Warren Beatty retains rights to Dick Tracy

[terry78]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/warren-beatty-wins-dick-tracy-lawsuit/

He's been in a legal battle over it for years apparently, and he's the victor. So basically any new films, tv shows, games, etc. are his undertakings from here on out. A film could be in the works that he maybe directs or produces, but gets someone else for the Tracy role.

 

[Ponyboy]

Cool. I still like that original film of his from 1990.

 

[Jochimus]

His justification strikes me as a bit weird, but O.K., whatever.

If Beatty's gonna hang on to the Tracy rights, he needs to do something more with it. And obviously he's too old to be playing the character himself.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a Dick Tracy movie that has essentially the same style and flourish as Beatty's film, but more in the vein of those Tracy movies from the '40s that starred Morgan Conway (the first two) and Ralph Byrd (the second two), which were more-or-less straight crime dramas with a touch of the over-the-top (like Vitamin Flintheart) that couldn't afford a lot in the way of elaborate makeup for the the villains or production design and therefore had to be plot- and character-focused. To me those two latter areas are where Beatty's film comes up a little dry (I liked the novelization better and in as many times as I've seen the movie, I must have read that thing dozens of times more).

 

[Catman]

I never understood why Beatty insisted on holding on to the rights. He hasn't done anything with it. 1990 was 21 years ago. He has basically just been sitting on the rights this whole time. Atleast Tribune wanted to do something with it.

 

[The Guard]

Oops. I posted this in Misc Films.

Here's hoping Jon Hamm gets a shot at the role if there's a film.

 

[Ponyboy]

Maybe Beatty wanted to release some other version of the film and was never allowed to? So... just to be a prick he retained the rights..?