Axed "Walking Dead" Creator Frank Darabont Sues AMC for Profits
Dec 17, 2013
by Kate Stanhope


He may have a new show on the air, but Frank Darabont hasn't completely moved on from "The Walking Dead" quite yet.

The hit zombie drama's creator, who abruptly exited the show in July 2011, has filed a lawsuit against AMC accusing the cable network of breach of contract and withholding millions of dollars in profits, according to The Hollywood Reporter.





Filed Tuesday in New York state court, the suit hints that a standoff over Darabont's profit participation, which has been ongoing since February 2011, may have played a part in his dismissal from the series months later early into production on Season 2, according to THR, which obtained a copy of the suit.

AMC never revealed publicly why Darabont was let go, or to the writer-producer himself, according to the suit. "AMC's conduct toward Frank to date has been nothing short of atrocious," Darbont's lead lawyer, Dale Kinsella, tells THR. "Unfortunately, the fans of The Walking Dead have suffered as well by being deprived of his creative talent."

Since Darabont's exit, two other showrunners, Glen Mazzara and Scott M. Gimple, have filled his shoes. The show will return for the second part of Season 4 in February.





In his suit, Darabont and his agents at CAA claim that they have never even received $1 for his promised profit participation in the series, which is the No. 1 show on TV in the adults 18-49 demo. The suit claims that because AMC both produces and airs the show, that deal likely prevents Darabont from ever receiving money. AMC, however, has claimed the show is running a $49 million deficit.

Darabont also says in the lawsuit that AMC initially agreed in September 2009 that "The Walking Dead" would be produced by an unaffiliated studio and that Darabont would receive as much as 12.5 percent of the show's profit after standard industry deductions. Then, when AMC decided to produce the show in-house, Darabont repeatedly asked AMC to spell out the terms of his profit participation, but the company waited to see how the show would perform.





AMC "fired Darabont without cause shortly before Season 2 aired precisely in order to avoid its contractual obligation to pay him increased profits (which vested fully at the conclusion of Season 2) and to avoid its obligation to negotiate to hire him as showrunner for Season 3," the suit claims.

In addition to what he says are tens of millions of dollars in profit from "The Walking Dead", Darabont is seeking a cut of "The Talking Dead" talk show and the as-yet-untitled scripted companion series AMC is currently developing.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Walking-Dead-Frank-Darabont-Sues-AMC-1074815.aspx

AMC Rejects “Baseless” "Walking Dead" Lawsuit from Frank Darabont & CAA
by DOMINIC PATTEN
February 20, 2014


More than two months since original "The Walking Dead" showrunner Frank Darabont and CAA sued AMC, over unpaid fees and other claims, the cable station has finally replied.

In a dry point-by-point 10-page retort filed today in the Supreme Court of New York, AMC denied all of the plaintiffs’ claims and asked for the case to be dismissed.



“Defendants deny that Plaintiffs are entitled to any relief, whether monetary, compensatory, declarative, equitable, costs, and/or fees relating to this matter, or in any other form sought by Plaintiffs,” said the filing.

“We look forward to demonstrating through the legal process that this is a baseless lawsuit built on claims that have no merit,” an AMC spokesperson told me today.



The dense December 17 complaint that Darabont and CAA filed against AMC Network Entertainment and others alleged that the former WD EP and his agency were cheated out of contractually assured profits from the blockbuster zombie apocalypse series.







Darabont and CAA’s 24-page plus exhibits filing late last year also claimed that AMC enacted a limbo-low license-fee shell game to the show based on Robert Kirkman’s graphic novels to pad its own pockets. It also said that cabler snagged some tax money from the state of Georgia and ran the in-house produced mega-series at an ongoing multimillion-dollar deficit.

Additionally, the complaint alleges that the real reason Darabont was suddenly kiboshed from "The Walking Dead" back in July 2011 during production on Season 2 of the show was so AMC could get out of paying him increased fees the producer would be entitled to in Season 2 and 3 under an agreement he and the company had worked out in February of that year.







AMC were originally supposed to response to Darabont and CAA’s earlier this year but had the deadline extended to February 20 on January 27. With AMC’s filing today, the plaintiffs now have until March 24 to serve any opposition paperwork and then the defendants have until April 7 to respond to that.

So, unless someone goes for a very quick settlement, expect this to still be before the courts when promos for the next season of "The Walking Dead" hit the air later this year.

http://www.deadline.com/2014/02/walking-dead-lawsuit-frank-darabont-amc-responds/

AMC Slams “Ill-Conceived” "Walking Dead" Lawsuit from Frank Darabont & CAA
by DOMINIC PATTEN
May 16, 2014


It’s not quite the blood and gore of the zombie apocalypse, but today the legal battle between AMC and original "The Walking Dead" showrunner Frank Darabont and CAA got more a lot more biting.

“Doubling down on their ill-conceived theory of the case, Plaintiffs now seek to use discovery to conduct a fishing expedition through the files of Defendants, a television network, two television studios, and a parent company, to obtain access to highly sensitive proprietary and confidential information that bears no relevance to Plaintiffs’ claims, including highly confidential and proprietary information relating to television shows other than the one at issue, The Walking Dead,” said AMC today in a scathing letter to a NY Supreme Court judge.





The letter is the latest salvo in the on-going case first filed by Darabont and CAA in a December 17 complaint. The plaintiffs allege that they were scammed out of contractually assured profits from the blockbuster series and that AMC played a “self-dealing” artificially low license-fee shell game with the show based on Robert Kirkman’s graphic novels.

AMC, of course, says that’s not the case.





Of course, all that could become irrelevant or at least secondary very soon.

“Contracts are not screenplays,” said AMC’s attorney Marc E. Kasowitz with some rhetorical flourish in this most recent letter. “The law does not permit them to be unilaterally rewritten simply because one party dislikes the ending. Yet, that is precisely what Plaintiffs seek in this action.”





Once again rejecting Darabont and CAA’s contentions of self-dealing and low license fees in their original complaint last year, the cable station also revealed to no great surprise that they plan to file a motion for summary judgment for liability soon.

AMC also let slip that they paid Darabont “close to $3 million” for his work on WD Seasons 1 & 2 before canning him from the show he developed back in late July 2011.

http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/walking-dead-lawsuit-amc-slams-frank-darabont-caa-mad-men/

“Bizarre” AMC Slapped By Frank Darabont & CAA in Latest "Walking Dead" Lawsuit
by DOMINIC PATTEN
May 19, 2014


The blood has truly started flowing today in former "The Walking Dead" showrunner Frank Darabont and CAA’s lawsuit against AMC over unpaid fees, self-dealing and other claims.

Just three days after the cable station sent a letter to the judge in the case slamming the producer and the agency’s “ill-conceived theory of the case” and advocating a rejection of the plaintiff’s idea of the disputed confidentiality order, Darabont and CAA have struck back.



“Plaintiffs respectfully submit that the Letter is either an intentional effort to obfuscate Plaintiffs’ claims or, more likely, designed for purposes unrelated to discovery,” says a letter today from Darabont and CAA’s lawyer Jerry Bernstein of NYC firm Blank Rome LLP.

“In any event, Defendants are attempting to argue their bizarre contract interpretations during what should be a routine discovery dispute.”







The 6-page letter goes on to say that “this could be resolved easily if Defendants agreed that ‘highly confidential’ documents were for outside litigation counsel’s eyes only, or that all parties be treated equally and fairly regarding who may see ‘highly confidential’ documents.”

After developing the Robert Kirkman graphic novels into the TV series, Darabont was suddenly cut loose from "The Walking Dead" in late July 2011. This case is about what he and his agency say they should have been paid afterwards as well as AMC’s alleged attempts to underplay the financial success of the series with low licensing deals and other dodges.

“It is unfortunate that Defendants are using this protective order issue as an excuse to delay producing documents indefinitely—even documents they have agreed to produce,” today’s letter also says.







“Plaintiffs have requested documents related to the license fees for Mad Men and Breaking Bad, two of AMC’s most popular shows after The Walking Dead, both of which were produced by unaffiliated studios,” notes Darabont and CAA’s attorney today over some of the disputed material and the license fee information they could reveal.

“What AMC Network gave and obtained ‘in similar transactions with unrelated third party distributors for comparable programs’ is not only relevant to Plaintiffs’ claims, it is foundational. AMC’s arguments to the contrary do not survive the barest of scrutiny.”







Long story short: In their May 16 letter to NY Supreme Court Judge Eileen Bransten, AMC argued that Darabont and CAA were not only wrong at the basis of their December 17 complaint over cash owed to the producer from his stint on "The Walking Dead" but that the documents being requested by the plaintiffs would give too many eyes “access to highly sensitive proprietary and confidential information that bears no relevance to Plaintiffs’ claims.”

This latest back and forth in the case started on May 2 when Bernstein wrote to the Judge Bransten seeking a conference over a disputed confidentiality order so the discovery process could move forward. Except for a terse point-by-point reply in late February rejecting the complaint, the potentially multi-million case hasn’t really since a lot of action since the plaintiffs’ initial filing late last year.

That’s changing now with the letters flying faster than axes taking off zombie heads on the blockbuster series

http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/the-walking-dead-lawsuit-amc-frank-darabont-caa-letter/