| Dick Tracy | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Warren Beatty |
| Written by | Jim Cash Jack Epps Jr. |
| Based on | Characters byChester Gould |
| Produced by | Warren Beatty |
| Starring | Warren Beatty |
| Cinematography | Vittorio Storaro |
| Edited by | Richard Marks |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 105 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $46 million[2] |
| Box office | $162.7 million[3] |
Dick Tracy is a 1990 Americancrimeaction film directed and produced byWarren Beatty, based on the1930s comic stripof the same name byChester Gould. The film stars Beatty in the title role, alongsideAl Pacino,Madonna,Glenne Headly, andCharlie Korsmo, with supporting performances fromDustin Hoffman,James Keane,Charles Durning,William Forsythe,Seymour Cassel,Paul Sorvino,Mandy Patinkin,Catherine O'Hara,Ed O'Ross,James Caan,James Tolkan,Michael J. Pollard,Henry Silva,R.G. Armstrong,Estelle Parsons, andDick Van Dyke. The narrative follows detective Dick Tracy as he navigates romantic tensions with bothBreathless Mahoney andTess Trueheart, confronts the rise of crime bossAlphonse "Big Boy" Caprice, and begins fostering a young streetwise boy known only as Kid.
The film was released theatrically in the United States on June 15, 1990, following its premiere at theUptown Theater inWashington, D.C., on June 10. It received generally favorable to mixed reviews from critics, who praised its stylized production design, makeup effects, musical score, and several performances—particularly those of Pacino and Madonna—while expressing criticism of the screenplay and character development. The film emerged as a commercial success, grossing over $162 million worldwide against a production budget of $47 million.
At the63rd Academy Awards,Dick Tracy received seven nominations, includingBest Supporting Actor (for Pacino), and won in three categories:Best Original Song,Best Makeup, andBest Art Direction.[4] The film has since attracted acult following and is widely recognized for its boldvisual style, which emulates the comic strip’s color palette and aesthetic.
In 1938, a youngstreet urchin witnesses amass execution of mobsters carried out by Flattop and Itchy, henchmen working for crime boss Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice. The killers leave a bullet-riddled message for police detective Dick Tracy. Later, Tracy apprehends the boy for petty theft and rescues him from an abusive vagrant. With support from his girlfriend, Tess Trueheart, Tracy temporarily takes the boy into his care.[5][6]
Caprice eliminates rival gangster Lips Manlis by forcing him to sign over ownership of Club Ritz before murdering him with acement overcoat. He then claims Manlis's girlfriend, nightclub singer Breathless Mahoney. Although Tracy arrests Caprice and interrogates his men—Flattop, Itchy, and Mumbles—the charges are dropped due to lack of evidence. District Attorney John Fletcher warns Tracy that his methods may cost him his job.
Breathless, the sole witness to Lips's murder, refuses to testify and instead attempts to seduce Tracy. At Club Ritz, Caprice outlines a plan to unify the city’s organized crime under his leadership. When mob boss Spud Spaldoni objects, he is killed in acar bombing. Tracy survives the attempt on his life and later refuses a bribe from Caprice and his associates, who trap him in a boiler room with the intent to kill him. The boy intervenes and rescues Tracy, earning honorary status as a junior detective.
As the investigation progresses, it is revealed that Fletcher is secretly allied with Caprice. Breathless again visits Tracy and tries to seduce him, which Tess inadvertently witnesses. Meanwhile, a faceless figure known only as "the Blank" manipulates events by using pianist 88 Keys to offer Caprice a deal to eliminate Tracy in exchange for a share of profits.
Tracy conducts a diversionary raid on Club Ritz, allowing Officer "Bug" Bailey to infiltrate the club with acovert listening device. The recordings help police dismantle much of Caprice’s criminal empire. Caprice eventually discovers the wiretap and sets a trap for Tracy, but the detective is saved by the Blank. Following another failed attempt to seduce Tracy, Breathless offers to testify in exchange for his affection, but he remains loyal to Tess. Shortly afterward, Tess reconciles with Tracy but is abducted by the Blank, who frames Tracy for murder with the help of 88 Keys.
Tracy is jailed, and Caprice launches a renewed wave of criminal activity. The boy, now going by "Dick Tracy, Jr.," reunites with Tracy, who is released by his colleagues. After interrogating Mumbles, the police learn that Tess is being held at Club Ritz. In the ensuing raid, Caprice’s gang is wiped out, but he escapes with Tess to a drawbridge. As he ties her to the machinery, the Blank arrives and proposes an alliance with Tracy to eliminate Caprice and divide the city. Distracted by Junior, the Blank is shot by Caprice, who is then pushed over a railing by Tracy and falls into the gears of the drawbridge to his death. The Blank is revealed to be Breathless Mahoney, who kisses Tracy before succumbing to her wounds.
In the aftermath, Tracy prepares to propose to Tess but is called away on police business. Leaving her with the engagement ring, he departs with Junior to respond to the call.
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Main characters
Law enforcement
The mob
Others
Estelle Parsons portrays Tess Trueheart's mother. Tony Epper plays Steve "The Tramp".Hamilton Camp appears as a store owner, andBing Russell plays a Club Ritz patron.Robert Costanzo has a cameo as Lips Manlis's bodyguard, andMarshall Bell briefly appears as a goon of Big Boy Caprice who poses as an arresting officer to ensnare Lips.Allen Garfield,John Schuck andCharles Fleischer make cameos as reporters.Walker Edmiston,John Moschitta Jr. andNeil Ross provide the voices of each radio announcer.Colm Meaney appears as a police officer at Tess Trueheart's home.Mike Mazurki (who played Splitface in the originalDick Tracy film) appears in a small cameo, as Old Man at Hotel. Ninety-three-year-old veteran character actorIan Wolfe plays his last film role as "Munger".
Beatty had a concept for aDick Tracy film in 1975. At the time, thefilm rights were owned byMichael Laughlin, who gave up his option fromTribune Media Services after he was unsuccessful inpitchingDick Tracy to Hollywood studios.Floyd Mutrux andArt Linson purchased the film rights from the Tribune in 1977,[7] and, in 1980,United Artists became interested in financing and distributingDick Tracy.Tom Mankiewicz was under negotiations to write the script, based on his previous success withSuperman andSuperman II. The deal fell through whenChester Gould, creator of theDick Tracy comic strip, insisted on strict financial andartistic control.[8]
That same year, Mutrux and Linson eventually took the property toParamount Pictures, which began developing screenplays, offeredSteven Spielberg the director's position, and brought inUniversal Pictures to co-finance. Universal putJohn Landis forward as a candidate for director, courtedClint Eastwood for the title role, and commissionedJim Cash andJack Epps Jr. to write the screenplay. "Before we were brought on, there were several failed scripts at Universal," reflected Epps, "then it went dormant, but John Landis was interested inDick Tracy, and he brought us in to write it."[9] Cash and Epps' simple orders from Landis were to write the script in a 1930spulp magazine atmosphere, and center it withAlphonse "Big Boy" Caprice as the primary villain. For research, Epps read everyDick Tracy comic strip from 1930 to 1957. The writers wrote two drafts for Landis;Max Allan Collins, then-writer of theDick Tracy comic strip, remembers reading one of them. "It was terrible. The only positive thing about it was a thirties setting and lots of great villains, but the story was paper-thin and it was uncomfortablycampy."[9]
In addition to Beatty and Eastwood, other actors considered for the lead role includedHarrison Ford,Richard Gere,Tom Selleck andMel Gibson.[10] Landis leftDick Tracy following the controversial on-setaccident onTwilight Zone: The Movie, in which three actors were killed.[9]Walter Hill came on board to direct, withJoel Silver as producer. Cash and Epps wrote another draft, and Hill approached Warren Beatty for the title role.Pre-production had progressed as far as set building, but the film was stalled when artistic control issues arose with Beatty, a fan of theDick Tracy comic strip.[11] Hill wanted to make the film violent and realistic, while Beatty envisioned a stylizedhomage to the 1930s comic strip.[7] The actor also reportedly wanted $5 million, plus fifteen percent of thebox-office gross, a deal that Universal refused to accept.[11]
Hill and Beatty left the film, which Paramount began developing as a lower-budget project, withRichard Benjamin directing. Cash and Epps continued to rewrite the script, but Universal was unsatisfied. The film rights eventually reverted toTribune Media Services in 1985. However, Beatty decided to option theDick Tracy rights for $3 million,[12] along with the Cash/Epps script. WhenJeffrey Katzenberg andMichael Eisner moved from Paramount to theWalt Disney Studios,Dick Tracy resurfaced, with Beatty as director, producer andleading man.[11] Katzenberg considered hiringMartin Scorsese to direct the film,[13] but changed his mind. "It never occurred to me to direct the movie," Beatty admitted, "but finally, like most of the movies that I direct, when the time comes to do it, I just do it because it's easier than going through what I'd have to go through to get somebody else to do it."[11]
Beatty's reputation for directorial profligacy, notably with the critically acclaimedReds, did not sit well with Disney.[11] As a result, Beatty and Disney reached a contracted agreement, whereby anybudget overruns onDick Tracy would be deducted from Beatty's fee as producer, director and star.[14] Beatty and regular collaboratorBo Goldman significantly rewrote the dialogue, but lost aWriters Guild arbitration and did not receive screen credit.[7]
DisneygreenlitDick Tracy in 1988 under the condition that Beatty keep the production budget within $25 million.[7] Beatty's fee was $7 million, against 15% of the gross (once the distributor's gross reached $50 million).[12] Costs began to rise when filming started, and quickly jumped to $30 million.[15] Its total negative cost ended up being $46.5 million ($35.6 million of direct expenditure, $5.3 million in studio overhead and $5.6 million in interest).[12] Disney spent an additional $48.1 million on advertising and publicity, and $5.8 million on prints, resulting in a total of $101 million spent overall.[12] The financing forDick Tracy came from Disney andSilver Screen Partners IV, as well as Beatty's ownproduction company, Mulholland Productions. Disney was initially going to release the film under the traditionalWalt Disney Pictures banner,[16] but instead chose to release and market the film under the adult-orientedTouchstone Pictures label leading up to the film's theatrical debut, because the studio felt it had too many mature themes for a Disney-branded film.[17]
AlthoughAl Pacino was Beatty's first choice for the role of Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice,Robert De Niro was under consideration.[18]Michelle Pfeiffer,Kathleen Turner andKim Basinger were too expensive to cast as Breathless Mahoney.Sharon Stone auditioned for the role, but she was turned down.[19][20]Madonna pursued the part of Breathless Mahoney, offering to work for scale.[21] Her resulting paycheck for the film was just $35,000.[7]Sean Young claims she was forced out of the role of Tess Trueheart (which eventually went toGlenne Headly) after rebuffing sexual advances from Beatty. In a 1989 statement, Beatty said, "I made a mistake casting Sean Young in the part and I felt very badly about it."[22]Mike Mazurki, who had appeared in the earlierDick Tracy film, had acameo appearance. Beatty approachedGene Hackman to do a cameo in the film, but he declined.[23]
Principal photography forDick Tracy began February 2, 1989.[24] The filmmakers considered shooting the film on location in Chicago, butproduction designerRichard Sylbert believedDick Tracy would work better usingsound stages andbacklots[25] atUniversal Studios inUniversal City, California.[24] Other filming took place atWarner Bros. Studios inBurbank.[26] In total, 53 interior and 25 exterior sets were constructed. Beatty, being a perfectionist, often filmed dozens of takes of every scene.[24]
As filming continued, Disney and Max Allan Collins conflicted over thenovelization. The studio rejected hismanuscript: "I wound up doing an eleventh hour rewrite that was more faithful to the screenplay, even while I made it much more consistent with the strip," Collins continued, "and fixed as manyplot holes as I could."[24] Disney did not like this version either, but accepted based on Beatty's insistence to incorporate some of Collins's writing into theshooting script, which solved the plot hole concerns. Through post-productiondubbing, some of Collins's dialogue was also incorporated into the film. Principal photography forDick Tracy ended in May 1989.[24] The film's production also marks the last known use of thesodium vapor process (occasionally referred to as yellowscreen).[27]
Early in the development ofDick Tracy, Beatty decided to make the film using a palette limited to just seven colors—primarily red, green, blue and yellow—to evoke the film's comic strip origins. Furthermore, each of the colors was to be exactly the same shade. Beatty's design team included production designer Richard Sylbert, set decoratorRick Simpson, cinematographerVittorio Storaro (with whom Beatty had worked on his previous film,Ishtar, as producer and lead actor),visual effects supervisorsMichael Lloyd andHarrison Ellenshaw, prosthetic makeup designersJohn Caglione Jr. andDoug Drexler, and costume designerMilena Canonero. Their main intention was to stay close toChester Gould's original drawings from the 1930s. Other influences came from theArt Deco movement andGerman Expressionism.[28]
For Storaro, the limited color palette was the most challenging aspect of production. "These are not the kind of colors the audience is used to seeing," he noted. "These are much more dramatic in strength, in saturation. Comic strip art is usually done with very simple and primitive ideas and emotions," Storaro theorized. "One of the elements is that the story is usually told invignette, so what we tried to do is never move the camera at all.Never. Try to make everything work into the frame."[10] For thematte paintings, Ellenshaw and Lloyd executed over 57 paintings on glass, which were thenoptically combined with the live action. For a brief sequence in which The Kid dashes in front of a speeding locomotive, only 150 feet (46 m) of real track was laid; the train was a two-foot (60 cm)scale model, and the surrounding trainyard a matte painting.[25] The film was one of the last major American studioblockbusters to have nocomputer-generated imagery.[29]
Caglione and Drexler were recommended for theprosthetic makeup designs by Canonero, with whom they had worked onThe Cotton Club. Therogues gallery makeup designs were taken directly from Gould's drawings,[30] with the exception ofAl Pacino (Big Boy Caprice), who improvised his own design, ignoring the rather overweight character of the strip.[25] His makeup took 3½ hours to apply.[31]
"Directors don't know anything about music really, and if they do, it's not necessarily a help. Warren Beatty is a pianist and knows much more about music than almost any director, but when he and I started onDick Tracy, communicating on a musical level was getting us nowhere because it is all so interpretive. We started having much more success when we started talking on a strictly gut level."
Beatty hiredDanny Elfman to compose thefilm score based on his previous success withBatman. Elfman enlisted the help ofOingo Boingo bandmateSteve Bartek andShirley Walker to arrange compositions for the orchestra. "In a completely different way," Elfman commented, "Dick Tracy has this unique quality thatBatman had for me. It gives an incredible sense of non-reality."[33] In addition, Beatty hired acclaimed songwriterStephen Sondheim to write five original songs: "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)", "More", "Live Alone and Like It", "Back in Business" and "What Can You Lose?". "Sooner or Later" and "More" were performed by Madonna, with "What Can You Lose?" being a duet with Mandy Patinkin.Mel Tormé sang "Live Alone and Like It", and "Back in Business" was performed by Janis Siegel, Cheryl Bentyne and Lorraine Feather. "Back in Business" and "Live Alone and Like It" were both used as background music during montage sequences.[34] "Sooner or Later" and "Back in Business" were featured in the original 1992 production of the Sondheim revue,Putting It Together, inOxford, England, and four of the five Sondheim songs fromDick Tracy (the exception being "What Can You Lose?") were used in the 1999Broadway production ofPutting It Together. A short opera sequence in the film was composed byThomas Pasatieri.[35]
Dick Tracy is the first film to usedigital audio.[36] In a December 1990 interview withThe New York Times, Elfman criticized the growing tendency to use digital technology forsound design anddubbing purposes. "I detest contemporary scoring and dubbing in cinema. Film music as an art took a deep plunge when Dolby stereo hit. Stereo has the capacity to make orchestral music sound big and beautiful and more expansive, but it also can make sound effects sound four times as big. That began the era of sound effects over music."[32]
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Disney modeled its marketing campaign after the 1989 success ofBatman, which was based onhigh-concept promotion. This included aMcDonald's promotional tie-in, and a Warren Beatty interview conducted byBarbara Walters on20/20. "I find the media's obsession with promotion and demographics upsetting," Beatty said. "I find all this anti-cultural."Buena Vista Television aired a half-hour syndicated special beginning June 13, 1990, titledDick Tracy: Behind the Badge...Behind the Scenes, with details about the making of the film.[37][38]
In attempting to increase awareness forDick Tracy, Disney added a newRoger Rabbit cartoon short ("Roller Coaster Rabbit"), and made two specifictelevision advertisements centered on The Kid (Charlie Korsmo). In total, Disney commissioned 28 TV advertisements.[7]Playmates Toys manufactured a line of 14Dick Tracy figures.[39]
It was Madonna's idea to include the film as part of herBlond Ambition World Tour.[7] Prior to the June 1990 theatrical release, Disney had already featuredDick Tracy inmusical theatre stage shows in bothDisneyland and theWalt Disney World Resort, usingStephen Sondheim andDanny Elfman's music.The New York Times wrote in June 1990 ofDisney Stores "selling nothing butTracy-related merchandise".[40]
Max Allan Collins lobbied to write the film's novelization long before Disney had even greenlightedDick Tracy in 1988. "I hated the idea that anyone else would write aTracy novel," Collins explained. After much conflict with Disney,[10] leading to seven different printings of the novelization,[34] the book was released in May 1990, published byBantam Books.[41] It sold almost one million copies prior to the film's release.[34] Agraphic novel adaptation of the film was also released, written and illustrated byKyle Baker.[36]
Reruns ofThe Dick Tracy Show began airing to coincide with the release of the film, but stations in Los Angeles and New York pulled and edited the episodes when Asian and Hispanic groups protested the characters Joe Jitsu and Go Go Gomez as offensivestereotypes.[42][43] Atheme park ride forDisneyland,Disney-MGM Studios andEuro Disney Resort calledDick Tracy's Crime Stoppers was planned but ultimately never built.[44] Another tie-in for the movie was an ingenious plan in which 1,500 movie theaters were shipped t-shirts with the film's title art on them, which fans could buy for $12 to $20 and wear to the movie, in lieu of buying tickets at the box office.[45] According toJornal do Brasil, more than 100 companies sold merchandise related to the film, withMacy's reporting 1.5 million t-shirts sold,[46] and according toNew York magazine, it was perhaps McDonald's largest promotion up to that point, backed by $40 million in cash and prizes.[47]
Dick Tracy had a benefit premiere at a small 300-seat theater inWoodstock, Illinois (the hometown of Tracy creator Chester Gould), June 13, 1990,[48] while the production premiere occurred the next day at theWalt Disney World Village'sPleasure Island inLake Buena Vista, Florida.[7][49] The film was released in the United States in 2,332 theaters June 15, 1990, earning $22.54 million in its opening weekend,[3] including an estimated $1.5 million of t-shirt sales.[50] This was the third-highest opening weekend of 1990,[51] and Disney's biggest ever.[50] The film would hold the record for having the largest opening weekend for a live-action Disney film for six years until 1996 whenThe Rock surpassed it.[52]Dick Tracy eventually grossed $103.74 million in the United States and Canada, and $59 million elsewhere, coming to a worldwide total of $162.74 million.[3]Dick Tracy was also the ninth-highest-grossing film in America in 1990,[51] and number twelve in worldwide totals.[53]
Although Disney was impressed by the opening weekend gross,[34] studio management was expecting the film's total earnings to matchBatman.[34] Prior to its overseas release (and other revenue streams), the film was estimated to have generated a $57 million deficit for Disney.[12] Studio chairmanJeffrey Katzenberg expressed disappointment in a studio memo that noted thatDick Tracy had cost about $100 million total to produce, market and promote. "We made demands on our time, talent and treasury that, upon reflection, may not have been worth it," Katzenberg reported.[54]
When released, it was preceded by theRoger Rabbit shortRoller Coaster Rabbit.
On the review aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 63%, based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "Dick Tracy is stylish, unique, and an undeniable technical triumph, but it ultimately struggles to rise above its two-dimensional artificiality."[55] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[56] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F.[57]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four in his review, arguing that Warren Beatty succeeded in creating the perfect tone ofnostalgia for the film. Ebert praised mostly thematte paintings,art direction andprosthetic makeup design. "Dick Tracy is one of the most original and visionary fantasies I've seen on a screen," he wrote.[58]
Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times wrote, "Dick Tracy has just about everything required of an extravaganza: a smashing cast, some great Stephen Sondheim songs, all of the technical wizardry that money can buy, and a screenplay that observes the fine line separating true comedy from lessercamp."[59]
Owen Gleiberman ofEntertainment Weekly gave a mixed review, but was impressed by Madonna's performance. "Dick Tracy is an honest effort but finally a bit of a folly. It could have used a little less color and a little more flesh and blood," Gleiberman concluded.[60]
In his heavily negative review forThe Washington Post,Desson Thomson criticized Disney's hyped marketing campaign and the film in general. "Dick Tracy is Hollywood's annual celebration of everything that's wrong with Hollywood," he stated.[61]
Peter Travers ofRolling Stone wrote that Warren Beatty, at 52 years old, was too old for the part. He also found similarities withBatman, in that both films involve "a loner hero, a grotesque villain, a blond bombshell, a marketable pop soundtrack and a no-mercy merchandising campaign", Travers continued. "ButBatman possesses something else: a psychological depth that gives the audience a stake in the characters.Tracy sticks to its eye-poppingly brilliant surface. Though the film is a visual knockout, it's emotionally impoverished."[62]
AlthoughMax Allan Collins (then aDick Tracy comic-strip writer) had conflicts with Disney concerning thenovelization, he gave the finished film a positive review. He praised Beatty for hiring an elaborate design team, and his decision to mimic the strip's limited color palette. Collins also enjoyed Beatty's performance, the prosthetic makeup, and characterization of therogues gallery, as well as the Stephen Sondheim music. However, he believed the filmmakers still sacrificed the storyline in favor of the visual design.[36]
The film was nominated for sevenAcademy Awards (winning three). The film is currently tied withBlack Panther for having the most wins for a comic book or comic strip movie.
The film is recognized byAmerican Film Institute in these lists:
Retrospective reviews called the film exceptionally unique. Writers forVox[79] andThe Atlantic[80] asserted that it was one of the most unique movies ever. Multiple authors contrast it with newercomic book movies.[81] One article calls it a "road not taken" in comic book adaptations. The author praisedPopeye,Dick Tracy andHulk for their use of comic techniques, such as "masking,paneling, andpage layout" in ways theDC Extended Universe andMarvel Cinematic Universe do not.[82]
The film was released onVHS December 18, 1990. It was first released onDVD inEurope in 2000, but domestic release in the U.S. was delayed until April 2, 2002, and without any special features. Shortly after the U.S. DVD release, rumors circulated on the Internet that Warren Beatty had planned to release a director's cut under Disney's "Vista Series" label; including at least ten extra minutes of footage.[83] As of 1992,Dick Tracy sold 1 million copies in the U.S., according toThe Hollywood Reporter.[84]
TheBlu-ray was released in the U.S. and Canada December 11, 2012. This release lacked special features, save for a digital copy.[85]
Disney had hopedDick Tracy would launch a successful franchise, like theIndiana Jones series, but Disney halted plans.[2] In addition, executive producersArt Linson andFloyd Mutrux sued Beatty shortly after the release of the film, alleging they were owed profit participation from the film.[36]
Beatty purchased theDick Tracy film and television rights in 1985 fromTribune Media Services.[86] He took the property toWalt Disney Studios, which optioned the rights in 1988. According to Beatty, Tribune attempted to reclaim the rights in 2002, and notified Disney—but not through the process outlined in the 1985 agreement.[87][better source needed] Beatty, who commented he had "a very good idea"[88] for a sequel, believed Tribune violated various notification procedures that "clouded the title"[88] to the rights, and made it "commercially impossible" for him to produce a sequel.[88] He approached Tribune in 2004 to settle the situation, but the company said it had met the conditions to get back the rights.[86]
Disney, which had no intention of producing a sequel, rejected Tribune's claim, and gave back to Beatty most of the rights in May 2005.[89] That same month, Beatty filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking $30 million in damages against Tribune and a declaration over the rights.Bertram Fields, Beatty's lawyer, said the original 1985 agreement with Tribune was negotiated specifically to allow Beatty a chance to make anotherDick Tracy film. "It was very carefully done, and they just ignored it", he stated. "Tribune is a big, powerful company, and they think they can just run roughshod over people. They picked the wrong guy."[88]
Tribune believed the situation would be settled quickly,[90] and was confident enough to begin developing aDick Tracy live-action television series withLorenzo di Bonaventura,Robert Newmyer and Outlaw Productions. The TV show was to have a contemporary setting, comparable toSmallville, and Di Bonaventura commented that if the TV show was successful, a feature film would likely follow.[86] However, an August 2005 ruling by federal judgeDean D. Pregerson cleared the way for Beatty to sue Tribune.[89] The April 2006hearing ended without a ruling,[91] but in July 2006, a Los Angeles judge ruled that the case could go to trial; Tribune's request to end the suit in their favor was rejected.[92] The legal battle between Beatty and Tribune continued.[93] By March 2009, Tribune was inChapter 11 bankruptcy, and lawyers for the company began to declare their ownership of television and film rights toDick Tracy. "Mr. Beatty's conduct and wrongful claims have effectively locked away certain motion picture and television rights to theDick Tracy property", lawyers for Tribune wrote in a filing.[93] Fields responded that it was "a nuisance lawsuit by a bankrupt company, and they should be ashamed of themselves."[93]
In 2010,Turner Classic Movies broadcast theDick Tracy Special. Shot in late 2008, Beatty enlisted cinematographerEmmanuel Lubezki and film criticLeonard Maltin to make the 30-minute television special, which featured Beatty as Tracy in a retrospective interview with Maltin.[94][95][96] Maltin explicitly asked the fictional Tracy if Warren Beatty planned to make a sequel to the 1990 film, and he responded that he had heard about that, but Maltin needed to ask Beatty himself.[95]
On March 25, 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Dean D. Pregerson granted Beatty's request for a summary judgment, and ruled in the actor's favor. Judge Pregerson wrote in his order that "Beatty's commencement of principal photography of his television special on November 8, 2008 was sufficient for him to retain the Dick Tracy rights."[97] Beatty's lawyer said the court found that Beatty had done everything contractually required of him to keep the rights to the character.[98]
In June 2011, Beatty confirmed his intention to make a sequel toDick Tracy, but he refused to discuss details. He said, "I'm gonna make another one [but] I think it's dumb talking about movies before you make them. I just don't do it. It gives you the perfect excuse to avoid making them." When asked when the sequel would get made, he replied, "I take so long to get around to making a movie that I don't know when it starts."[83]
In April 2016, Beatty again mentioned the possibility of producing a sequel when he attendedCinemaCon.[99]
In February 2023, Turner Classic Movies airedDick Tracy Special: Tracy Zooms In, a 30-minute television special similar to the 2010Dick Tracy Special. The special consists mostly of aZoom interview, featuring Beatty appearing as both Tracy and himself, oppositeBen Mankiewicz and a returning Leonard Maltin. In it, Tracy criticizes aspects of the 1990 film adaptation to Beatty's face, and suggests that a younger actor should take over the role of Tracy. It concludes with Beatty and Tracy meeting in person, and suggesting thatDick Tracy will return in the future.[96][100]
Although there have not been any sequels in either television nor motion picture form, there have been sequels in novel form. Shortly after the release of the 1990 film, Max Allan Collins wroteDick Tracy Goes to War. The story is set after the commencement ofWorld War II, and involves Dick Tracy's enlistment in theU.S. Navy, working for theirMilitary Intelligence Division (as he did in the comic strip). In the story,Nazi saboteurs Black Pearl and Mrs. Pruneface (Pruneface's widow) set up a sabotage/espionage operation out of Caprice's old headquarters in Club Ritz. For their activities, they recruit B.B. Eyes, The Mole and Shaky. Their reign of terror, culminating in an attempt to bomb a weapons plant, is averted by Tracy. A year afterWar was released, Collins wrote a third novel, titledDick Tracy Meets His Match, in which Tracy finally follows through on his marriage proposal to Tess Trueheart.[citation needed]
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