A decision on Warner Bros. Discovery’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit from the Michael Crichton estate from the Michael Crichton estate and his widow Sherri Crichton over its new medical drama “The Pitt” has been delayed by a judge.
In a Thursday court hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge Wendy Chang issued a “soft tentative” denying WBD’s anti-SLAPP motion. The ruling means that the judge will need to see more evidence before making a final determination about the case. However, the judge offered no specifics as to when a final ruling would come.
“This is an important decision for Michael Crichton and the entire creative community,” a spokesperson for Sherri Crichton told TheWrap. “We are encouraged by the Court’s soft tentative and look forward to the final ruling.”
A WBTV spokesperson said that they “continue to believe in the strength of our position” and declined to comment further.
The suit, which accuses WBD of breach of contract, alleges that after a lengthy, years-long negotiation to make a reboot of “ER” that ultimately fell through, WBTV, John Wells, Noah Wyle and R. Scott Gemmill took the concept and reworked it to become “The Pitt.” The medical drama follows frontline heroes working in a Pittsburgh hospital. The suit says there are only three major differences between the series that was in negotiation and “The Pitt”: the location of the hospital, Wyle’s character name and the estate’s involvement.
WBD has said that “The Pitt” is not a derivative work of “ER” and a “completely different show.” It argues that the plaintiff cannot use Crichton’s “ER” contract as “a speech-stifling weapon to prevent defendants from ever making a show about emergency medicine.”
Michael Crichton created and executive produced the original “ER,” which ran for 15 seasons from 1994 to 2009. The author and screenwriter died on Nov. 4, 2008 at age 66.
According to WBD’s motion filed in November, which was partially redacted to avoid revealing plot and character details about “The Pitt,” Gemmill supposedly approached Wells with the original concept for the project in late 2021. Then, after being discussed further in 2022 with Crichton’s representatives, they demanded “many millions of dollars — well above industry standard rates, and more than WBTV was willing or able to pay for a series in its first year.”
“WBTV made substantial monetary offers, but Ms. Crichton stuck to her exorbitant demands. She made many other unreasonable demands too, including that her Season 1 fees be guaranteed regardless of whether the series was
produced,” the filing noted. “The parties were unable to reach any agreement despite the very generous terms offered to Ms. Crichton. WBTV decided to walk away from an ‘ER’-based series.”
Gemmill proceeded to create a new series that has “no connection” to “ER” and does not use its intellectual property, characters, plot, setting or narrative, they added.
Sherri Crichton had called the motion “meritless” and a “transparent attempt to dodge discovery and prevent the true facts from coming out.” She added that filing it on the anniversary of her husband’s death was “emblematic of the studio’s callousness and utter disregard for Crichton’s legacy.”
“Warner Bros. negotiated with the estate for nearly a year, knowing it could not proceed with its ‘ER’ reboot without the estate’s permission. When those discussions failed, Warner Bros. slapped a new name on the series, changed its location and proceeded anyway in clear violation of Crichton’s contract,” the statement at the time continued. “The defendants’ last-minute attempt to rebrand their ‘ER’ reboot as ‘The Pitt’ is not fooling anyone. The estate looks forward to presenting its case to a jury and is confident it will prevail.”
“The Pitt” premiered on Jan. 9, with new episodes dropping weekly through April 10. In addition to Wyle, the series stars Tracy Ifeachor, Patrick Marron Ball, Supriya Ganesh, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Isa Briones, Gerran Howell, Shabana Azeez, and Katherine LaNasa.
