Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy Particular Is the Weirdest Sequels Ever

On this period of comic-book films, reboots, and IP, a brand new Dick Tracy looks like a can’t-miss venture. The unique movie, directed by and starring Warren Beatty, grew to become a significant hit in 1990, grossing over $100 million within the U.S. alone. And but a sequel by no means materialized.

Properly, would you accept a 30-minute TV particular the place Warren Beatty talks to himself as Dick Tracy over a Zoom name?

That’s basically what aired tonight on TCM. In Dick Tracy Particular: Tracy Zooms In, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz invitations movie critic Leonard Maltin over to his workplace as he prepares for a Zoom name with the well-known caricature and film cop, Dick Tracy. Tracy (Beatty) calls Mankiewicz and Maltin on Zoom — Beatty is seated in a black void whereas carrying Tracy’s trademark yellow hat and overcoat — first to go with Mankiewicz on an interview he did with Beatty for TCM a while earlier. Then “Dick Tracy” explains his points with the film Beatty made about him in 1990, whereas he watches clips from the movie.  5 minutes of this 30 minute present had been actually simply Warren Beatty dressed as Dick Tracy watching the Dick Tracy film whereas muttering issues like “Sure! Sure, that’s good!” and “No! No! That’s horrible!”

Maltin’s presence isn’t as random as it could seem. In 2008, Maltin had interviewed the “actual” Dick Tracy (Beatty as soon as once more) for a primary Dick Tracy Particular on TCM. This first particular lives on on YouTube, and it’s nearly as bizarre as this new present.

2023’s Tracy Zooms In particular builds to Maltin including the “actual” Warren Beatty to the Zoom name, and — as Mankiewicz and Maltin look on in disbelief — the 2 Beattys get right into a rambling debate concerning the Dick Tracy film and moviemaking typically.

It‘s value noting that by way of all of this, Mankiewicz and Maltin barely say a phrase. After facilitating this name, they’re much less individuals in it than bewildered observers. This picture of their facet of the “dialog” sums up the vibe of this whole venture.

Finally, Dick Tracy and Beatty bury the hatchet and agree to fulfill for lunch to debate the opportunity of a brand new Dick Tracy movie. That results in the ultimate shot (seen above) with the 2 sharing a meal and a single body collectively, a picture that means a brand new different to the played-out Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme.

So what the hell was that each one about? You possibly can go to the Dick Tracy Wikipedia web page to search out out; the part titled “Attainable sequel, authorized points and reboot” accommodates 9 paragraphs and nearly 1,000 phrases on the topic. Briefly(ish): Within the Nineteen Eighties, Beatty had purchased the rights to make Dick Tracy films straight from Tribune, the homeowners of the unique caricature. Then he introduced his rights to Disney, the place he made his Dick Tracy film.

For a wide range of causes, he was by no means capable of get a sequel off the bottom, and finally Tribune tried to reclaim their rights so they might attempt to make their very own Dick Tracy movies or TV exhibits — at which level Beatty claimed they had been making an attempt to breach their deal and filed go well with. 

Within the authorized battle that adopted, Tribune claimed that per the unique contract after a “sure time period” and not using a new Dick Tracy film, collection, or particular, they’d get their rights again. In accordance with a Reuters report on the result of the case (which Beatty gained), in 2006, Tribune set Beatty a letter “that gave him two years to start manufacturing on Dick Tracy programming.”

And so, in 2008, Beatty made the primary Dick Tracy Particular that’s embedded above. The decide in that case discovered that “Beatty’s graduation of principal images of his tv particular on November 8, 2008 was ample for him to retain the Dick Tracy rights.”

I do not know if one other “sure time period” handed, or if somebody despatched the now 85-year-old Beatty one other letter. All I do know is I simply watched Warren Beatty take Dick Tracy to lunch on the Polo Lounge, and I’ll by no means be the identical once more.