8 Ridiculous Behind-The-Scenes Struggles Over Movie Rights

1. Warren Beatty Wins Legal Battle Over Dick Tracy Rights by Wearing a Yellow Hat

I'm probably in the minority, but I really like Warren Beatty's 1990 movie Dick Tracy, an adaptation of the popular police detective comic strip. Beatty directed and starred in the film alongside big names like Al Pacino, Madonna, Dick Van Dyke, and Dustin Hoffman, and it was released by Disney with the intention of it being the company's big blockbuster of summer 1990. Disney were expecting Dick Tracy to do comparable business to the previous year's blockbuster Batman or Disney's own 1988 blockbuster Who Framed Roger Rabbit and launch a Dick Tracy franchise. The resulting underwhelming grosses killed that dream pretty quickly for Disney and everyone else. That is, except for Beatty, who still insists that he's making a sequel even though he's done hardly anything to move forward with it for almost a quarter century. Since 2002, Tribune Media Services €“ the media company that owns and still publishes the Dick Tracy comic strip in newspapers €“ has attempted to get the film rights back from Beatty since he obviously hasn't used them. Though Beatty has not appeared in a film since 2001's Town & Country (which actually began filming in 1998), he has been adamant about still wanting to make a sequel to Dick Tracy. Numerous lawsuits were filed on both sides over the film rights, even after Tribune went into bankruptcy. However, in March 2011 a judge ruled in Beatty's favor by saying that Beatty's recent Dick Tracy television special was proof that Beatty was using the rights. Wait, what Dick Tracy television special? Surely if Warren Beatty made a Dick Tracy TV special, you might've heard about it, right? Well, in late 2008 Beatty actually filmed what can only be considered one of the most hastily produced TV specials ever created. The half hour program mostly consists of famed film critic Leonard Maltin doing a Q&A with Beatty, except that Beatty is answering questions in-character as Dick Tracy, complete with a yellow fedora on his head. Even the title, which is simply Dick Tracy Special, is awkward. It was quickly forgotten by everyone (the few that knew about it, that is), and it was not even included on the original film's 2012 Blu-ray release. After sitting on the film rights for almost twenty years, why did Beatty bother making such a bad special? To keep the film rights, of course. Whether the special was terrible or not has no bearing on the judge's ruling of whether or not Beatty was "actively" using them, so by all accounts Beatty demonstrated that he is still using them by making a Dick Tracy "television special." Regardless, in the years since there has still been no further information on a Dick Tracy sequel except for Beatty's insistence that he will one day make one. Underhanded? Absolutely. But as this list has probably demonstrated to you, Hollywood is willing to pull off some pretty sneaky tricks in order to keep its grimy paws on those valuable film rights. Like this list? Any to add? Let us know in the comments section below.