‘Walking Dead’ creator sues AMC over profits from zombie series

The creator of the “Walking Dead” television series accuses AMC of cheating him out of millions of dollars in profits from the zombie hit.

AMC, which produces the series, allegedly charged its own cable network an “artificially low” license fee to carry the show, according to a lawsuit filed by Frank Darabont Tuesday.

“The sole goal of this sham transaction is to enhance the profits of the parent company by minimizing the revenues that go into the ‘pool’ of funds for the show’s profit participants,” the complaint said.

Frank Darabont worked for years to develop the television series from Robert Kirkman’s comic book series, the lawsuit said. It became a “monumental hit” for AMC when it debuted in 2010, it said.

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln, center) tries to keep some sense of normalcy in a post-apocalyptic world overrun with walkers on AMC's "The Walking Dead," but characters come and go quickly on the gruesome show. *Spoiler alert!*

PHOTO: Frank Ockenfels/AMC

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Jessie (played by Alexandra Breckenridge) was starting to get close to Rick when all hell broke loose in the community of Alexandria. As Rick leads Jessie and her sons, camouflaged in zombie guts, through a throng of walkers, her son Sam freaks out. He blows their cover and draws the walkers' attention. They start feasting on Sam before moving on to Jessie as she cries out for her son. Michonne finishes off the family by killing Jessie's other son, Ron, as he takes aim with a gun at Rick and Carl.

PHOTO: Gene Page/AMC

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Fans were almost starting to warm up to Nicholas (Michael Traynor, left) by the time a gang of walkers devoured him in front of Glenn (Steven Yeun). Glenn managed to avoid the same fate by hiding under a garbage bin.

PHOTO: Gene Page/AMC

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Noah (Tyler James Williams) was introduced on the fifth season, but his stay on "The Walking Dead" wasn't long. As the season neared a close, walkers attacked and ate him alive in the most brutal death imaginable.

PHOTO: AMC

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman) met his maker after being attacked by a walker halfway through the fifth season, seeing visions of friends he lost while he died.

PHOTO: Gene Page/AMC

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

The Walking Dead's" fifth midseason finale was a heartbreaker. Emily Kinney's Beth got into an altercation with Dawn (Christine Woods) that led to her death.

PHOTO: From AMC

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Among the most shocking deaths in the fourth season was that of young Lizzie (Brighton Sharbino, left), who died at the hands of Carol (Melissa McBride, right) after killing her younger sister, Mika. Lizzie's sense of right and wrong and life and death had been warped by the zombie apocalypse. Just as she did earlier in the season, Carol had to make the decision that someone was too dangerous to live. Carol urged Lizzie to follow her therapy of "look at the flowers" before she shot her in the back of the head.

PHOTO: Gene Page/AMC

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) turned on his best friend, Rick Grimes, and lured him into the woods, apparently with plans to kill him and steal Rick's wife, Lori. Rick stabbed Shane, but he came back as a walker, and Rick's son, Carl, had to shoot Shane to put him down.

PHOTO: Courtesy amctv

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

T-Dog (IronE Singleton) was bitten helping Carol escape walkers at the prison.

PHOTO: Courtesy AMCTV

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Dale Horvath (Jeffrey DeMunn) was disemboweled by a walker.

PHOTO: Courtesy AMCTV

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Lori Grimes (Sarah Wayne Callies) died during childbirth. Her son, Carl, apparently shot her (heard but not seen on camera) to prevent her from becoming a walker.

PHOTO: Courtesy AMCTV

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Sophia Peletier (Madison Lintz) got lost in the woods. She later turned up as a walker locked in the barn on Hershel Greene's farm. Sheriff Rick Grimes shot her in the head to finish her off.

PHOTO: courtesy AMCTV

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Amy (Emma Bell) was bitten by a zombie. Her sister, Andrea, had to put her down after she revived as a walker.

PHOTO: Courtesy AMCTV

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker) was killed by the Governor, reanimated as a walker and put down by his brother, Daryl, who stabbed him multiple times.

PHOTO: Courtesy AMCTV

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

Andrea (Laurie Holden) was bitten by Milton, who became a walker after being stabbed by the Governor. She shot herself so she wouldn't become a zombie. This was heard off camera but not seen.

PHOTO: Courtesy AMCTV

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

In one of the show's most heartbreaking losses, Hershel Greene (Scott Wilson) was decapitated and killed by the Governor.

PHOTO: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

Photos: Key characters killed on 'Walking Dead'

After being stabbed by Michonne, the Governor (David Morrissey) was shot to death by Lilly.

PHOTO: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

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“Despite four seasons of unprecedented programming success and profitability for defendants, Darabont has not received and may never receive one dollar in profits for developing the series,” the suit said.

Darabont, who wrote, directed and produced the first season, was fired by AMC during the second season. The lawsuit contends he was replaced as the showrunner so that AMC could avoid negotiating a new deal with him.

AMC and its lawyers did not immediately respond to the court filing.

Darabont’s complaint points to the difference between the fee AMC charges its own company for each “Walking Dead” episode compared to the license fee paid to a third party for the AMC series “Mad Men” as evidence of the company’s “improper and abusive practice of ‘self-dealing.’”

The “Mad Men” production company gets $3 million per episode from AMC, while the fee is just $1.45 million per “Walking Dead” episode. The drama about a 1960s New York ad agency draws just 25% of the audience that the series about the survivors of a zombie apocalypse gets, the lawsuit said.

Darabont and CAA – the Hollywood talent agency that helped him pitch the show to AMC – have been deprived of “tens of millions of dollars of profits from the series,” the suit said. The contract provides that they get a total of 20% of the “Modified Adjusted Gross Receipts,” which is a pool of all the money brought in by the production with the production costs subtracted.

“License fees can be manipulated, however, when the entity producing the show and the entity broadcasting it are controlled by the same parent company, or where the network owns and/or controls the production company,” the complaint said.

After two years, the accounting claimed a $55 million deficit in the pool, the lawsuit said. AMC paid itself nearly $49 million in license fees, but production costs totaled $104.5 million, the suit said. The deficit grows with each season, it said.

CNN first learned of the story from Twitter.

CNN’s Henry Hanks contributed to this report.