Inside the Decades-Long Battle Over ‘Buck Rogers’ (Exclusive)

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“People need to understand that the court system is overtaxed and bad guys will try to steal their valuable intellectual property when they aren’t looking,” Flint Dille tells TheWrap In the fondly remembered 1970s TV series “Buck Rogers,” the astronaut of the title spends hundreds of years in cryogenic suspension before awakening in a dark future he barely understands. And, as it happens, the battle over the rights to the iconic pulp science fiction character feels like it has lasted at least that long. The character, introduced in a 1928 novel and off screen since the NBC series went off air in 1981 after two seasons, is now in the center of a heated legal battle over who has the legal right to bring Buck back to the screen. In one corner, Legendary Entertainment deep in development on a new “Buck Rogers” TV series with key talent on board, including George Clooney, who will executive produce with Grant Heslov and may also star. In the other corner is David Ellison’s Skydance Media, which is developing its own reboot but with a murkier legal claim to the Buck Rogers story, according to numerous legal documents reviewed by TheWrap. Richard Thompson, a...

Read original story Inside the Decades-Long Battle Over ‘Buck Rogers’ (Exclusive) At TheWrap