Latest in Ken Ziffren

The second day of Robert Kirkman's mini-trial over profits from The Walking Dead started with fireworks over who knew what and when – and not over the millions of dollars the creator of the long-running and highly successful zombie apocalypse series claims AMC swindled out of him and other executive producers. On a…

When the zombie apocalypse does come, downtown Los Angeles may or may not be an epicenter of societal breakdown. But it sure felt like it today as the first of several The Walking Dead profit-participation trials that kicked off in the City of Angels. "If AMC Networks paid 100% of the production of The Walking Dead…

EXCLUSIVE: Seems Hollywood's top legal mandarin has hit a raw nerve with the re-election seeking head of the WGA West and the latter wants the former to stay in his lane. "Ken Ziffren is an experienced lawyer, which means there are some things he should know and some things he fully understands that he can’t know,"…

"Seeing the handwriting on the wall, two days ago the WGA dismissed without prejudice its state court case against the four agencies and simultaneously filed a counterclaim to the suit that was brought against three of the agencies for antitrust violations on the part of the guild," Ken Ziffren said Wednesday as he…

EXCLUSIVE: Former Lionsgate co-COO and Motion Picture Group co-president Steve Beeks and former Fox Division president Mike Dunn have launched Elemental Content And Solutions, a new short form production and distribution company that will be a fulcrum for funding and creating live action and animated series, told in…

The Association of Film Commissioners International has picked Rajiv Dalal for the newly created role of President, it was announced today at the group's 41st Annual Cineposium here in L.A. The new direction at the top of the AFCI also saw ex-British Film Commission exec Jess Conoplia appointed to the also the newly…

The major Hollywood studios’ flirtation with Premium VOD and their talks with exhibitors has been akin to “tip-toeing up to the edge of the ocean water, and tip-toeing back” Los Angeles film czar Ken Ziffren said today at his ninth annual state of the entertainment industry address before the Beverly Hills Bar…

EXCLUSIVE: Six years ago, the TV Academy was brought to the brink as negotiations with the major broadcast networks for a new Primetime Emmys deal dragged on for more than eight months, only closing 4½ months before the 2011 telecast. The TV Academy traditionally starts conversations for a new network contract when…

"Eventually I would imagine, I'm speaking as an observer, the studios will need to find their own platforms and create our own direct-to-consumer opportunities," said 2oth Century Fox film boss Stacey Snider today at a UCLA confab about where the movie industry is headed. "It's a vital conversation to be having, and…

Changes in how movies get to movie fans won’t come anytime soon and not in one solid package, a trio of Hollywood insiders said today. "It's the innovator's dilemma," Benjamin Mogil, Stifel Nicolaus’ Managing Director Equity Research, Media and Entertainment, told LA Film Czar Ken Ziffren today during UCLA Law…

Like so many established members of the Los Angeles legal community, Hollywood heavyweights Patricia Glaser, Marty Singer and Ken Ziffren have their own connections to the infamous O.J. Simpson criminal trial. Perhaps most significantly among the power trio, Glaser was at one of the very first meetings Robert Shapiro…

EXCLUSIVE: If you’re talking Hollywood power lawyers, there are few mightier than Patricia Glaser, Martin Singer and Ken Ziffren. With a combined 130 years of Tinseltown practice between them, they have represented studios, networks, agencies, Oscar and Emmy winners, participated in game-changing cases (hello, Conan O…