[TV] Tony Moore Suing Robert Kirkman Over The Walking Dead Proceeds
Posted by Larry Csonka on 02.10.2012
Claims he was duped...
- Tony Moore, a childhood friend and collaborator of Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, is currently suing Kirkman because he feels that he is entitled to as much as half the proceeds from The Walking Dead franchise. Moore has been involved with the Walking Dead comic from the beginning, illustrating much of it during its early days. Moore filed suit Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, and claims that he was, "duped into assigning his interest in the material over to Kirkman, who has since gone on to fame and fortune." He also claims that he has received little compensation and has not been able to view profit statements from properties including The Walking Dead. Here is an except from the complaint…
"Each of these works was prepared by [Moore] and Kirkman with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or independent parts of a unitary whole. [Moore] and Kirkman were thus joint authors and co-owners of the copyrights in these works."
Moore claims that back in 2005, "Kirkman and his agents devised a scheme to fraudulently induce him to assign his copyright interests over to Kirkman's company." Moore also claims that he signed a deal which was supposed to grant him, "60 percent of "Comic Publishing Net Proceeds" in connection with Walking Dead and another project called Brit; 20 percent of "motion picture net proceeds" in connection withWalking Dead and Brit; and 50 percent of "motion picture net proceeds" from another project called Battle Pope."
According to Moore, Kirkman came to him in 2005 and said that a big deal was on the table for them, and stated, "that Kirkman would not be able to complete the deal unless [Moore] assigned all of his interest in the Walking Dead and other works to Kirkman." Since he feared the deal would fall apart, Moore says he signed the contract, which allowed Kirkman to swindle him out of his 50% interest in the copyright and never intending to pay him his share of royalties.
Kirkman's attorney Allen Grodzky, had the following to say on the situation…
"[The case is] totally frivolous. Mr. Moore is owed no money at all. And Mr. Moore's contract has an attorneys' fees clause in it so we will be going after him to collect attorneys' fees. We are taking this matter very seriously."
