I have tried to figure this out by myself, but can't. I have a book that I love, and think would make a great movie. The book was written some time ago, published by multiple firms that have changed names, merged, etc. My question is, how do I track down who actually owns the book rights, and once that is established, how do I go about purchasing book rights- I have no idea how all that works. I realize I don't have the finances to purchase the rights to a book, nor the resources to have it made into a movie, but I do have a plan that might just work.
I have checked several web-sites but they are not much help, and very complicated. Any suggestions would be great.
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08-28-02, 12:33 PM
Silja
I am no expert, but as far as I know, the rights to film a book stay with the author, they are not the rights of the publishing company. This means you need to track down the author of the book and negotaite with him/her. I suggest you do a search on what other, more recent books this author has published, and write to him/her care of their current publishing company.

08-29-02, 08:48 AM
LVLF
Thanks, I'll give that a try, and I'll let you know what I find. smile

08-29-02, 01:17 PM
cattywampus
That's not quite right. Especially with a first time author, the publisher will try to sneak past a clause that grants them full rights (of first publication, movie rights, overseas publishing rights, rights to any merchandize that may arise from the book or story) - that's one reason you need an agent, they know how to watch for this stuff. A well-known author may be able to retain some rights, or insist the rights revert to them after a time or arrange to buy them back. The rights certainly do not automatically remain with the author.

You have 2 options:

Keep trying to find out who owns the rights
through the publisher; or

Go ahead and do what you want with it, and
let them come to you. Your chances of being
successful at this venture are very small,
anyway. If you are successful and word gets
out, you will hear from them pronto, believe
me, and at that time you may negotiate.

Good luck!

Catty (who has a right to be wrong occasionally)
wink razz

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,

I would like to know how this worked out for you. I have a similar situation, a book I read when I was a kid that I always thought would be a great film. My approach would be to go ahead and write a script for it. But I also want to make sure the film is done well, with good performers, and I wonder if obtaining the rights first would give me some leverage. Also, if I put a lot of work into a script or even more, would they jack up the price of the rights? What would they typically sell for, if it's not a current bestseller?

If what you like is just the story line and plot then there may be no problem. There's no copyright, no rights, in an idea.Just don't lift the whole character list and details from an existing work

You may have noticed that Dan Brown suffered litigation because some disgruntled authors claimed that The da Vinci Code was essentially their work, published earlier. They were reduced to claiming that he had used, stolen, the "whole architecture"[quote] of their research: they couldn't get anywhere by suing on the basis that the storyline, the theme or the speculative theory was theirs. The High Court in London listened patiently but ruled against them.

At the time the case aroused great interest here because, had they won,we could see that the ruling might have led to anyone who had an idea, which someone else used, suing. That would certainly have opened 'legal floodgates' (as well as running contrary to ancient and well established principles and precedent).

Along the same lines, some people are claiming that they are the inventors of what is now Facebook. They had the idea for such a site and involved Mark Zuckerberg in it. He went off and later produced Facebook.That's their idea made into form Now, you won't be surprised to learn that their chances of winning are zero (IMHO and in the much less humble opinion of all copyright lawyers I know ). Had they created software and taken rights to that then they could sue everybody who copied it or used it without their licence but,as it is, they didn't. All they had was an idea which the other man went off and used, copied if you will,so that's the end of their chances.

As I recall, Fred, the men who sued Brown lost because they had written the same premise as factual, which means they had no standing. (I had read their book years ago, and found the idea interesting that Christ had descendants.)