Queer for Fear Producer Names Bryan Fuller, AMC and Shudder in Sexual Harassment Suit — Fuller’s Lawyer Promises Defamation Countersuit

Sam Wineman, a producer and director on Shudder’s fall 2022 Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror docuseries, has filed a lawsuit that names AMC Networks, Shudder, executive producer Bryan Fuller and others as defendants, and alleges, among other things, quid pro quo sexual harassment (by Fuller), intentional infliction of emotional distress, and the cultivation of a hostile work environment.

Fuller’s lawyer, in response, characterized Wineman’s complaint as a “fictitious story” and promised that a defamation lawsuit will be headed Wineman’s way.

The suit, as excerpted by our sister site Deadline (and found in full here), alleges that Fuller “cultivated and maintained a hostile work environment as a result of harassment, discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault and retaliation from the years 2020 to 2022.” It also alleges that Fuller “sexually assaulted” the plaintiff “several times.”

Wineman’s suit claims that after reporting Fuller’s alleged “unlawful behavior” to Shudder brass, he was fired, as retaliation, from the Queer for Fear production.

Deadline says that AMC is reviewing the complaint and thus far has no comment, whereas Fuller’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, told Deadline, “Sam Wineman will be sued for defamation based on what are 100 percent provably false statements.”

Freedman went on to claim, “There is documented evidence which completely disproves the allegations against Bryan Fuller. Wineman created this fictitious story long after his gross incompetence necessitated his removal in an effort to extort AMC, Shudder, Steakhaus and Bryan Fuller. He never raised any allegation of wrongdoing prior to his removal because he knew that this was absolute garbage. Sam Wineman just made the biggest mistake of his life and once the evidence comes out, he will forever be known as a pathological liar.”