John Connor [Celluloid 01.06.16] post apocalyptic zombies



Frank Darabont, who is responsible for developing and showrunning AMC's most popular show ever, The Walking Dead, is pursuing claims that the network breached his contract and deprived him of tens of millions of dollars in profits from the show. And in newly released deposition material, the director/creator absolutely slams the executives of AMC.

And look, we can all admit that season two of The Walking Dead ranks as one of the weaker, but it sounds like Darabont was not wholly responsible as AMC slashed budgets and pocketed tax credits.


Says Darabont:

"I remember Joel Stillerman, in a meeting in my office, when we were all discussing the issues of the upcoming season, we said to him, 'Surely that the success of the show, which, by the way, you guys are bragging about because we keep getting e-mails saying, 'Hey, we're breaking viewership records in 120 countries around the world by hundreds of percent, in some countries by over 1,000%,' at the same time we're hearing how successful the show is for you, you're telling us that this, this budget issue is not going to budge at all. And he said, 'The success of the show has no bearing on this discussion,' in a rather icy manner."


Darabont goes on to cite budget problems when AMC cut the show's budget from 3.4 mill per ep to 3, going on to say:

"That was bad enough, but then they dropped the bomb on us that, oh by the way, they're keeping the tax credit. They're going to pocket the tax credit. So, between the two you've got a full 25% cut across the board."


Darabont then slams execs for not respecting him, or the conditions he and the actors were working under:

"When they did rarely show up on the [Georgia-based] set, [they] would ... drive in from the airport in their air conditioned car, race into the air conditioned tent we had there so the actors could have a break and not pass out from the heat, poke their heads out on occasion, and half an hour later jump back in their car and fly back to their air conditioned office in New York. I had a tremendous lack of respect for them."


Read more about the case at The Hollywood Reporter.

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