Mikail Turan happened to be in the right place at the right time on May 12 to snap a few photos of two cast members from “The Walking Dead” lending a hand after a traffic accident in Peachtree City. The photos were soon featured on the TMZ website.
Turan, who lives between Peachtree City and Fayetteville, on May 15 recounted how TMZ found him and paid for the photos.
Turan was on Ga. Highway 54 West in Peachtree City when he came upon a fender-bender and spotted Norman Reedus (aka Daryl Dixon) and Steven Yeun (aka Glenn Rhee) from “The Walking Dead” TV series at the scene of the collision of the two cars and attempting to help out.
Turan snapped four quick photos and sent them to a friend who posted them. The photos were then sent to another person who posted them on a local Facebook page, Turan said.
It was not long before TMZ and a CBS station were calling Turan’s friend about the photos. A short time later Turan was speaking with a TMZ representative, who offered $400 for the four photos after they had been viewed and determined to be worth purchasing.
Turan said he and TMZ dickered and then settled on a $450 price tag for the four and the parties signed a contract for that amount.
“I wanted to make sure having the pictures on their website wouldn’t hurt the actors,” Turan noted. “(TMZ) said it wouldn’t.”
After the sale, Turan said he contacted the local Facebook group and requested that they remove his photo from their page. The Citizen also removed the photo from its website.
Asked about his dealings with TMZ, Turan with a smile said, “I was excited (TMZ and the media) called. If I had known it would go viral I would have asked for more. When it went viral it put Peachtree City and Fayette County on the map.”
AMC’s hit TV show “The Walking Dead” began filming Season 7 earlier this month in nearby Senoia.
A current, and now famous, setting for the show is the “wall” that surrounds “Alexandria,” otherwise known as the Gin Property just south of downtown Senoia. “The Walking Dead” producers have an ongoing annual agreement with the Senoia City Council to have the wall stay in place into 2019.
