'Walking Dead' Producers Lawsuit Against AMC Moved From NYC to California

The groundbreaking lawsuit filed by The Walking Dead executive producers (Robert Kirkman and series producers Gale Anne Hurd, Glen Mazzara, and David Alpert) against AMC TV has just been moved from NYC where it was first filed, to California, a location where the producers and court officials all feel the case will be better served.

Specifically, the NY lawsuit from Hurd, Alpert, and Charles Eglee will be combined with that of of Kirkman's Mazzara's lawsuit, which was filed in California back in August. As the NY Supreme Court said in a statement, "interests of judicial economy will be served by adjudicating the claims asserted in this Action and in the CA Action in one forum."

By joining their claims into one suit, the Walking Dead EP's likely stand a much better chance at taking on AMC. For those with short memories: this suit from producers came off the back of a similar one filed by former Walking Dead executive producer and showrunner Frank Darabont, and in both cases, the plaintiffs (producers) claim that the network knowingly cheated them out of proper profit sharing for the massively successful show.

Here's how the claim filed back in August stated the case:

"There can be no question that, if AMC Studio[s] and AMC Network were not part of the same conglomerate, the story would be very different," states the complaint. "Those substantial license fees for Mad Men and Breaking Bad continued in seasons five and beyond, even though their ratings were a fraction of TWD's. And while the AMC Network only obtained a limited number of playdates for those series as part of the comparatively-higher license fees it paid for them (both on television and its affiliated websites), the AMC Entities unilaterally took for themselves the right to run an unlimited number of runs of TWD in perpetuity on all AMC platforms."

The main thrust of the argument is (in all its legal and financial jargon) is that Walking Dead EPs don't feel as though they have been fairly compensated for all of different ways that AMC has licensed and monetized the Walking Dead bran; meanwhile, AMC has downplayed the claims as the usual opportunist-driven attempts for the producers to line their pockets with more money than they (literally) bargained for, from of a show that's now more successful than anyone ever imagined.

While this suit could set some new precedents in the industry (the payout being asked for is a whopping $1 billion), most fans are only concerned about one thing: how will this affect The Walking Dead?

Right now, it looks like the backroom disputes are going to stay that way (in the back) since publicly, TWD is still king of TV and still raking in the profits. No one involved in this lawsuit wants to mess that up...

The Walking Dead season 8 is now airing on Sunday nights @ 9/8c on AMC.