If emails were weapons, Frank Darabont’s would be a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.
A slew of incensed messages from the fired The Walking Dead executive producer has been released, as part of an ongoing legal stoush between him and the show’s network, AMC.
Darabont, who adapted the smash-hit series from its original graphic novel form, was relieved of his duties during the show’s second season partly due to what AMC claims were “his volatile and disturbing interactions with staff and talent”.
Some of the messages he shot through demonstrate the guy definitely had some strong opinions on the folks working around him. Describing the apparently sub-standard work being completed on a Season One episode, he wrote:
“I have never been a screamer, but I am now. The work being done on this episode has turned me into one. Congratulations, you all accomplished what I thought was impossible. You’ve turned me into a raging asshole. Thanks a lot, you fuckers.”
On a script for an episode he found deeply lacking:
“I haven’t even spoken to those worthless talentless hack sons-of-bitches since their 3rd draft was phoned in after five months of all their big talk and promises that they’d dig deep and have my back covered.“They didn’t have my back, they rammed knives into it.”
To a director he clearly wasn’t vibing with:
“YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE MOTHERFUCKING SCRIPT! I EVEN CHOOSE MY GODDAMN COMMAS FOR A REASON! WHY AM I WORKING SO FUCKING HARD IF YOU’RE SHOOTING EVERYTHING SOME OTHER WAY THAT DOESN’T WORK?”
Three days after that one, Darabont went on to describe the work being done by her as similar to that of a former colleague who suffered a stroke during production.
Regarding those emails, Darabont ain’t exactly apologetic. He says “each of these emails was sent because a ‘professional’ showed up whose laziness, indifference, or incompetence threatened to sink the ship of production…
“The language and hyperbole of my emails were harsh, but so were the circumstances. As for the enormous problems they describe, I stand by these emails to the last detail.”
Darabont claims that not only did he face a Season 2 budget 25% lower than the show’s debut outing, but that his share in profits from the show was minimised due to shady accounting practices – despite The Walking Dead being wildly profitable.
Watch this space for more on-set goss and tea-spilling emails from this legal free-for-all.
