Every Walking Dead fan will remember just how boring the first few episodes of the second season was. Those days spent on Herschel's farm without any gut-stirring, blood-pumping action almost killed the show. It turns out that the real drama was happening behind the scenes, in which former showrunner, Frank Darabont was in dispute with AMC executives.

In a recently unsealed deposition, Entertainment reports that Darabont has some very strong words against the cable network, particularly its executives. In the lawsuit, the Nightmare on Elm Street 3 screenwriter was reportedly deprived of tens of millions of dollars in profits. Furthermore, he claims that his contract was breached and the hit series was able to make a sweetheart deal licensing the show to itself without him receiving his dues.

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Back in 2011, Darabont was fired from the show. Reports have shown that the creator of the show, Rober Kirkam wasn't exactly fond of Darabont. However, in his official statement on why he was sacked, he said: "They accused me of not having directors tone meetings. And I said, 'That's absolutely not true, I have had a directors tone meeting with every single director this season."

Further discussed in his deposition, the 56-year old Hungarian-American director/producer explained that despite the massive ratings TWD was raking in, there were still budget cuts demanded of him while he was still the showrunner. Yet all the while, AMC executives were pocketing tax credits while filming in Georgia. Darabont didn't take this lightly.

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"I remember Joel Stillerman [president of original programming and development for AMC], in a meeting in my office, when we were all discussing the issues of the upcoming season, we said to him, 'Surely that the success of the show, which, by the way, you guys are bragging about because we keep getting e-mails saying, 'Hey, we're breaking viewership records in 120 countries around the world by hundreds of percent, in some countries by over 1,000%,' at the same time we're hearing how successful the show is for you, you're telling us that this, this budget issue is not going to budge at all. And he said, 'The success of the show has no bearing on this discussion,' in a rather icy manner."

In his deposition, he goes on to say: "The cast and crew were earning, busting their butts, leaving it all on the field. 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."

He added that during his time with the show, AMC executives were barely present as the cast and crew endured the unforgiving heat and pervasive insects. He spoke of the executives "jump[ing] back in their car and fly[ing] back to their air conditioned office in New York. I had a tremendous lack of respect for them."

Glen Mazzara, Darabont's successor also gave a deposition in the lawsuit saying Darabont was "a good showrunner" but he also admittedly separately that the season two premiere could have been a "show killer".

A statement released by AMC regarding the lawsuit read: "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."

Tags
The Walking Dead, AMC