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\n\tNoah Wyle\u2019s wildly popular hospital drama The Pitt<\/em> is \u201cnot derivative\u201d of his former show ER<\/em>, so a judge\u2019s ruling last February that allowed a breach of contract lawsuit to proceed against Warner Bros. TV, Wyle, and his co-producers sets a \u201cterrible precedent\u201d and should be overturned, a new appeal brief argues.<\/p>\n \n\tWyle and his co-defendants filed their lengthy brief in California\u2019s Second Appellate District minutes before the 11:59 p.m. deadline Monday. Over 71 pages, they double down on their position that The Pitt<\/em> is an \u201coriginal and innovative\u201d drama that\u2019s \u201cintentionally different\u201d from ER<\/em> in all the ways involving protectable intellectual property. They allege Sherri Crichton, the widow of ER<\/em> creator Michael Crichton, has no viable evidence supporting her claims that their HBO Max show violates a 1994 contract between Crichton and WBTV. So, they claim, the lower court judge \u201cerred\u201d in rejecting their prior dismissal motion, known as an anti-SLAPP. For her part, Crichton claims the 1994 contract states that any sequels, remakes, spin-offs, or other \u201cderivative works\u201d linked back to ER<\/em> would require \u201cmutual agreement\u201d from all parties, including Crichton\u2019s estate, before reaching viewers.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cPlaintiff\u2019s attempt to use a narrow contract term to seize control over any emergency medical drama defendants might work on is an outright assault on free expression, and a terrible precedent for California\u2019s film and television industry,\u201d the new appeal brief obtained by Rolling Stone<\/em> reads. \u201cIf this suit is not dismissed pursuant to defendants\u2019 anti-SLAPP motion, The Pitt\u2019s<\/em> creative team will be forced to do their work under the threat of liability and with the constant distraction and expense of litigation and discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn her lawsuit filed Aug. 28, 2024, Crichton accused WBTV of breaching the 1994 contract. She further accused Wyle and his production team of contract interference. The defendants fought back, saying that when they tried but couldn\u2019t reach an agreement with Crichton on terms for a proposed spin-off, they decided to cut ties and create something entirely new. With their anti-SLAPP motion, they asked the court to reject the lawsuit at its earliest stage on the basis that it was targeting their right to free speech with frivolous claims. When the judge sided with Crichton, saying the lawsuit had shown enough \u201cminimal merit\u201d to at least proceed to discovery, the defendants launched their appeal, placing the underlying case on pause.<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tThe new Monday filing gives the first detailed glimpse at the defendants\u2019 appeal arguments. They say if Crichton has her way, \u201cthe highly resonant, award-winning, cultural phenomenon that is The Pitt <\/em>would not exist.\u201d They claim the widow \u201cdemanded many millions of dollars in connection with the new ER <\/em>series \u2013 well above industry standard rates, and more than WBTV was willing or able to pay for a series in its first year,\u201d so they were \u201cunable to reach an agreement.\u201d Once negotiations failed, according to the filing, showrunner R. Scott Gemmill, who previously worked on ER<\/em>, wrote a new script that \u201cdid not use or have any connection to ER <\/em>intellectual property.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe filing notes that The Pitt<\/em> takes place in the emergency department of a hospital in Pittsburgh, while ER<\/em> was set in Chicago. The Pitt<\/em> also is based on a completely new cast of characters, and each of its one-hour episodes corresponds with a single hour of a 15-hour emergency department shift, \u201ca concept never before used in a medical drama,\u201d the appeal states. While ER<\/em> was more \u201csoapy,\u201d with storylines following characters outside the hospital, The Pitt<\/em> is \u201cmore focused on serious issues plaguing the modern medical field, and the characters almost never leave the emergency department,\u201d the filing argues. \u201cWhereas ER <\/em>was a music-driven show, The Pitt <\/em>has no music score,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe mere fact that some defendants thought about making a show that would have been based on ER <\/em>if it had been made does not prove that the different show they ultimately did make is also based on ER<\/em>,\u201d the filing argues. \u201cThe only evidence in the record was that defendants wrote The Pitt<\/em> to be intentionally different from ER<\/em>, and other medical dramas.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tAnd while it was true the defendants shared a script treatment for a possible ER <\/em>reboot that proposed episodes transpiring in real-time and plot lines addressing the aftermath of COVID, \u201cthese concepts did not come from ER<\/em> \u2013 they were new ideas proposed by defendant R. Scott Gemmill in a reboot treatment he created over a decade after ER <\/em>last aired,\u201d the appeal says. \u201cThere is no legal reason why he would not have been free to incorporate those same original ideas into a different project, The Pitt<\/em>, after the proposed reboot fell through. The right to prevent production of \u2018derivative works\u2019 of ER <\/em>does not give plaintiff ownership over Gemmill\u2019s own original ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe appeal calls the lawsuit \u201cbaseless\u201d and accuses Crichton of \u201cmisusing the judicial system to try to shut down important speech because [she] couldn\u2019t reach a deal she liked, even though The Pitt <\/em>does not use a single protected element from ER<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn asking the appeals court to overturn the trial court\u2019s ruling, lawyers for the defendants wrote that the prior judge failed to apply the \u201cwell-settled meaning\u201d of \u201cderivative works\u201d under copyright law. They say that legal definition protects elements such as a \u201csequence of events\u201d and \u201cthe relationships between the major characters,\u201d but it doesn\u2019t place entire genres or basic plot concepts off-limits to others.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis lawsuit is an effort to prohibit lifelong artists \u2013 the writers, producers, and actor named as defendants \u2013 from exhibiting a groundbreaking and Emmy-award-winning TV series that speaks directly about some of today\u2019s most pressing issues,\u201d the appeal submitted by Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., lead lawyer for WBTV, Wyle, and the other defendants states. \u201cThe trial court\u2019s order should be reversed.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRobert\u00a0N.\u00a0Klieger, the lawyer representing Sherri and Crichton\u2019s estate, offered a short comment Wednesday in response to the appeal filing. \u201cThere is nothing new from Warner Bros. in this filing.\u00a0Instead, it\u2019s just a rehash of arguments the trial court has already soundly rejected,\u201d he said in an email to Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\t\u201cSherri Crichton was thrilled that the original team behind ER<\/em> wanted to do a reboot and was shocked when Warner Bros. abruptly broke off negotiations and announced The Pitt<\/em> \u2013 a carbon copy of the ER<\/em> reboot that was pitched to her,\u201d a spokesperson for Crichton said in a statement last February. \u201cThe Crichton estate looks forward to presenting its case to a jury and is confident it will prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe estate will have an opportunity to oppose the new appellate brief before a possible hearing and decision from a panel of judges that could take many months. In the meantime, Season Two of The Pitt<\/em> is set to premiere in January 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Noah Wyle\u2019s wildly popular hospital drama The Pitt is \u201cnot derivative\u201d of his former show ER, so a judge\u2019s ruling last February that allowed a breach of contract lawsuit to proceed against Warner Bros. TV, Wyle, and his co-producers sets a \u201cterrible precedent\u201d and should be overturned, a new appeal brief argues. Wyle and his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[713,12308,245,18298],"class_list":{"0":"post-31402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-appeal","9":"tag-noah","10":"tag-pitt","11":"tag-wyle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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