In the unsealed deposition, Darabont said the network did not treat him right and revealed the reason they used to fire him.
- Jan 7, 2016
AceShowbiz - Frank Darabont is airing out the dirty laundry. The former showrunner of "The Walking Dead" slams AMC in a recent deposition which was filed at the Supreme Court and has just been revealed to public.
Darabont was pivotal to the series, delivering the first two seasons with the highest ratings the network has ever seen. He stepped down from his position in July 2011 and was replaced by his No. 2, Glen Mazzara. Darabont did not say a word at that time but he launched a lawsuit against AMC in December 2013, claiming he's denied "tens of millions of dollars of profits" from the hit show.
Darabont's newly-revealed deposition gave better details. "Not only cutting [the budget] from $3.4 [million] to $3 [million], that was bad enough, but then they dropped the bomb on us that, oh, by the way, they're also keeping the tax credit. They're going to pocket the tax credit. So, between the two you've got a full 25|percent| cut across the board," Darabont testified.
He continued, "Now, that tax credit, by the way, was something that, again, you go back to the treatment of the cast and crew. The cast and crew were earning, busting their butts, leaving it all on the field, to earn. The fact that we couldn't then take that tax credit and put it on the screen or alleviate shooting conditions to any degree, I thought that was adding insult to injury. But again, our success had no bearing on that discussion according to him [producer Joel Stillerman]."
He also had no respect for the executives. "When they did rarely show up on the [Georgia-based] set, [they] would ...drive in from the airport in their air conditioned car, race into the air conditioned tent we had there so the actors could have a break and not pass out from the heat, poke their heads out on occasion, and half an hour later jump back in their car and fly back to their air conditioned office in New York. I had a tremendous lack of respect for them," he said.
But the pinnacle of his problems with AMC occurred when there were "crisis-level problems arising on the first episode of the second season." Darabont talked to VP scripted programming Susie Fitzgerald about stepping away from the writers room to shoot additional footage for the episode because the director's work was not up to par.
He recalled her agreeing with him although she knew that it would delay the scripts production by three weeks. She later denied the conversation. "So, she out and out just lied to my face in front of everybody," he testified. "I can prove that because after the meeting I went back to the editing room to tell my editor to finish up a few things there that day anyway that needed finishing and to tell my editor what had happened."
He was eventually let go after "they accused me of not having directors tone meetings." A showrunner was supposed to have one-on-one meetings with directors to explain scene-by-scene and set the tone. "And I said, 'That's absolutely not true, I have had a directors tone meeting with every single director this season'," Darabont said.
Mazzara left the show after third season and testified for him. He thought Darabont was treated unfairly by the network and had delivered his duties as a showrunner well including securing the Hershel farm that was greatly used in the second season.
AMC has responded to Darabont's deposition, saying "Frank Darabont has made it clear that he has strong opinions about AMC and the events that led to his departure from The Walking Dead. The reality is that he has been paid millions of dollars under the terms of his contract, which we honored, and we will continue to vigorously defend against this lawsuit."
