Warren Beatty - Warren Beatty Wins Dick Tracy Court Case

Warren Beatty, the American actor and star of 'Bugsy', has prevailed in his court battle over the right to make movies and television shows using the name of the comic book crime fighter 'DICk Tracy', reports Reuters.U.S. District Court Judge Dean D. Pregerson ruled in Beatty's favour following a long-running dispute over the character that the actor portrayed in the 1990 movie 'DICk Tracy', which grossed more than $160 million worldwide. Beatty sued Tribune Media in 2008 claiming that they acted wrongly in trying to retrieve the character's rights, which they had already assigned to him. Under their 1985 agreement, the rights to the character would revert back to Tribune if "a certain period of time" lapsed without Beatty having produced another 'DICk Tracy' movie. The company sent Beatty a letter in 2006, giving him two years to begin work on a new movie or television show. The actor claimed that he had begun work on a TV special in 2008 but Tribune responded by asserting that it still had the power to terminate Beatty's rights.

The judge in the case ruled in Warren Beatty's favour, saying his, "commencement of principal photography of his television special on November 8, 2008 was sufficient for him to retain the DICk Tracy rights". The actor's last screen appearance was in the 2001 romantic-comedy 'Town and Country'.