A judge has ruled in favor of AMC and against Robert Kirkman in a lawsuit, the creator filed over profit participation from the hit adaptation of his Image Comics series, ‘The Walking Dead’. Kirkman’s suit was for $300 million.
According to the judgment of Judge Daniel Buckley:
“In accordance with the foregoing, it is hereby ORDERED: Issues One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, and Seven are decided in favor of Defendants; and This case proceeds to a full trial on the merits based on the contract interpretations so decided in this trial.”
You can read the full ruling here.
AMC’s chief attorney Orin Snyder provided this statement to Deadline:
“Today’s decision is a total victory for AMC. The judge found in AMC’s favor on all seven issues that were presented at trial and confirmed that AMC honored its contracts and paid Mr. Kirkman and the other plaintiffs what they were owed. As the court found, these plaintiffs had the most sophisticated lawyers and agents in Hollywood and they got what they bargained for.
“We are now turning our attention to the trial in New York — which involves very similar claims by CAA and Frank Darabont — secure in the knowledge that the first court to hold a trial on these issues ruled completely in AMC’s favor.”
Frank Darabont came up with the idea of turning ‘The Walking Dead’ into a TV series. He spent four year attempting to find a home for the show, which finally landed at AMC. He wrote and directed the pilot, and served as executive producer and showrunner of the first season, but was fired before Season 2 due to financial conflicts with AMC. (The show wanted twice as many episodes for even less money than was spent on S1.)
Unfortunately, with Kirkman’s loss, Darabont’s chances of a win just got considerably smaller.
