Copyright almost certainly rests with the songwriters, so start there.
In GO, the threeway, the strippers and the burning hotel room all happened – at different times, to different people – but in stringing them together, I created a fictious work that is not really “based on actual events.”
Sometimes an attorney should be your first stop on the search for rights.
If you feel like writing a remake be prepared to approach the original studio first. Know that, If they don’t want to make it, and no one else is willing to buy the rights from them, you’re screwed.
How much needs to change to make re-registering your script worthwhile?
Only written, detailed ideas can be registered and protected.
There’s a long tradition of movies parodying each other, and it would be hard to prove any actual damage or wrongdoing.
Every studio has somebody who handles exactly these kind of rights.
Thoughts on writing a biopic.
At a certain point, some jokes circulate out in the popular culture enough that I would argue they’re essentially public domain.
How much is my book worth? Should I option or sell?
The consequences for trampling someone else’s copyright are not that dire. Since you’re a student, and probably broke, it’s not like 20th Century Fox is going to sue you for your life’s savings.
How is that label earned? What are the legal parameters?
Hope you have to worry about these problems when the movie gets made. Until then, don’t.
Worry about writing the best scenes and not about lawsuits or song rights.
This is America. If you want your characters to say that TOWN AND COUNTRY was a boring, unfunny disaster, they can.
If you can, option. If not, don’t be afraid to show your script for fear of losing the rights to the source material.
