LOS ANGELES — The estate of “ER” pilot writer Michael Crichton has sued Warner Bros. Television, claiming the upcoming medical drama is an unauthorized reboot and rebrand.
After the estate, led by Crichton’s widow, Shelley, was unable to reach an agreement with a television studio to produce a reboot of the famous medical drama, the lawsuit alleges that Warner Bros. went ahead with developing and producing a series based on the same premise without their consent.
What you need to know: Titled “The Pit,” the series is a medical drama set in Pittsburgh, as opposed to Chicago, where “ER” is set, and stars Noah Wyle.
Wiley is best known for playing John Carter on “ER” over 250 episodes.
“The lawsuit filed by the Crichton Estate is without merit because ‘The Pit’ is new original programming. Any suggestion otherwise is false, and Warner Bros. Television intends to vigorously defend against these baseless claims,” the studio said in a statement.
The estate, which filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, is asking a judge to issue an injunction preventing the studio from making the new series and is also seeking punitive and compensatory damages.
The new series, titled “The Pit,” is a medical drama set in Pittsburgh (as opposed to “ER”‘s Chicago) and stars Noah Wyle, best known for playing John Carter on “ER” for more than 250 episodes.
“The Pit” will also feature several former “ER” staffers working behind the scenes, including executive producer John Wells and showrunner R. Scott Gemmill. Weill, Wells and Gemmill are all named as defendants in the lawsuit.
“The lawsuit filed by the Crichton Estate is without merit because ‘The Pit’ is new original programming. Any suggestion otherwise is false, and Warner Bros. Television intends to vigorously defend against these baseless claims,” the studio said in a statement.
Crichton had enjoyed success with projects like “Jurassic Park” and “Westworld” before “ER” was developed, and secured a coveted “rights freeze” clause in the series’ contract that bars Warner Bros. from moving forward with sequels, remakes, spinoffs or other productions derived from “ER” without Crichton’s consent or the consent of his estate after his death from cancer in 2008.
“If Warner Bros. can do this to Michael Crichton, one of the industry’s most successful and prolific creators whose partnerships have generated billions of dollars for the studio, then no creator is safe,” a spokesman for Shelley Crichton said in a statement to The Associated Press. “While litigation is never the preferred recourse, the contract must be enforced and Michael Crichton’s legacy protected.”
The estate, which filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, is asking a judge to issue an injunction preventing the studio from making the new series, and is also seeking punitive and compensatory damages.
According to the lawsuit, Warner Bros. began developing a reboot of “ER” for HBO’s streaming service Max in 2020 without Shelley’s knowledge.
When Shelley Crichton was informed of the project’s development in 2022, she and the estate entered into negotiations with the studio, during which she says Crichton was promised a “creator” credit and a $5 million guarantee for the estate in case the credit wasn’t given. The condition was eventually rescinded and negotiations halted, but the lawsuit alleges this should have halted development of the series altogether.
Development continued, and “The Pitt” was announced in March; a release date has yet to be announced.
“Pitt is ER. Not like ER, not like ER, not similar to ER. A full-on ER with the same executive producers, writers, starring roles, production company, studio and network as the planned ER reboot,” lawyers for Crichton’s estate said in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also alleges that Warner Bros. previously downgraded his credit on the 2016 series based on Crichton’s film Westworld from “created by” to “based on” and attempted to “remove” him from works derived from his work, which it claims was the beginning of a “disturbing pattern.”