A three-year legal tussle has ended with the rights to the 1960s World War Two prisoners of war comedy Hogan’s Heroes have reverted back to creator Albert S. Ruddy and the estate of his partner, Bernard Fein.
According to Deadline, among the rights that reverted back from Bing Crosby Productions, now owned by Mark Cuban, are movies, publication, merchandising, radio and live rights, as well as TV sequel rights. With these rights now back in hand, Ruddy is reported to be setting to work at developing a big screen adaptation of the show.
Running for six seasons on CBS, Hogan’s Heroes starred Bob Crane as Col. Robert Hogan, Werner Klemperer as Col. Wilhelm Klink, Richard Dawson as Cpl. Peter Newkirk and John Banner as Sgt. Hans Schultz. Hogan and his fellow prisoners at POW camp Stalag 13 were actually spies who operated out of the camp through a series of secret tunnels while the dim-witted Col. Klink remained oblivious to their activities.
The property was previously under development as a film by Destination Films a few years back with a script written by director Keith Samples.
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