Mel Smith has alleged that the second season of the zombie apocalypse drama series was taken from his zombie comic series, “Dead Ahead.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7lDu9R84GY
“Fear The Walking Dead”, AMC’s famous zombie-apocalypse drama series, has become a target of copyright lawsuit regarding its Season 2 story arc.
The suit is filed by none other than Mel Smith, the writer of Dead Ahead comic series, who is adamant that the second season of AMC’s flagship show was a rip off of his comic series.
“Within the last three years, defendants, and each of them, infringed plaintiff’s copyright in DEAD AHEAD by, among other things, broadcasting or otherwise exploiting the second season of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD,” reads the complaint filed in California’s federal court.
The lawsuit further goes on to allege that “portions of that season’s 13 episodes were copied from plaintiff’s copyrighted literary work DEAD AHEAD.”
Apart from the cable network, TWD creator Robert Kirkman, executive producer David Alpert, and Valhalla Entertainment are all named as defendants in the copyright suit.
What separates Smith’s copyright suit from any rip-off claims is his argument that Alpert, who is the business partner of Robert Kirkman, used to be his “agent representative for the purposes of consulting with motion picture and television studios on the use or exploitation of DEAD AHEAD.”
“Defendant ALPERT violated and continues to violate his fiduciary obligation to plaintiff by engaging in a pattern and practice of self-dealing, placing his own interests ahead of the interests of his principal and client.”
However, while the current lawsuit is bound to attract headlines, it isn’t the first time that “Fear The Walking Dead” series has found itself in trouble with the law. Previously, ex-showrunner Darabount took AMC to court for profits of nearly $300 million.
