AMC Responds to ‘The Walking Dead’ Lawsuit

It was revealed earlier Thursday that former The Walking Dead showrunner Frank Darabont and CAA added an additional $10 million to the already filed $280 million lawsuit against AMC.

Now, AMC has responded – rather forcefully – in a statement to THR.

“At the heart of this lawsuit — and all the litigation related to ‘The Walking Dead’ — is the greed of CAA. Their goal is every dollar for themselves, with total disregard for contracts, clients, fairness or even basic decency. AMC was the only network willing to take a risk on ‘The Walking Dead,’ after many others passed. AMC has been an honest steward of the series and has paid all of its creative partners handsomely and appropriately. This is just another opportunistic lawsuit orchestrated by the most powerful lawyers and Hollywood agents seeking an unjustified windfall and we are confident that it will be defeated in court.”

In the 27-page court documents that were filed in the New York Supreme Court, Darabont and his team allege that there was wrongdoing on the part of the AMC team when negotiating contracts.

“Having recently completed its audit of AMC’s accounting records, it is now clear that AMC’s wrongful conduct extends well beyond artificially deflated license fees,” the documents read.

It continued: “In addition to withholding hundreds of millions of dollars from the creators of the hit television series The Walking Dead through improper self-dealing, which is the subject of litigation between the parties currently pending in this court, AMC has used a variety of shady accounting practices, described below, to withhold tens of millions more,” the jury-seeking filing adds, before settling in for the kicker. “And, Plaintiffs recently learned that AMC attempted to hide evidence related to its self-dealing from Plaintiffs during discovery in the pending litigation.”

Darabont was co-creator of the show and acted as the main executive producer of The Walking Dead through its first six-episode season – but was fired from the production at the midpoint of the second season.

He has found most of his critical acclaim in Stephen King adaptations, screenwriting and directing hits like The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Mist. He was also the primary writer of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob, and The Fly II.

The Darabont lawsuit is just one of several pending against the show as the mother of stuntman John Bernecker, who died performing a stunt on The Walking Dead‘s Georgia set last July, intends to also seek monetary compensation.