"The Walking Dead" executive producers have filed a lawsuit against AMC for not paying their fair share of the profits.
The hit zombie show's producers, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert and Charles Eglee, filed a multi-million dollar breach of contract suit against the cable network in New York on Tuesday, Aug. 15.
This comes on the heels of another lawsuit filed by the three plaintiffs, including series creator Robert Kirkman and former showrunner Glen Mazzara, in Los Angeles on Monday, Aug. 14
The lawsuits alleged that the relationship between AMC Network and AMC Studios have brought about a lower licensing fee which resulted in an unfair calculation of the producers' profits.
According to the complaint filed on Monday, "This case arises from a major entertainment conglomerate's failure to honor its contractual obligations to the creative people — the 'talent,' in industry jargon — behind the wildly successful, and hugely profitable, long-running television series 'The Walking Dead.'"
The lawsuit further stated that the AMC exploited their corporate structure to combine both the production and exhibition of "The Walking Dead" to keep an enormous share of the profits. Since the producers are part of the production arm, they claim that they should also be entitled to the profits earned by AMC.
However, AMC responded by saying, "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."
The New York and Los Angeles lawsuits are similar but the one filed in the East Coast is because AMC had cast provisions in their agreements that appointed an Empire State jurisdiction for such disputes. The producers are willing to drop the lawsuit in New York if AMC will cast aside those provisions and have them handled in Los Angeles.
Expect more reports as the situation unfolds.
"The Walking Dead" season 8 will premiere on Sunday, Oct. 22 at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC.
