Michael Crichton's Estate Sues Noah Wyle and ER Producers over New Series "The Pitt"

[JamesG]

Noah Wyle Says There was an Effort to Revive "ER" Before he & John Wells Moved Ahead with "The Pitt"
by Lynette Rice
June 26, 2024


We could have gone back to County General!

In an interview with Steve Kmetko on his Still Here Hollywood Podcast, Noah Wyle revealed there was talk in 2020 about reviving "ER", Warner Bros. hit medical drama that aired from 1994 to 2009 on NBC.




“That’s kind of the road we had started down,” Wyle told Kmetko. “I was getting all this mail from first responders and I had this desire to pivot the compliments to John Wells, so I emailed him and I said, ‘Hey, I’m getting all this lovely mail from people that are thanking us for keeping them entertained, or inspired them to go into the careers that they’re in in the first place, and I just have to say thank you.

Except for my children, [ER] is probably the best thing I’ve ever done with my life, and I just want to say thanks.’ Then I went on and I said, ‘I know you don’t want to reboot the show. I don’t either. I thought it was very smart not to franchise and dilute what we did… but if you’ve ever wanted to do something much smaller, and much more contained — more of a character piece catching up to an old character and just finding out how they feel about what’s happening right now in healthcare, and use them as a jeremiad opportunity to say what you want — I would vote for that. I’d be on board for that.’”

Wells and Wyle ended up recruiting a couple of old "ER" writers to bring the reboot to fruition but issues with the estate of creator Michael Crichton made it a non-starter, sadly.

https://deadline.com/2024/06/noah-wy...ax-1235983879/

[TMC]

Trust Me, The 2020s Reboot Of ER Was A Truly Terrible Idea

As much as I love ER, the concept of a modern-day 2020s revival was an awful idea that could have ruined the medical drama’s reputation forever.

[JamesG]

Michael Crichton Estate Sues WBTV, John Wells, Noah Wyle; Charges Breach of Contract Over Nixed "ER" Sequel as Concept Got Turned into "The Pitt"
by Mike Fleming Jr
August 27, 2024


The widow of Michael Crichton – creator of "ER" – filed a potentially explosive lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court this morning.

Led by Crichton’s widow Sherri Crichton on behalf of John Michael Crichton Trust’s Roadrunner JMTC, the suit names Warner Bros Television, John Wells, Noah Wyle, R. Scott Gemmill and others who are charged with breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and intentional interference with contractual relations.

Repping Crichton is Heston Hennigan LLP, which has demanded a jury trial. That firm repped Peter Jackson in the filmmaker’s suit against Warner Bros over profit participation, which was settled.




The lawsuit alleges that after walking away from a yearlong negotiation to make a new version of the billion-dollar hit series ER, WBTV, Wells, Wyle and Gemmill transplanted the concept to a hospital in urban Pittsburgh and called it The Pitt.

The show got a straight-to-series 15-episode order and will air on the Warner Bros Discovery streamer Max.




The suit charges that it was audacious and illegal for WBTV, Wells, Wyle and Gemmill to engage in a protracted negotiation with the estate on an ER sequel, only to set up a show shortly after talks broke down, with similar concept and the same creative participants.

There were three differences, basically: the location of the medical drama changed to Pittsburgh, Wyle’s character was no longer Dr. Carter, and the Crichton estate was excised from the mix.

“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,” per the suit.

https://deadline.com/2024/08/michael...le-1236051535/