LOS ANGELES — The estate of Michael Crichton, who wrote the screenplay for what would become the pilot episode of “ER,” has signed Warner Bros. Television sued over a dispute over an upcoming medical drama that it says is a rebranded version of an unauthorized reboot.
After Crichton’s estate, led by his widow Sherri, could not reach an agreement with the television studio to restart the famous medical procedure, the lawsuit alleges that Warner Bros. started developing and producing a series based on the same principle without permission. .
The upcoming series, titled “The Pitt,” will be a medical drama set in Pittsburgh, unlike the Chicago setting of “ER,” and will star Noah Wyle. Wyle is best known for playing John Carter on ‘ER’ in more than 250 episodes.
“The Pitt” will also feature several “ER” alumni behind the scenes, including John Wells as executive producer and R. Scott Gemmill as showrunner. Wyle, Wells and Gemmill are each named as defendants in the lawsuit.
“The lawsuit filed by the Crichton Estate is without merit as ‘The Pitt’ is a new and original show. Any suggestion otherwise is false, and Warner Bros. Television intends to vigorously defend itself against these meritless claims,” the studio said in a statement.
Due to Crichton’s success with projects like ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Westworld’ before developing ‘ER’, he secured a coveted ‘frozen rights’ provision in his contract for the series. The provision prohibits Warner Bros. to continue with sequels, remakes, spin-offs or other productions derived from “ER” without Crichton’s consent or the consent of his estate following his death from cancer in 2008.
“If Warner Bros. can do this to Michael Crichton, one of the most successful and prolific creators in the industry who made billions for the studio over the course of their partnership, no creator is safe,” a spokesperson for Sherri Crichton said in a statement to The Associated Press . “While litigation is never preferable, contracts must be enforced and Michael Crichton’s legacy must be protected.”
The estate, which filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, is asking the judge to issue an injunction that would force the studio to halt production of the new series, and they are also seeking punitive and compensatory damages.
According to the lawsuit, Warner Bros. began in 2020 without Sherri’s knowledge developing a reboot of “ER” for HBO’s streaming service Max.
In 2022, when Sherri Crichton was made aware of the development project, she and the estate entered into negotiations with the studio, during which she says she was promised that Crichton would receive a “created by” credit backed by a guarantee of $ 5 million for the studio. inheritance in the event that the credit was not provided. Ultimately, the term was withdrawn and negotiations halted, which should have halted all development of the series, according to the lawsuit.
Development continued and “The Pitt” was announced in March. A release date has not yet been announced.
‘The Pitt is First Aid. It’s not like ER, it’s not some kind of ER, it’s not some kind of ER. It is ER complete with the same executive producer, writer, star, production companies, studio and network as the planned ER reboot,” attorneys representing Crichton’s estate wrote in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also alleges that Warner Bros. had previously tried to “clear” Crichton of derivatives for his work by downgrading his credit in the 2016 series based on his film “Westworld” from “created by” to “based on,” which they say involves “a disturbing pattern’ has emerged.
