In this age of languid cynicism and tired apathy, one man still has the blood of a revolutionary surging through his veins: Kurt Sutter, creator of Sons of Anarchy. Sutter, as he tends to do, recently spoke out on a matter regarding the biggest controversy of this, or perhaps any generation. Of course I mean AMC’s recent firing of Frank Darabont, former showrunner of The Walking Dead.
Speculations arose immediately about Darabont’s departure. Many of them targeted the man himself as the bad guy in the situation. Although no details have been confirmed, Sutter is quite confident about the reasoning behind AMC’s decision: Matthew Weiner, creator of Mad Men, was reportedly demanding so much money that the network was forced to cut costs drastically on shows like the masterpieces that are The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad. It’s suspected that Darabont considered a lot of AMC’s budget-reducing tactics (such as shooting the majority of the season indoors and decreasing the onscreen presence of zombies) to be out of the question.
Sutter states, “[Matthew Weiner] held AMC hostage, broke their bank, budgets were slashed, shit rolled down hill onto [Vince] Gilligan [creator and showrunner of Breaking Bad] and Frank [Darabont]. No one else wants to f**king say it, but the greed of Mad Men is killing the other two best shows on TV—Breaking Bad and Walking Dead. I don’t know [Weiner], got no beef with him. Just hate that Darabont is being demonized. No one has the b**ls to tell the truth. [Mad Men] gutted AMC.”
Source: A.V. Club
