how the two groups differ.

While I went the overblown, cerebral route (as a writer I gots to), positing that zombies belong to the stuff of fantasy while infected peoples have their origins in science, I much prefer Walker's more elegant distinction: "Basically, zombies are the ones that walk; infected are the ones that run."

Now why didn't I think of that?

The man knows something about this subject. As a lifelong devourer of comics and graphic novels, for a long time Walker has wanted to make his own chronicle of the undead. But the jump from page to screen came when Walker's writing partner, Will Strode, transformed his idea into a potential screenplay. Strode's words, shall we say, infected Walker's brain with filmmaking visions.

"I was blown away," recalls Walker. "Once I started reading the script I just pictured scene after scene."

Run's first episode rolled off the post-production line only last week; from there it makes its way to the Seattle International Film Festival's review committee with hopes of a place at this year's show. Its creator sees acceptance into the prestigious SIFF as "a really big goal, especially for my first time directing and coming out with something."

No one likes playing the waiting game, but at least Walker has his mind on other matters. Besides getting the Phoenix Run website online, in March he'll direct Episodes 2 and 3 back-to-back alongside 1^st AD and co-producer Rick Walters. Oh, springtime - the season of rebirth, renewal, and reanimated corpses (un)dying for just a nibble of your intestines. Ready to Run?

Check out some creepy promotional posters on the Phoenix Run Facebook page.