Beatty Hangs Onto His Dick Tracy giving Tribune a hard time over character rights... November 9th 2009 01:05pm | Posted by: Michael Stevens, HNR Senior Editor After 19 years of inactivity following his directing/starring turn in the 1990 feature Dick Tracy, actor Warren 'Clyde Barrow' Beatty has been allowed to sue a unit of bankrupt Tribune Co, to prevent Tribune from taking back film/TV rights to creator Chester Gould's newspaper comic strip character. Beatty has held rights to the property since 1985, with Disney's Dick Tracy feature earning more than $160 million at the worldwide box office. According to court papers, rights would revert to Tribune if "a certain period of time" lapsed without Beatty having produced another Dick Tracy movie, TV series or TV special. Tribune sent Beatty a letter November 17, 2006, allowing him two years to begin production on new Dick Tracy programing. "Tribune asserts it still had the right to terminate Beatty's 'Tracy' Rights and effect a reversion, and purported to do so," the lawsuit said, with Beatty seeking a declaration that his work on a developing Dick Tracy TV special precludes Tribune from taking back rights to the property. Gould's "Dick Tracy" Chicago Tribune newspaper strip, debuted October 4, 1931, reflecting the violence of gangster Al Capone's 1930's underworld, while staying current with crime fighting techniques, forensic science and advanced gadgetry. The infamous "Dick Tracy" rogues gallery of villains included 'Flattop', 'Bigboy', 'Pruneface', 'Itchy' and 'The Mole'. In January 1946, Gould introduced Tracy's '2-Way Wrist Radio', worn as a watch, then upgraded to a '2-Way Wrist TV' in 1964. The character had a long run on radio, 1934-1948, including the 1945 special, Dick Tracy In B Flat, starring Bing Crosby as Tracy, Dinah Shore as 'Tess Trueheart' and Bob Hope as 'Flattop'. Tracy made his live-action debut in Dick Tracy (1937), a Republic Pictures serial starring Ralph Byrd. A second serial, Dick Tracy Returns, was released in 1938. Dick Tracy's G-Men was released in 1939 and Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc. was released in 1941, featuring Tracy as an FBI agent, based in California. RKO Radio Pictures followed with the features, Dick Tracy, Detective (1945) and Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946) starring Morgan Conway. Actor Ralph Byrd returned for Dick Tracy's Dilemma and 1947's Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome co-starring Boris "Frankenstein" Karloff. Other villains in the RKO film series included Mike Mazurki as 'Splitface', Dick Wessel as 'Cueball', Esther Howard as 'Filthy Flora' and Jack Lambert as 'The Claw'. The first animated Tracy TV series, UPA's The Dick Tracy Show aired from 1960 to 1961, starring Everett Sloane as Tracy and Mel Blanc as 'Go-Go Gomez', 'Joe Jitsu', 'Hemlock Holmes' and 'Heap O'Calorie'. A second Filmation cartoon series was produced in 1971, with short episodes inserted into Archie's TV Funnies. In 1967, producer William "Batman" Dozier, developed a live-action TV pilot starring Ray MacDonnell. In 1990, Beatty starred in and directed Dick Tracy, with Al Pacino in a memorable performance as 'Big Boy', Dustin Hoffman as 'Mumbles' and Madonna as 'Breathless Mahoney'. The film won an Academy Award for Best Song, with Madonna's soundtrack album "I'm Breathless: Music from and Inspired by Dick Tracy" spawning the top-ten hits, "Vogue" and "Hanky Panky". Sneak Peek Vogue... Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek Dick Tracy... Source: SneakPeek.Ca In: Features |Visit the HNR Forums

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