The co-creator of Fear the Walking Dead has sued AMC, which airs The Walking Dead spinoff, claiming that he can’t profit off the series due to the network’s profit participation payout.
Dave Erickson, who co-created the spinoff with The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and served as showrunner for the show’s first three seasons, filed a breach of contract lawsuit Wednesday in California state court, the Hollywood Reporter reports, claiming that AMC continually has claimed to report deficit earnings on the series. Because of that, Erickson claims, he has been unable to receive any of the backend payments promised in his contract in the 10 years that Fear the Walking Dead has been on air.
“Dave Erickson created a massive hit for AMC in Fear the Walking Dead, expanding The Walking Dead Universe and cementing AMC as the zombie network,” Aaron Liskin and Nick Soltman, lawyers for Erickson, told The Hollywood Reporter. Despite the show’s “extraordinary success” — Fear the Walking Dead was among AMC’s most popular shows when it first premiered — “Mr. Erickson has not received a single dollar in profits from AMC and, absent this action, he never will.”
Erickson’s lawsuit also claims that his fellow co-creator Kirkman and the show’s executive producers have since modified their contracts to receive backend payments, but his contract remains the same, despite alleged promises by AMC to alter “the backend definition.”
A rep for AMC Networks did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
This isn’t the first time AMC has faced legal action from one of their showrunners over The Walking Dead: Frank Darabont, who co-created the original series with Kirkman, previously sued AMC for breach of contract in 2013, accusing them of similarly capping his license fee “in perpetuity at the lower of 65 percent of the costs of producing the series or $1.45 million per episode, meaning that there would be a significant deficit on every episode produced for the life of the series” which “is clearly designed to ensure that [Darabont and CAA] never see that first dollar.”
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Darabont and AMC ultimately settled the lawsuit for $200 million; Erickson has secured the same law firm that represented Darabont in his lawsuit.
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