Warner Bros responds to lawsuit claiming new TV show ripped off ER

New series ‘The Pitt’ is set to debut on Max next year

Warner Bros has responded to a lawsuit alleging that a new Max series has plagiarised the hit NBC medical drama ER.

In August, Sherri Crichton, the widow of late ER creator Michael Crichton, filed a breach of contract suit against the studio’s television arm on behalf of the writer’s estate.

On Monday (4 November), attorneys representing Warner Bros TV filed a motion to dismiss the suit, arguing that the series in question, The Pitt, was a “completely different” series.

It accused Crichton of using the original ER contract as a “speech-stifling weapon” to “prevent [them] from ever making a show about emergency medicine”.

The Pitt, which is set to be released on US streaming service Max next year, is a medical drama set in an urban hospital in Pittsburgh.

Noah Wyle, who starred in ER, also has a key role in The Pitt, and will serve as an executive producer on the new series.

The original lawsuit claimed that Warner Bros TV sought to create a version of ER after negotiations to produce an ER reboot broke down. The estate says they have the right of approval for any “derivative work”.

In the redacted filing, Warner Bros TV writes (per Deadline): “The Pitt is not a ‘derivative work’ of ER, and it would be absurd to interpret the ER Agreement as prohibiting WBTV from ever again making a medical drama about emergency medicine (and Wyle, who was not even a party to the Agreement, from ever starring in one) without Mr Crichton’s consent.”

George Clooney in ‘ER' (Moviestore/Shutterstock)

Warner Bros also avers that similarities between The Pitt and ER are “shared by numerous shows in the medical drama genre”, such as the emergency medicine premise, and hospital workers being overwhelmed by their jobs. As for Wyle’s involvement, the studio also notes ER star George Clooney’s role in eight episodes of the 1980s medical drama E/R, a project unrelated to ER.

According to the filing, The Pitt is distinct from ER in its plotting, themes dialogue, characterisation, tone, location and pace. The new series is reported to take place in real time, in the vein of Fox’s hit counter-terrorism drama 24.

Warner Bros also alleges that Crichton sought “exorbitant [and] unreasonable” fees of “many millions of dollars” in the failed negotiations to reboot ER.

A spokesperson for Crichton issued a statement following the filing. They said: “The defendant’s motion is a transparent attempt to dodge discovery and prevent the true facts from coming out. That the defendants filed their meritless motion on the anniversary of Michael Crichton’s death is emblematic of the studio’s callousness and utter disregard for Crichton’s legacy.

“Warner Bros negotiated with the estate for nearly a year, knowing it could not proceed with its ER reboot without the estate’s permission. When those discussions failed, Warner Bros slapped a new name on the series, changed its location, and proceeded anyway in clear violation of Crichton’s contract. The defendants’ last-minute attempt to rebrand their ER reboot as The Pitt is not fooling anyone. The estate looks forward to presenting its case to a jury and is confident it will prevail.”