Author Michael Crichton’s estate calls The Pitt an unauthorised ER remake in lawsuit

LOS ANGELES – The estate of late American author Michael Crichton filed a suit against Warner Bros Television on Aug 27, claiming that its upcoming Max series, The Pitt, is an unauthorised reboot of TV series ER (1994 to 2009) that fails to credit him and compensate his heirs.

The suit accused Warner Bros and American TV producer R. Scott Gemmill, showrunner of The Pitt, of breaching a contract that requires Crichton’s consent for any remakes of the hit hospital drama.

The estate also sued Mr John Wells, an executive producer, and American actor Noah Wyle, who is set to star and serve as an executive producer.

“The lawsuit filed by the Crichton Estate is baseless,” Warner Bros Television said in an e-mail statement, calling The Pitt a “new and original show”. It added it would “vigorously defend against these meritless claims”.

Crichton, a doctor by training, died at age 66 in 2008 after a decades-long career as a best-selling author of thrillers, including The Andromeda Strain (1969), Jurassic Park (1990) and Disclosure (1994), which were turned into films.

ER, a hit show about an emergency room in Chicago, was adapted from a script that Crichton wrote in 1974. He was credited as a creator of the series, which was produced in association with Warner Bros.

The show ran on NBC from 1994 to 2009 – becoming one of the longest-running prime-time dramas – and won 23 Emmy awards.

Months before it debuted, Crichton and Warner Bros signed an agreement prohibiting the studio from making any sequels, remakes, spin-offs or other productions derived from ER without his consent, the lawsuit said.

The complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claims that in 2020, Warner Bros, Mr Gemmill, Mr Wells and Wyle began developing a reboot of the show without informing Mrs Sherri Crichton, the author’s widow and the guardian of his estate. Mr Gemmill and Mr Wells were executive producers on ER, and Wyle was a star of that show.

When they told her about the project nearly two years into development, Crichton’s estate was prepared to approve a reboot based on the condition that he would be credited as a creator, in addition to a set of financial terms. But Warner Bros later walked back on many of its promises, the lawsuit said.

After negotiating for nearly a year, the parties did not reach an agreement, according to the suit. But Warner Bros “simply moved the show from Chicago to Pittsburgh, rebranded it The Pitt and has ploughed ahead without any attribution or compensation for Crichton and his heirs”, the complaint said.

In both ER and The Pitt, Wyle’s character is a doctor, the story takes place in the emergency room of a large city hospital, each episode begins early in the morning and ends in a day, and the characters include interns, members of the staff being treated by fellow doctors, and patients who are regulars in the emergency room, the lawsuit said.

Crichton’s estate said in the complaint that it was seeking to restrain Warner Bros from proceeding with the show without its permission, and get compensation and punitive damages.

Max, the streaming service run by Warner Bros, announced in March that The Pitt would be a 15-episode show about front-line medical workers in Pittsburgh, and would be produced by some of the people who originally collaborated on ER. The release date has not been announced.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Mrs Crichton said the estate tried to negotiate for terms that would honour Crichton’s legacy and contractual rights.

“Changing the show’s name does not change the fact that The Pitt – which has exactly the same premise, structure, themes, pace, producers and star – is ER through and through,” the statement reads. NYTIMES