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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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AMC’s ‘Walking Dead’ Appeal Comes Up Short

(CN) - A New York appeals court shot down attempts by the cable network AMC to access certain records for its fight with the creator of "The Walking Dead."

Frank Darabont, a three-time Academy Award-nominated writer and director whose past credits include "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile," endeared himself to a new generation of horror fans with his adaptation of Robert Kirkman's series of graphic novels about a zombie apocalypse.

The show just wrapped up its fifth season - spoiler alert, there was blood and gore - but Darabont's 2013 lawsuit claims that the network has been using Hollywood accounting to deny him licensing fees ever since giving him the ax - or was it a katana? - back in season 2.

AMC moved to compel Darabont's talent agency, the Creative Artists Agency, to produce documents regarding contingent compensation owed to the agency or its clients on their agreements with certain cable TV studios.

If it couldn't get that, AMC said it would settle for the Manhattan Supreme Court throwing out certain claims and allegations.

A judge shot the maneuver down, however, and Appellate Division's First Judicial Department affirmed Tuesday.

"Those documents, and CAA's and its clients' dealings with nonparty studios, have no bearing on the issues in this action and will not sharpen those issues, as the only relevant inquiry is the monetary terms of defendants' transactions with nonparty distributors of comparable programs," the unsigned order states.

In finding that the documents are not necessary for AMC to defend itself against claims that it breached industry standards, the court noted the trial judge has already vowed to "preclude plaintiffs from raising such claims."

Darabont told Variety in 2013 that he won't watch "The Walking Dead."

"If the woman you loved with all your heart left you for the Pilates instructor and just sent you an invitation to the wedding, would you go?" he said

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