Dick Tracy in bankruptcy court

DOVER, Del. - Attorneys for the Tribune Co. have asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge to declare that the company owns the television and movie rights to comic book character Dick Tracy.

Tribune Media Services, a Tribune subsidiary, has been battling for years with actor Warren Beatty over rights to the cartoon icon, which Tribune says represent tens of millions of dollars in potential income to the bankruptcy estate.

"Mr. Beatty's conduct and wrongful claims have effectively locked away certain motion picture and television rights to the Dick Tracy Property from such productive and profitable uses, to the tremendous detriment of the debtor, its estate and its creditors," attorneys for Tribune wrote in a filing to the bankruptcy court.

Bertram Fields, an attorney representing Beatty in a federal lawsuit against Tribune in California, described the bankruptcy filing as "hogwash."

"It's a nuisance lawsuit by a bankrupt company and they should be ashamed of themselves," he said.

Tribune's filing related to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy automatically stayed the California lawsuit, which Beatty filed in November in response to Tribune's assertion that, because he had reneged on a 1985 agreement, the rights had reverted back to Tribune. Fields said he would seek a waiver of the stay so that the California action can proceed, but that he also was prepared to battle Tribune in bankruptcy court.

The agreement at the center of the dispute paved the way for the 1990 movie "Dick Tracy," in which Beatty starred. According to the agreement, Tribune could seek reversion of the rights granted to Beatty if, within five years of the movie's release, he had not begun principal photography on another feature film or television series or special. The agreement allowed Tribune to serve notice to Beatty after five years, giving him two more years to begin principal photography on another project. *