Setting up a project without having the underlying book rights
I was reading the insert page to the Stand By Me DVD and it mentioned that the writers were unable to afford the price of obtaining the rights to Stephen King’s novella “The Body” and so they set about pitching it to various studios.
I understand that the point would be to have the studio purchase the rights and then have the writer(s) work on it. But what guarantees that the studio will let them?
–Josh Caldwell
There’s no guarantee. The studio could say, “Thanks for bringing this great book to our attention,” option it, then turn around and hand it to another screenwriter. I’m sure it’s happened.
In the case of Big Fish, I took the book to the studio and asked them to get the option. They certainly could have hired a bigger writer — at that point, I had only written Go, which is certainly not a great writing sample for it. But they were gracious enough to say yes, because they liked my writing and were willing to take a chance.
Standard advice applies: doing anything puts you at risk. But doing nothing will get you nothing. If there’s a book you can’t afford to option yourself, it’s worth trying to get someone to option it for you.
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July 23rd, 2004 at 1:34 pm
I’m in the middle of negotiating a book option right now. I would say, save the studio for a last resort. I made an initial offer of ten dollars for the film/TV rights – what the heck, I had nothing to lose. The book agents aren’t going to let it go for that, but they are still talking to me. I can’t afford what they are asking now, but I teamed up with a fellow film student (she’s in the producing program, I’m on the screenwriting side) who can afford it and has had experience optioning property. Though we trust each other completely, we have a written, signed partnership agreement between us. The only other thing I would advise those attempting to go it alone: get a damn good attorney to negotiate for you.