Wednesday, August 10, 2011

WALKING DEAD NEWS: Things Get Ugly

AMC fired Frank Darabont.

He didn't step down graciously after getting the WALKING DEAD machine up an running, as those optimists among us assumed may have been the case. Nope--he was canned.

So what happened? The Hollywood Reporter sheds some light on the situation right here, but I came away from that article not wholly satisfied. Maybe he was fired because he tried to fix an episode that wasn't up to the show's standards, and maybe that incident was merely an excuse to fire Darabont, who wasn't too keen on proposed budget cuts.

Right now, it's all speculation and leaked anonymous insider news kernels. When asked, my contacts at AMC offered no comment.

Darabont has issued no response, but I suspect we'll get one eventually. This is the guy who told George Lucas he was insane after his Indiana Jones script was rejected by the Bearded One--Frank Darabont is not one to hold his tongue.

Why AMC would intentionally sabotage their biggest show remains a mystery.

For more on this puzzling series of events, check out Devin Faraci's take on the matter over at Badass Digest.