Warner Bros. Television emergency room The revival lookalike has sparked a lawsuit from the estate of Michael Crichton, who owns the rights to the medical drama created by the prolific techno-thriller writer who spawned several Hollywood hits.
Crichton's estate, in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Warners and a trio emergency room alumni plans to repackage the series for a reboot The Pitt after they failed to secure the rights due to a dispute over a credit acknowledging the writer as the show's creator. It alleges a “pattern of conduct” by the studio designed to circumvent Crichton's rights to the franchises he spawned, including Western World.
Earlier this year, Max issued a 15-episode, straight-to-series order for The Pittstarring Noah Wyle and hails from emergency room duo John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill, all of whom are named in the complaint. It described the series as “a realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in America today, as seen through the lens of frontline heroes working in a modern Pittsburgh hospital.”
Gemmill, who executive produced more than half of emergency room's 330 episodes over its 15 seasons, he served as showrunner on the series, which hails from John Wells Productions and Warner Bros. TV. The now scrapped emergency room restart and The Pitt they share the same executive producers, the same star, the same writer, the same production companies, the same studio, and the same network.
According to the lawsuit, Sherri Crichton, the writer's widow, received an offer letter from WBTV in 2022 to revive the series. She claims the studio refused to negotiate an “created by” credit for Crichton and was told it “just wouldn't materialize.”
Crichton had obtained a so-called “frozen rights” clause, which prohibits any derivative production from emergency room without his consent, the lawsuit alleges. The estate enforced those rights, leading to an agreement by Wells to include a credit acknowledging Crichton as the series’ creator. That was backed by a $5 million personal guarantee from him and his production company in the event the show didn’t move forward.
But when WBTV returned to negotiations, it reneged on the deal and insisted on a deal with less favorable financial terms for the estate, the lawsuit says.
“WBTV’s work on the ER reboot should have concluded,” the complaint reads.
Instead, The Pitt the creators pushed the project forward, the lawsuit alleges. And in a move to undermine Crichton's rights, they moved the setting from an urban hospital in Chicago to one in Pittsburgh, according to the complaint.
Crichton's estate has filed several claims against Warners, which did not respond to a request for comment, stemming from the alleged breach of contract. It seeks a court order blocking the writer's rights violations at emergency room.
Additionally, the estate takes issue with WBTV's refusal to give Crichton a “created by” credit on the HBO series. Western Worldwhich originated from the 1973 film of the same name that he created, wrote and directed. He was instead given a “based on” credit that appears in the show's closing credits. In that film, Crichton, who also wrote The Andromeda Strain AND Jurassic Parkdid not have the same legal protections that he later obtained in relation to emergency room.
In a 2023 email to Wyle, Sherri Crichton described her dealings with Warner as “appalling and disrespectful.” She claimed in another message to Wells that the studio “downplays[d] and delete[d]”her late husband's contributions to a number of other successful projects.”
Wyle, Wells and Gemmill began to explore a emergency room reboot that would have picked up where the series left off in 2020. Initial plans called for it to depict the collapse of the urban hospital health system due to COVID-19, drug abuse and chronic homelessness, with Wyle reprising his role as the now-seasoned doctor. NBCUniversal expressed interest in 2022, leading WBTV to make a formal offer on “terms advantageous to HBO Max” without Crichton’s estate being informed of the deal, according to the complaint.
Over the course of its 331 episodes, emergency room was nominated for 124 Emmys and won 23. After premiering in September 1994, it was quickly moved to the coveted Thursday night slot, where it remained for 15 years, which belonged to Los Angeles Law at the moment.