THE WALKING DEAD Producer Denies Mass Firing

Last week Deadline reported that Frank Darabont had fired the entire writing staff of hit show The Walking Dead and planned to forgo a writing staff entirely for season two, hiring on freelancers when outside help was needed. Not so, says series producer Gale Anne Hurd in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

According to Hurd head writer Charles Eglee is departing of his own accord to pursue his own projects. And she also says that various other writers have projects that they are pitching which will take priority should they be picked up for pilot or series. But that's all standard behavior in the television world. Who wouldn't want to have their own show on the air rather than being a hired gun on someone else's? The idea that Darabont has fired the lot she flat out denies.

Deadline is normally pretty reliable but this also wouldn't be the first time that someone had planted a story there to try and make someone look bad. So judge for yourself. Did Deadline have it right, in which case Hurd is performing a spin job now? Or was the whole thing a widely spread mistake?