THE UGLY TRUTH COMES OUT ABOUT DARABONT & THE WALKING DEAD

FYI, the link to the Hollywood Reporter story appears to be broken.

What a strange situation. AMC, you're blowing it.

However, this gave me a chuckle:

That's all well and good, but since the first season episodes after the pilot were lousy, maybe getting new writers with a different vision isn't the worst thing in the world?

Damn.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mangy 

FYI, the link to the Hollywood Reporter story appears to be broken.

 

 

There's an extra /// in that link. Remove them and it'll be fine.

Weird. AMC are clearly acting like dicks. How does a network so obviously run by bean counters produce such great TV?

And yeah, sad to say, but I'm not convinced Darabont was a huge asset to the show, but the general penny-pinching attitude isn't reassuring. Especially the "we decided to keep the tax credit for ourselves and not put that money into the show" bit, and the "ratings have no bearing on this conversation" exchange. W.T.F.

Isn't 2.75 million per esp still quite high for an hour's TV?

Regardless of whether Frank should have been fired or not, they intended to fire him before Comic Con and waited until afterwards to do it. That's fucking sleazy. 

So AMC have just made their "HBO cancels Deadwood" mistake huh? I guess they really have arrived.

this would be like someone at  HBO telling Boardwalk Empire producer Terence Winter to cut back on the costume budget.....

"...do we really need to have all these characters walking around in those 'old looking' clothes...can't we have them wear more modern, cheaper off the rack suits and dresses? " 

Quote:

Originally Posted by VTRan 

 

 

this would be like someone at  HBO telling Boardwalk Empire producer Terence Winter to cut back on the costume budget.....

 

"...do we really need to have all these characters walking around in those 'old looking' clothes...can't we have them wear more modern, cheaper off the rack suits and dresses? " 

Combine this with moves like trying to fuck over Matthew Weiner on Mad Men to the point it nearly cost the show next years season, along with cancelling something like Rubicon and citing the cost and success of The Walking Dead for that cancellation...and then penny pinching on The Walking Dead anyway - and there's a really quite epically douchey penny-pinching asshole vibe coming out of AMC it would seem.

Darabont's a class act and a great film-maker. This sucks. Oh well. Now he's free to go and direct THE TALISMAN! Cause I want him to.

It is that kind of thinking why television will never be an art form and will never approach the power of cinema.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mangy 

That's all well and good, but since the first season episodes after the pilot were lousy, maybe getting new writers with a different vision isn't the worst thing in the world?

I agree about this. The show had a lot of potential and then pissed it all away in grand fashion I might add.

This move stinks in a bad way. Congrats AMC I won't ever watch this show again.

I actually I had some faith in Darabont after he fired the shows mediocre writers.

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Originally Posted by User_32 

 

 

It is that kind of thinking why television will never be an art form and will never approach the power of cinema.

I will counter that by saying it's on a case-by-case basis, and I have seen television (especially in recent years) even surpass the current offerings at the local multiplex.

I can't wait to hear what he has to say about the whole thing. When Darabont burns. HE BURNS. Remember all the talk about his firing from Indy 4? This will probably be along those lines.

Really sad to see him go, and yeah, it's fucked up that AMC told him this after Comic Con.

Well the show was fucking up when he was apparently all over every detail so without him I know it's going to suck. If you had told the 13 year old version of me that one day there would be a weekly zombie show on tv with tons of gore and that I wouldn't like it I would have called you a liar and then probably asked how you knew of the future......probably consult you about your time machine or maybe ask you some lotto numbers....but you get my point.

Hah. It told so in the previous thread what bullshit all this stuff about Darabont not being able to handle the work load was. As if he's some noob straight out of film school.

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Originally Posted by stelios 

Hah. It told so in the previous thread what bullshit all this stuff about Darabont not being able to handle the work load was. As if he's some noob straight out of film school.

Yeah; if I remember right, "The Mist" had a very quick and lean filming schedule, and Darabont worked with the filming crew of "The Shield" in that one, so the whole "not being able to handle it" smelled like BS to me from the begining.

AMC doing this to a show they actually own sounds incredibly stupid if you ask me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agent Z 

I will counter that by saying it's on a case-by-case basis, and I have seen television (especially in recent years) even surpass the current offerings at the local multiplex.

That may be but even the very best of television will never match the very best of cinema. It'll always been film's little brother.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Prankster 

Weird. AMC are clearly acting like dicks. How does a network so obviously run by bean counters produce such great TV?

 

And yeah, sad to say, but I'm not convinced Darabont was a huge asset to the show, but the general penny-pinching attitude isn't reassuring. Especially the "we decided to keep the tax credit for ourselves and not put that money into the show" bit, and the "ratings have no bearing on this conversation" exchange. W.T.F.

The article says they were separated from their sister corporations and are coming under the scrutiny of Wall street, so this is not surprising at all.  When ever Wall street gets involved, the only important thing becomes the bottom line, and cutting costs is usually the first thing that happens.