Actor Beatty Wins Suit Against Tribune Over Rights to Dick Tracy Character
Actor Warren Beatty won a lawsuit to stop Tribune Co. from reclaiming the television and movie rights to comic-strip detective Dick Tracy.
U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson in Los Angeles ruled yesterday that a Beatty TV special, in which he was interviewed dressed as the Dick Tracy character, satisfied a clause in the agreement with Tribune to produce a Dick Tracy movie or TV show by a deadline or lose the rights to the character.
“The court found that Warren did everything that was required of him to retain the rights,” Beatty’s lawyer, Charles Shephard, said after Pregerson granted summary judgment in the actor’s favor.
Beatty sued Tribune for a second time in 2008, seeking a court order to prevent the company from taking back rights to the character. Beatty directed and starred in the 1990 movie “Dick Tracy.”
Beatty had claimed in his previous lawsuit that Tribune didn’t follow the contract’s provisions when it sought to reclaim the rights. That case was dismissed in November 2006, when Tribune withdrew notices to reclaim the rights.
At the same time, the company notified Beatty that it would renew the effort to take back the rights if he hadn’t begun filming a project within two years, the actor said in the 2008 complaint.
The actor said he started filming a Dick Tracy television special on Nov. 8, 2008, beating a Nov. 20 deadline. Tribune, based in Chicago, claimed the special wasn’t a stand-alone independent television program and didn’t meet the terms of the agreement.
“At the present time, we are reviewing the judge’s opinion and evaluating our options,” a Tribune spokesman, Gary Weitman, said in an e-mailed statement.
The case is Beatty v. Tribune Media Services Inc., 08-7662, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).
To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
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