It's always been my understanding that the '70s court ruling stipulated that Art Wallace had to get credit when any of the characters that he created where used in any version of DS - though he wouldn't share in the profits of any such version because he settled for a one time payment. That's why he gets credit in the '91 DS. However, obviously Variety never published the actual ruling because, well, that would have probably gone on for pages and pages because we all know what court documents look like.
So, perhaps something that Variety didn't go into was that maybe there was a clause in the ruling that might have said something like after both Wallace and Curtis were deceased, Wallace would no longer get credit (odder clauses have been written). Or maybe it's that the film ignored the ruling. Though if that's the case, we may be hearing one day about how the Wallace estate has filed suit against the film and who knows how many parties connected with it.
Though because the previous ruling wouldn't entitle them to a share of the profits, and any legal action would simply be for a credit, the estate could easily think that it wouldn't even be worth pursuing any sort of action. But if it is a case that the film ignored Wallace's credit simply because they didn't think he deserved it, that would really be quite sad.
Changing reels, my Blu-ray arrived today but I haven't even taken it out of the box yet because I have several things I really want to get done today, and I know that if I take it out of the box, I will never get to them because I'll be playing with the Blu-ray all day. So, I don't dare take it out until tonight when I'll finally sit down to relax.
148 days 13 hours 9 minutes 15 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!
The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is now out on DVD/Blu-ray!!