Warren Beatty OK'd to sue Tribune over Dick Tracy

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – Academy-award winning actor Warren Beatty can go ahead with a California lawsuit against a unit of bankrupt Tribune Co over rights to comic strip detective Dick Tracy, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

According to court papers, Beatty bought the motion picture and television rights for Dick Tracy in 1985. He went on to star in and direct the 1990 film by the same name that won three Academy awards and also starred Dustin Hoffman, Madonna and Al Pacino.

Tribune has said an agreement that granted rights to Beatty had lapsed because the actor-director had not started work on a new project based on the character.

Beatty contends that he was producing a television special last year about Dick Tracy when a Tribune subsidiary notified him the Dick Tracy rights had lapsed.

Beatty filed a lawsuit a year ago in California state court stemming from that dispute, although it was automatically put on hold by the bankruptcy of Tribune, which owns newspapers and television stations.

Tribune also filed an adversary complaint asking Delaware's bankruptcy court for a summary judgment declaring Dick Tracy the company's property.

The bankruptcy judge, Kevin Carey, seemed to split the difference between the two sides. He ruled that the California case could proceed but at the same time did not dismiss action by Tribune in bankruptcy court.

"Arguably, granting the stay motion to permit this dispute to move forward in the 2008 California action may very well leave nothing to do in the adversary proceeding," Carey wrote in his decision.

A source close to the dispute said the two sides will be discussing ways to resolve the matter by moving forward in California.

A Tribune spokesman decline to comment, as did an attorney for Beatty.

The case is In re Tribune Co, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware No. 08-13141. The adversary proceeding is Tribune Media Services Inc v Warren Beatty, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware No. 09-50486.

The California case is Warren Beatty v. Tribune Media Services Inc et al, No. 08-07662.

(Additional reporting by Emily Chasan, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)