This news sounds as fresh as "Prince sues Michael Keaton over 'Batman'." Reuters reports:
Who's suing who over what, you ask? Beatty sued Tribune media in 2008, because they'd taken back the Dick Tracy character rights. Under the original 1985 agreement, Tribune got the rights if he wasn't doing anything Tracywise for "a certain period of time." Now the amusing part:
Does anyone in the world believe this? Well, the judge, I guess, but c'mon: it's hard to believe Beatty was working feverishly to assemble all the details for that long-awaited Dick Tracy TV special. "Begin production" in Hollywood probably means "write the words 'Dick Tracy' on a sheet of paper, underline if several times, write 'step one: get some actors,' have lunch."
If you're wondering if this is just fighting over scraps: the comic strip is still around, and a new team is coming on board to replace Dick Locher, whose stewardship of the strip was not universally beloved. Then again, I don't think he ever sent Dick Tracy to the moon. Now if Beatty had done that for a follow-up, complete with weird-eye white-haired moongirls with electric antennae, he might have had a hit on his hands.
