"Walking Dead" Creator Robert Kirkman Along With Other Producers Sue AMC For $200 Million

Creator: Phillip Faraone | Credit: FilmMagic Copyright: 2019 FilmMagic

There is no love loss between AMC and Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman along with several other producers for the hit show, as a new $200 Million lawsuit is now being brought to the attention of the California Supreme Court.

Variety reports that the producers — Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, Charles Eglee and Glenn Mazzara — are claiming that AMC Networks’ $200 million settlement in 2021 with the show’s creator Frank Darabont and CAA, his agency, entitles them to similar treatment.

“Plaintiffs were forced to file this lawsuit as a result of AMC’s two faced treatment of their right to participate in the historic success of The Walking Dead,” their statement reads. “On the one hand AMC tells them they are entitled to nothing based on erroneous pre-trial rulings which are subject to appeal, while AMC paid $200 million to Frank Darabont and CAA to avoid a New York jury’s review of the exact same contingent compensation definition. Instead of giving Plaintiffs the benefit of the Darabont settlement as required by the express terms of their contracts, AMC’s creative activity these days seems limited to figuring out new ways to mistreat the talent that is responsible for its now past success.”

AMC however is calling this just a “money grab.”

Orin Snyder, attorney for AMC Networks, said in a statement, “Robert Kirkman, David Alpert and the rest of these plaintiffs have had their biggest claims against AMC Networks thrown out of court twice, so now they are back with another lawsuit. And another lawsuit means another attempt to rewrite their agreements and extract even more than the millions they have already been paid, and will be paid in the future, for their profit participation in ‘The Walking Dead.’ This is just another crass money grab. We are confident it will fail, as their previous attempts have failed.”

“The Walking Dead” comic creator Kirkman and the other producers first filed suit in 2017, but Judge Daniel J. Buckley ruled in favor of AMC Networks in July 2020, agreeing that the company did not breach its contract with the plaintiffs.

The producers revised the lawsuit in May 2021, but most of their case was dismissed by Buckley in April this year.

The new judge in the case, Stuart Rice, has set February 2023 as a trial date to resolve the remaining claims of the original lawsuit.

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