Warren Beatty Sued Over ‘Dick Tracy’

Academy award winning actor and director Warren Beatty is being sued over his 1990 feature film version of the classic comic strip, ‘Dick Tracy’.   Tribune Media Services,  a unit of bankrupt newspaper publisher Tribune Co., filed in Delaware on Thursday claiming Beatty  “wrongly claims” to have exclusive motion picture and television rights to the well-known police detective character.

According to court papers, Beatty bought the motion picture and television rights for Dick Tracy in 1985 and went on to act and direct the 1990 film by the same name.

Tribune Co, however, said Beatty had “made no productive use” of the rights for over a decade, causing them to revert back to Tribune. The company said the economic benefits of the property was worth potentially millions to the company and its creditors.

  In November, Beatty filed a suit against Tribune Media Services in California, claiming he had begun work on a Dick Tracy television special, which should preserve his rights to the character.

Tribune, in its suit, said that the TV special being produced solely for the purpose of preserving Beatty’s rights would not benefit either party, and that it does not believe Beatty has begun shooting the special in the manner that would be required under their agreement.

All of the lawsuit nonsense aside, do we really need Beatty stepping in for another ‘Dick Tracy’ project, even if it’s a television special? Â  Personally, I’m shocked a sequel was never put into the works. Â  The first film made $162 million worldwide off a $47 million production cost. Â  Of course, I’m sure we’re all mere months away from someone claiming they are going to “reboot” the ‘Dick Tracy’ film franchise. Â  We’ll keep you posted.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter