'The Walking Dead' News: AMC Responds to Lawsuit Filed by Series Producers
Following the $1-billion lawsuit filed by several producers of "The Walking Dead" against AMC, the home network of the series has released its official statement on the issue. Faced with one of the most expensive television lawsuits in history, AMC has given a rather professional and pleasant response to the producers who have sued the network.
In its statement, AMC said that the kind of lawsuit they are dealing with today is fairly common in the entertainment industry, especially after a show's success. According to the network, considering the success of "The Walking Dead" all these years, the litigation came as no surprise for them.
"Virtually every studio that has had a successful show has been the target of litigation like this, and The Walking Dead has been the #1 show on television for five years in a row, so this is no surprise. We have enormous respect and appreciation for these plaintiffs, and we will continue to work with them as partners, even as we vigorously defend against this baseless and predictably opportunistic lawsuit," said AMC in the statement.
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The issue emerged when the executive producers of the hit AMC zombie apocalypse series filed a breach of contract complaint against the network with regard to what it pays its in-house production company, AMC Studios, and how much it owes "The Walking Dead" co-creator Robert Kirkman and the other complainants.
According to Kirkman, executive producers Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert, and former executive producers Glen Mazzara and Charles Eglee, the network failed to honor its contractual obligations to them despite the success of the long-running series.
In the official complaint that they filed against AMC, the group said the network "exploited their vertically integrated corporate structure to combine both the production and the exhibition of TWD, which allowed AMC to keep the lion's share of the series' enormous profits/or itself and not share it with the Plaintiffs."
It remains to be seen if the lawsuit will affect the future of the series. "The Walking Dead" returns for its 8th season on Oct. 22 on AMC.
