Was Frank Darabont Fired From THE WALKING DEAD Season 2?
Reports say showrunner was shockingly fired from AMC's most popular series and did not resign as previously claimed.
In an astonishing story from the August 19th print edition of The Hollywood Reporter titled Walking Dead: What Really Happened", it is claimed that showrunner Frank Darabont was actually FIRED from his duties on AMC's most popular ever series The Walking Dead, just three days after his appearance at the July 22nd San Diego Comic Con, where he was promoting the show's forthcoming second season and did not resign as previously claimed. According to the article, the cast and crew in Atlanta were not given any reason as to why Darabont got the cut, but were told the working relationship "isn't working", and we can only presume it was something to do with the long associated battles over budgetary concerns. In fact the piece states; Frank doesnt like the cast and crew overworked and underpaid, says a show insider. As recently as the end of May, with the shows second season poised to go into production, Darabont seemed to be holding out hope that AMC would relent. Creatively, I have no complaints thus far, he said at a THR roundtable. But I believe if they do move ahead with what theyre talking about, it will affect the show creatively in a negative way. Which just strikes me as odd. If you have an asset, why would you punish it?An agency source says Darabont is notoriously a pain in the ass known for taking a feature-film approach to television, which is meant to suggest he didnt manager the brisk pace of television well. But an insider says Darabonts approach was what made Walking Dead special. Frank fights for the show, says an insider. He doesnt just do what the network wants him to do Hes a filmmaker, and thats why the show was as good as it was. Sources with ties to the show insist it was on schedule and on budget.
It is also said Darabont is completely done with the show and has no creative ties to it anymore and as we've hard previously, the number two Glen Mazzara (who previously show-ran the failured Crash series at Starz) has been promoted from within and takes his place running the show. The trade says; There also have been no public comments from the cast, and a source with knowledge of the situation says AMC has been terrorizing them and their representatives to discourage them from speaking out on Darabonts behalf. Theyre scared, confirms another insider. Theyre on a zombie show. They are all really easy to kill off.More from the trade;
An agency source says Darabont is "notoriously a pain in the ass" known for "taking a feature-film approach to television," which is meant to suggest that he didn't manage the brisk pace of television well. But an insider says Darabont's approach was what made Walking Dead special. "Frank fights for the show," says an insider. "He doesn't just do what the network wants him to do. He's a filmmaker, and that's why the show was as good as it was." Sources with ties to the show insist it was on schedule and on budget.Big screen approach... fighting for the show. All the reasons why Frank was instrumental for making the show work as far as we can tell and as we said a few weeks back, the show just won't be the same without his creative presence. I sincerely hope it isn't the case but I can't help but feel the day Darabont was fired will be the day we look back on The Walking Dead t.v. series and point to where the crumbling began....
What remains a central mystery, even to those closely involved, is what triggered AMC's move to fire Darabont. As noted, AMC's decision to cut the budget dated to the previous fall, when the network instructed Darabont to produce 13 episodes for a second season, up from six for the first season, for less money. Not only would the show get a lower budget, but AMC also decided that Walking Dead would no longer reap the benefit of a 30 percent tax credit per episode that came with filming in Georgia. Now the network was going to hold on to that money. The show went into production on its second season in June. Sources say an early episode came in with footage that was not usable. The director had shot a successful first-season episode and was a mutually agreeed-upon choice. Darabont was editing the episode in an effort to fix it but by then, an insider believes, AMC was looking for a pretext.You can read more of The Hollywood Reporter's story HERE.