In his deposition, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Darabont talks about the early days of the show, saying that despite the massive ratings success of Walking Dead, AMC created budget problems for the series. (Read the court documents here.)
Darabont says, "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."
According to Darabont, AMC cut the budget "from 3.4 to 3," referring to the millions it takes to produce episodes of Walking Dead.
"That was bad enough, but then they dropped the bomb on us that, oh by the way, they're keeping the tax credit," he testified. "They're going to pocket the tax credit. So, between the two you've got a full 25% cut across the board."
Darabont said this hurt the cast and crew, who he described as "busting their butts, leaving it all on the field, to earn."
