Warren Beatty, who produced and starred in a big-budget feature film adaptation of the Chicago Tribune's Dick Tracy comic strip, won a legal victory today when a judge ruled that he still retained the movie/tv rights to the character.
Beatty, who acquired tv/movie rights from Tribune Media Services in 1985 and then produced the big-budget 1990 movie version,filed suit in Los Angeles federal court in 2008 after TMS claimed those rights had reverted back to them. TMS argued that Beatty was required to produce another Tracy television or movie project to retain the rights before a use-it-or-lose-it deadline TMS had established in 2006. Beatty countered that, after his request to extend the rights to 2013 was denied, he had begun work on a Dick Tracy special for Turner Classic Movies before the deadline. (The special, a retrospective about Dick Tracy's various media incarnations, hosted by Beatty and noted film historian Leonard Maltin, was produced and scheduled for broadcast on TCM in July 2009, but never aired.)
With public interest in movie and tv versions of famous comic characters at an all-time high, and the recent revitalization of the Dick Tracy comic strip, the Chicago Tribune, which has operated under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since December 2008, hoped to once more have unfettered rights to the detective, which it has said are "worth, potentially, millions" to the company and its creditors.
Since the strip's creation in 1931 by writer/artist Chester Gould, it has been adapted into a long-running dramatic radio series, four movie serials, four b-movies, a live-action tv series, and several animated tv series as well as Beatty's feature film. (There was also a live-action pilot in 1966 by the producers of the Batman and Green Hornet tv series that didn't sell.)
Hopefully, with this decision, Dick Tracy can join Wolverine, MIghty Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, Superman, and Batman on the big screen in the near future!
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