I Wouldn’t Hold My Breath For DICK TRACY 2

Last night the LA Times Hero Complex kicked off their Expensive Film Festival with a screening of Dick Tracy, with the normally reclusive Warren Beatty in attendance. During the post-screening Q&A Beatty said that he’s interested in making Dick Tracy 2, and everybody started tweeting it like it’s news.

Except it’s not. And I don’t actually believe him, either. See, Beatty has been talking about a Dick Tracy 2 for years now, and he actually recently won a lawsuit with the Tribune Company that cemented his continued holding of the rights for TV and movies. The Tribune Company, seeing that Beatty hadn’t done jack shit on the property since the 90s, tried to get it back in 2005, but Beatty claimed he had gone into production on a Dick Tracy TV special and the judge in the case ruled in his favor.

But what the hell is the Dick Tracy TV special? It’s on IMDB, but I’ve never seen it, or heard about it getting released. And its cast list doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in this as a great Dick Tracy story. In fact, according to the AV Club the only connection the TV special has to Dick Tracy is that Beatty wears the yellow raincoat in it. The whole thing feels like a crazy sham.

And so when he’s asked if he’ll do a Dick Tracy 2, Beatty has to say yes because otherwise the Tribune Company is going to come down on him like a ton of Smallfaces. Think on this: Beatty has had the rights since 1985 and has been just sitting on them since releasing Dick Tracy in 1990.

Why is he doing this? Why does Warren Beatty do anything he does? He’s kind of inscrutable, and I guess it’s plausible that he actually honestly thinks he’ll get around to making Dick Tracy 2 or something, but from where I’m sitting I think you’ll become Blueface if you hold your breath until it gets done.