Film critic Roger Ebert has denied reports that he's refusing to allow his trademark "thumbs up-thumbs down" judgment to be used while he negotiates a new contract for his TV show At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper.

Ebert, in a posting on his website, refutes a Friday news report that said he had made the edict.

Film critic Roger Ebert, photographed at his Chicago home in April 2007, holds the trademark to the 'thumbs up-thumbs down' assessment along with the estate of the late Gene Siskel.
(Dom Najolia/Chicago Sun-Times/Associated Press)

According to the Associated Press report, Disney-ABC Domestic Entertainment released a statement saying Ebert has "exercised his right to withhold use of the 'thumbs' until a new contract is signed."

The 65-year-old critic is working out a new deal with Disney-ABC Domestic Television, the syndicated show's distributor.

"Contrary to Disney’s press release, I did not demand the removal of the Thumbs™," said the writer on his website.

"We are discussing the continued use of our Thumbs™ trademarks.… I had made it clear the Thumbs™ could remain during good-faith negotiations."

Ebert also indicated the negotiations weren't going well. According to him: "They made a first offer on Friday which I considered offensively low."

The Pulitzer Prize-winner holds the trademark rights to the critique with the estate of Gene Siskel, his original co-host. Ebert, a film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times, and Siskel, who was at the rival Chicago Tribune, launched the show in 1975. Siskel died in 1999.

Ebert has co-hosted the show with fellow Sun-Times writer Richard Roeper since 2000.

Roeper has been hosting the show with a series of guests since Ebert underwent a series of cancer surgeries in 2006.

Last June, Ebert had a growth on a salivary gland and part of his jaw removed and then two weeks later, he required emergency surgery when a blood vessel burst.  Doctors performed a tracheostomy, a procedure involving the windpipe, which left him unable to speak until he gets further surgery.

"We remain hopeful that Roger will return to the show," the Disney company statement said.

"We have kept his 'seat in the balcony' open for the past 14 months and will continue to do so, utilizing guest critics."

In the new season starting this weekend, Roeper is joined by Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Observer.
 
Two episodes have been filmed so far without the thumb assessment, which has become a staple of movie marketing.

Ebert ended his website posting on a positive note: "I love the show and I love the Thumbs and I hope we will all be reunited soon."

With files from the Associated Press