The Michael Crichton Estate can take its claim that HBO Max’s The Pitt breached Michael Crichton’s contract with Warner Bros. Television to a jury trial in Los Angeles.
The estate says the show was developed after negotiations for an ER reboot collapsed, and alleges that its makers shifted the setting from Chicago to Pittsburgh, renamed the programme and went ahead without crediting or compensating Crichton or his heirs.
Sherri Crichton, Michael Crichton’s widow, filed the breach-of-contract case in August 2024 on behalf of the John Michael Crichton Trust’s Roadrunner JMTC. Her case rests on a 1994 agreement that included a “frozen rights” provision preventing Warner Bros. Television from making spinoffs or reboots without Crichton’s approval.
Crichton had written a screenplay in 1974, drawing on his experiences as a medical student. He sold it to Warner Bros. in 1994 as the basis for ER, which ran for 15 seasons and won 23 Emmy Awards, including outstanding drama series. After his death in 2008, Sherri Crichton inherited the rights to his work and the authority to enforce the contract provision.
Talks on a possible ER reboot began in 2020. Warner Bros. and the estate negotiated for months before the discussions broke down over credit and financial guarantees. The Pitt, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-set medical drama, subsequently went into development with Noah Wyle, John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill among the creative personnel who had worked on ER.
Wyle played Dr John Carter across 11 seasons of ER and now plays Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch in The Pitt. He told Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast: “We were going to start down an ER reboot road that didn't come to pass” and “Once we uncoupled ourselves from that IP, it suddenly liberated the storytelling.”
The appeal was argued on September 8 before Judges Curtis Karnow, Rashida Adams and Mark Hanasono, with producers of The Pitt and Warner Bros. Television lawyer Ted Boutrous appearing in court. In a 33-page decision issued Wednesday, the three-judge panel unanimously rejected Warner Bros. Television’s appeal of Judge Wendy Chang’s earlier refusal to dismiss the case.
The judges compared the two pilot scripts and found enough common ground in plot, themes, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters, graphic injury detail and sequence of events for the case to continue. They pointed in particular to the emergency-room setting, rapid pace, medical jargon, graphic injuries and a young doctor fresh from medical school who is incompetent.
Warner Bros. Television has called the lawsuit “baseless” and described The Pitt as a “new and original show”. The studio argued on appeal that the programmes shared only “generic similarities” found in “any dramatic story involving emergency room doctors”.
The appeals court removed Wyle, Wells and Gemmill as individual defendants, finding no evidence that they knew they could be violating Crichton’s contractual rights. The claim against Warner Bros. Television will proceed in Los Angeles Superior Court, where the next hearing is scheduled for January 21 in Chang’s downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
A trial could begin as early as next summer if the parties do not settle. Meanwhile, The Pitt, which launched on HBO Max in early 2025, is deep into production on its upcoming third season.
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