Deadline is reporting that the estate of author Michael Crichton, the late bestselling author and one of the co-creators of ER, is suing one of the show’s stars, Noah Wyle, along with producers of an upcoming Max medical series called The Pitt.
According to the suit obtained by the trade, Crichton’s widow, Sherri, claims after a yearlong negotiation to reboot ER, Warner Bros. Television, ER’s producer John Wells and other producers, including Wyle, walked away and “transplanted” the idea to a Pittsburgh-set medical series called The Pitt.
Warner Bros. Discovery-owned Max has already given the forthcoming series a 15-episode order.
The lawsuit states, “After negotiating unsuccessfully with Crichton’s estate for nearly a year for the right to reboot ER, Warner Bros. simply moved the show from Chicago to Pittsburgh, rebranded it The Pitt, and has plowed ahead without any attribution or compensation for Crichton and his heirs.”
It added, “The Pitt is ER. It’s not like ER, it’s not kind of ER, it’s not sort of ER. It is ER complete with the same executive producer, writer, star, production companies, studio and network as the planned ER reboot.”
The lawsuit charges the producers with “breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and intentional interference with contractual relations.”
Critchton’s camp seeks to “redress that grievous wrong and to ensure that studios are held accountable to the creators upon whose imaginations and ingenuity their successes depend.”
It also says Wells’ actions were “a personal betrayal of a 30-year friendship” with the late author, who died at 66 in 2008.
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