Warner Bros TV & ‘Smallville’ Co-Creators End Legal Battle
Warner Bros Television and the creators of Smallville are not taking their multimillion-dollar legal battle to a jury after all. Lawyers for WBTV and co-creators/writers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough announced in a hearing today that they have reached a settlement in their breach of contract and conflict of interest dispute. No details of the settlement were made public. LA Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson told the parties today that they now have until August 30 to file a formal request for dismissal. Millar and Gough along with Tollin/Robbins Productions claimed in their initial $100 million vertical integration suit, first filed in March 2010, that WBTV signed low-balling licensing deals with the WB and later the CW that were nowhere near the requisite arms-length nor conducted with the good faith that they should have been. Tollin/Robbins came to a settlement with WBTV back in early January.
Smallville debuted on the WB Network on October 21, 2001. It ran until May 13, 2011, ending on the CW, which itself debuted in 2006 after the merger of the WB and CBS’ UPN. The case from plaintiffs Killara Productions and Leonardtown Productions, with Tollin/Robbins still attached in name, was scheduled to go to trial June 10. The settlement in this case, along with the wrapping up of the rights case that WB had going on with the estates of Superman co-creators, now puts the studio in a clear position to move forward unobstructed with any Superboy movie if it wants to. The producers were represented by Dale Kinsella, Michael Kump, Chad Fitzgerald and Aaron Liskin of Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldiseert. WBTV and the other defendants were represented by Daniel Petrocelli, Robert Schwartz and Molly Lens of LA firm O’Melvey & Myers.
Related: Superboy Leaps Warner Bros Legal Hurdle
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