on board to direct with Joel Silver as producer. Cash and Epps wrote another draft, and Hill approached Warren Beatty for the title role. Pre-production had progressed as far as set building, but the film was stalled when artistic control issues arose with Beatty, a fan of the Dick Tracy comic strip. Hill wanted to make the film violent and realistic, while Beatty envisioned a stylized homage to the 1930s comic strip. The actor also reportedly wanted $5 million plus fifteen percent of the box office gross, a deal which Universal refused to accept. Hill and Beatty left the film, which Paramount began developing as a lower-budget project with Richard Benjamin directing. Cash and Epps continued to rewrite the script, but Universal was unsatisfied. The film rights eventually reverted to Tribune Media Services in 1985. However, Beatty decided to option the Dick Tracy rights himself for $3 million, along with the Cash/Epps script. When Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner moved from Paramount to the Walt Disney Studios, Dick Tracy resurfaced with Beatty as director, producer and leading man. Katzenberg considered hiring Martin Scorsese to direct the film, but changed his mind. "It never occurred to me to direct the movie," Beatty admitted, "but finally, like most of the movies that I direct, when the time comes to do it, I just do it because it's easier than going through what I'd have to go through to get somebody else to do it." Beatty's reputation for directorial profligacy, notably with the critically acclaimed Reds (1981), did not sit well with Disney. As a result, Beatty and Disney reached a contracted agreement whereby any budget overruns on Dick Tracy would be deducted from Beatty's fee as producer, director, and star. Beatty and regular collaborator Bo Goldman significantly rewrote the dialogue but lost a Writers Guild arbitration and did not receive screen credit. Disney greenlit Dick Tracy in 1988 under the condition that Beatty keep the production budget within $25 million. Beatty's fee was $7 million against 15% of the gross (once the distributor's gross reached $50 million). Costs began to rise once filming started and quickly jumped to $30 million and its total negative cost ended up being $46.5 million: $35.6 million of direct expenditure, $5.3 million in studio overhead and $5.6 million in interest. Disney spent an additional $48.1 million on advertising and publicity and $5.8 million on prints, resulting in