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The first season of the latest Walking Dead spin-off, The Ones Who Live, comes to an end this week, but the latest profit-sharing lawsuit from zombie apocalypse author Robert Kirkman, franchise executive producer Gale Anne Hurd and others is far from over. .
Focusing largely on the $200 million settlement AMC suddenly reached in 2021 to end former TWD showrunner Frank Darabont and CAA’s nearly 10-year lawsuit over profits, U. S. District Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha denied the outlet’s resolution to have Kirkman. The mega-millionaire case of Hurd, David Alpert, Charles Eglee and Glen Mazzara was dismissed.
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“It would be an illogical interpretation of the MFN (most-favored-nation) provisions and contrary to the parties’ moderate expectations at the time of the settlements if the court allowed the defendants, pursuant to the law, to supply Darabont and the CAA with an increase in contingent payment and a higher percentage of the long-term gross proceeds of the series through a settlement agreement – at the expense of the plaintiffs – without offering the same to the plaintiffs,” the California-based federal ruling on the Plaintiffs wrote in a 13-page resolution filed Monday (read the TWD EP ruling here).
After firing the short stick in an earlier lawsuit, AMC, Kirkman, Hurd, and their fellow TWD EPs sued AMC for $200 million in a breach of contract action on Nov. 15, 2022.
“Plaintiffs are entitled to the same remedy as Darabont with respect to their MAGR interests, so they are entitled to have the same assessment applied to their MAGR interests, which together exceed those of Darabont and CAA,” the document filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. “Reference to Modified Adjusted Gross Receipts Measure Used to Measure Profit-Sharing Payments. “As a result, the plaintiffs are entitled to a payment well in excess of AMC’s $200 million, the amount of which will have to be shown in essay. “
Citing the unhappy state of the lawsuits discussed in the past, AMC’s attorney called the new lawsuit “just another big money loss” from manufacturers who had already made millions from the TWD franchise and were looking to make millions more as TWDverse grew. In fact, and this is a topic of monetary controversy in this case, although TWD’s main series ended in 2022 after 12 successful seasons, and Fear the Walking Dead ended in 2023, the franchise released the fourth, fifth, and sixth spin-offs just last year with The Walking Dead: Dead City, Daryl Dixon, and TWD: The Ones Who Live.
For reasons of jurisdiction, the MEPs’ complaint was transferred on December 15, 2002 from the LASC to the Federal Court, where it has since gone through movements and schedules of briefings. A year ago, shortly after AMC attorneys Gibson Dunn and Crutcher filed their motion to dismiss, the trial’s start date was set for September 17, 2024.
With only the plaintiffs’ cause of action to save AMC from accepting the arbitration war ruled out (because AMC had already stated that it didn’t have to move in that direction) through Judge Aenlle-Rocha, the level was set this week to move toward that trial later this year.
A truth that Kirkman, Hurd, and the others obviously appreciated.
“The Court’s order refusing to dismiss the case demonstrates that this is not the so-called ‘serious money drain’ as claimed by GAC’s lawyers at the time the case was filed,” said the European Parliament’s senior lawyer, Sheldon Eisenberg. I am pleased that the Court has identified the seriousness of the plaintiffs’ claims and allowed them to be based on their merits,” Sullivan’s attorney added.
Likely hoping they would fail in their firing hopes, the AMC team opted for a return to the future in their response.
“These plaintiffs have been suing AMC since 2017 to rewrite their contracts and extract money that they are not owed,” AMC’s outside counsel, Orin Snyder, told Deadline after the ruling. “This is just another circular from their litigation campaign. “”We are confident that these claims will also fail,” the referring lawyer added.
With that, TWD: The Ones Who Live concludes its six-episode first season on March 31. Danai Gurira and Andrew Lincoln’s star will get an official Season 2 renewal.
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