The co-creators and producers of Duck Dynasty have been in an ongoing legal battle. Keyword: battle.
Scott and Deidre Gurney, Gurney Productions (source: Hollywood Reporter) After ITV Studios’ sued the Duck Dynasty producers for fraud, it’s been an up-and-down story.
At first, it looked like the show’s producers, Scott and Deirdre Gurney, would be back on the job, then it looked like their company, Gurney Productions, would not be bought out by ITV Studios.
Everything seemed like good news… until now.
Just a week after the Gurneys were about to take back control of their own company, the courts pulled the rug out from beneath them.
A Los Angeles Superior Court shut down the couple’s chances of going fully back to work (right now, ITV is running Gurney Productions). Basically, the two parties have different interpretations of the contract.
Like mom always said, make sure you have a clear contract!
Okay, maybe not many moms said that, but you get the point.
ITV is accusing the Gurneys of fraud. Gurney is counter-suing for $100 million, saying ITV is just after their money. ITV has called these claims “baseless.” And they’re sticking to their guns.
“We have held from the very beginning that we are extremely confident of success in the merits of our case,” said an ITV spokesperson. “The amount of compelling evidence against the Gurneys continues to mount, beyond what was included in our initial filing, and we fully expect to win once the allegations of deceit, fraud and self-dealing by the Gurneys are exposed at a full trial.
“We are happy to be moving toward the discovery phase of the case.”
We’ll just have to continue watching this battle play out in the court. But now that Duck Dynasty is over, does it actually matter?
It could — whoever is in charge of the Duck Dynasty rights could have a say in reruns of the show … if any.
