In an effort to keep the rights to Dick Tracy, Warren Beatty appeared in a recent TCM special in which he joins a Zoom chat with his famous detective character.
As Vulture points out, Beatty has to create content about Detective Dick Tracy every decade or so in order to hold onto the character. Comic fans who might not be familiar with the 1931 comic strip might still recognize the rights structure, since a similar deal allows Sony to create Spider-Man content, but only so long as they are continually producing new projects. Wait too long and the rights lapse, which is one reason why Spider-Man has been in a near-constant state of reboot since Sony first inked the agreement in 1999
“Dick Tracy Special: Tracy Zooms In” sees Beatty reprise the role, though this surreal iteration of the character is separate from the Tracy who appeared in the 1990 camp classic. On this Zoom call, “Dick Tracy” tells film critic Leonard Maltin and TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz that he’s no longer on speaking terms with Beatty, which makes for a bit of an awkward introduction once Beatty himself joins the Zoom room. Watch the full “Dick Tracy Special: Tracy Zooms In” below.
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Beatty did a similar stunt with TCM back in 2010. Since then, he’s thought long and hard about a Dick Tracy sequel — from the looks of this special, it seems that’s still a possibility.
