Warner Bros. Television’s ER revival look-alike has sparked a lawsuit from the estate of Michael Crichton, holder of the rights to the medical drama created by the prolific writer of technological thrillers who spawned various Hollywood blockbusters.
Crichton’s estate, in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, accused Warners and a trio ER alums of repackaging plans for a series reboot as The Pitt after they couldn’t secure the rights due to a dispute over a credit acknowledging the writer as the creator of the show. It alleges a “pattern of conduct” by the studio designed to circumvent Crichton’s rights to franchises he spawned, including Westworld.
Earlier this year, Max issued a 15-episode, straight-to-series order for The Pitt, which stars Noah Wyle and comes from ER duo John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill — all of whom are named in the complaint. It described the series as a “a realistic examination of the challenges facing health care workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the front-line heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh.”
Gemmill, who executive produced more than half of ER’s 330 episodes across its 15 seasons, served as showrunner on the series, which hails from John Wells Productions and Warner Bros. TV. The now-scrapped ER reboot and The Pitt share the same executive producers, star, writer, production companies, studio and network.
According to the complaint, Sherri Crichton, the writer’s widow, received an offer letter from WBTV in 2022 for resumption of the series. She says that the studio refused to negotiate on a “created by” credit for Crichton and was told that it was “simply not going to materialize.”
Crichton had secured a so-called “frozen rights” provision, which bars any productions derived from ER without his consent, the lawsuit alleges. The estate enforced those rights, leading to an agreement from Wells to include a credit that acknowledges Crichton as the creator of the series. This was backed by a $5 million personal guarantee from him and his production company in the event the show didn’t move forward.
But when WBTV stepped back into negotiations, it reneged on the agreement and pressed for a deal with less favorable financial terms for the estate, the lawsuit says.
WBTV’s “work on an ER reboot should have ended,” the complaint states.
Instead, The Pitt creators forged ahead with the project, the lawsuit alleges. And in a maneuver meant to undermine Crichton’s rights, they moved the setting from an urban hospital to Chicago to one in Pittsburgh, according to the complaint.
Crichton’s estate brings several claims against Warners, which didn’t respond to a request for comment, stemming from the alleged breach of contract. It seeks a court order blocking violations of the writer’s rights to ER.
Additionally, the estate takes issue with WBTV refusing to give Crichton a “created by” credit on HBO’s Westworld, which was born from the 1973 film of the same name that he created, wrote and directed. He was instead given a “based on” credit that appears in the show’s end credits. On that movie, Crichton, who also wrote The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, didn’t have the same legal protections that he later secured in connection with ER.
In a 2023 email to Wyle, Sherri Crichton described her dealings with Warners as “appalling and disrespectful.” She said, in another message to Wells, that the studio “minimize[d] and eliminate[d]” her late husband’s “contributions to a host of other successful projects.”
Wyle, Wells and Gemmill began exploring an ER reboot that would pick up where the series left off in 2020. Early plans had it depicting the collapse of the urban hospital health care system due to COVID-19, drug abuse and chronic homelessness, with Wyle reprising his role as a now-seasoned physician. NBCUniversal expressed interest in 2022, leading to WBTV making a formal offer on “sweetheart terms for HBO Max” without Crichton’s estate being informed of the deal, according to the complaint.
Across its 331-episode run, ER was nominated for 124 Emmys and won 23. After premiering in September 1994, it was quickly moved to the coveted Thursday night time slot, where it remained for 15 years, that belonged to LA Law at the time.