Trib and Beatty Battle Over Dick Tracy

Actor Warren Beatty is is a pissing match with Tribune Media Services, a subsidiary of the Tribune Company, over usage rights for police detective Dick Tracy. He purchased the rights in 1985 to produce and star in the 1990 Oscar-winning Dick Tracy movie.

According to Beatty, as long as he’s working on producing work, it should preserve his rights to the character. Tribune is accusing Beatty of producing a special solely for the purpose of preserving the rights, and is suggesting to a Delaware bankruptcy judge that he hasn’t proved sufficiently that production is actually underway, and the rights divert back to Tribune.

The Tribune is saying the Dick Tracy property is potentially worth millions to the company and its creditors. [Crain’s, BBC]