Film Rights, your views?

[erastes]

as much as I enjoyed the film "How to Train Your Dragon" (it literally was my favourite film of the last year) I've now read the book and I have to wonder what the blithering blink were the acquisition team thinking when they bought the rights to the film. I'm sure that the author is laughing little haversacks all the way to the bank,but from what I can see – all they've done is take the Title of her book, the name of her lead character and the dragon—AND CHANGED EVERYTHING ELSE.

It's a bit like me selling the rights to Standish, with no creative control—which I'm assuming Ms Cowell must have done—and probably caring little as she counted her moolah, chuckling—and then the film gets to be set in Australia with a dark haired young man called Ambrose Standish going to a sheep station in 1990 to be a sheep shearer on a sheep station and falling in love with the girl next door. I've wondered this before, but what if one day I WAS offered a huge amount (and Hollywood, if you are listening, when you are on £60 a week, "a huge amount" doesn't necessarily mean seven figures…I may not be free, but I'm reasonably priced!) for the irrevocable sale of the film rights. I wonder what I'd do? Would I sell my first born into slavery for Hollywood to change as they liked? Or would I say "Fie, Mr Mogul, you shall not have me without me making bloody sure you don't muck about with the plot (too much.)"?

It would be a nice dilemma to have!! But I really don't know what I'd do. I try not to act the diva in public but I would like some semblance of the book to be represented on screen. Not going to happen, but I wonders, yes I wonders, all the same. My precious.

What would you do?  I'm listening!

Comments

[sidhe-woman.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. It's a standing joke among my writerly friends - when I sell the film/mini series rights - but honestly? I'd want some control over the plot, setting and possibly casting as well!

Admittedly, short, blond Sean Bean did very well portraying Sharpe, regardless of the fact RS was tall and blackhaired in the novels. Not to mention Boromir, who was also NOT short and blond. At least Mr. B displayed all the attitude of the characters.

I haven't seen it yet, but by all accounts the film version of Over Sea Under Stone was very far from the Susan Cooper book.

So, yes, I think I'd stick out for a certain amount of control, and bargain with them. They coulod pay me less if I can have a say/veto *g*.

[cruisedirector]

Except for writers who already have screenwriting credits, it is extremely unusual for any production company to give the original writer any say whatsoever into a screenplay based on their work, so if you wanted to sell yours, saying "Fie, Mr Mogul" would essentially be rejecting any deal you were offered. (Read the story of what happened to the screenplay for 'Nottingham' -- which became the *snore* Ridley Scott 'Robin Hood' -- as a cautionary tale: http://www.slashfilm.com/how-nottingham-became-robin-hood-screenwriter-tells-part-of-the-story/ )

We just saw the film of 'Mr. Popper's Penguins', which was one of my favorite children's books -- it's been around since the 1930s, at which time it was the story of a nice family-man house painter in the Depression, who gets a penguin from a South Pole explorer, ends up with a team of dancing penguins, and ends up taking them to be resettled at the North Pole to keep lonely Arctic explorers company(!). You can probably see why changes were made for the 2011 Jim Carrey movie, which I enjoyed a lot despite, well, Jim Carrey, and the fact that it's now about a modern divorced businessman with a yen for his ex-wife who gets his penguins from his absentee father. I don't actually feel like the spirit of the book was violated despite the enormous changes.

[markprobst.livejournal.com]

I'd probably just take the money. But here is what Patricia Nell Warren said when "The Front Runner" was in development as a film:
"Towards the end of 1975, this script was ready. When I read it, my heart sank. It backed away from portraying a love relationship between two gay men. The poignant romance of my book was now reduced to a one-night stand before the Olympic Games. All the names, the locales had been changed. So little remained of the original story that, when I met with Newman's business partner George Englund to discuss my reaction to the script, I told him: “Why are you paying me money to call this The Front Runner? You can title it something else, and not pay me a nickel. Because this is not what I wrote.” (source: http://thefrontrunner.com/thefilm.html )

[erastes.livejournal.com]

yes, exactly - no that it will happen to me, but the "why read a book when you can watch the movie" brigade would think that was the actual book!!

[essayel.livejournal.com]

Honestly? *sigh* If someone came to me and offered me seven figures for the right to mutilate my story, change the plot, ending, setting, sexual orientation of the characters - I'd probably say yes. I think most of the people who might have read it would be intelligent enough to know that anything Hollywood touches will be changed beyond recognition by the experience and as long as I retain the rights to the BOOK so they can't demand that I rewrite it to conform to their idea of what it should be, then that would be OK.

But I wouldn't go and see it. I wouldn't even buy the DVD in the £2 bargain bin at Morrisons.

[tiggothy.livejournal.com]

The film *isn't* like the book? Rather glad I didn't shell out to see it then...

In the exceedingly unlikely possibility that I'm ever approached regarding film rights I honestly have no clue what my reaction would be. Probably "Ooh! Monies!" followed pretty closely by "no, you can't have it, it's MINE!" because I am a bit of a control freak at times ;-)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It's absolutely nothing like the book. However, it is great little film, so if you can treat it as another story about Vikings and dragons where the names are similar, then go - it really is a good film! :D

Yes - me too. It does depends on HOW MUCH MONIES too of course. Or if Merchant and Ivory wanted to do it. Then they could have it for 50p.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't get any control unless you were a BIG name -- and even then... Writer Tony Hillerman was asked what he thought of the film made from one of his Navajo mysteries, and he said it was like seeing an auto wreck involving people you knew.. the only good news was that no one was actually killed.

If the people who did the Hornblower series wanted to buy Ransom, I'd sell it. If the nitwits who turned Americans into Frenchmen and threw the entire Aubrey-Maturin series into a blender wanted it, I'd hold out for as much as I could POSSIBLY get.

I'm not as attached to Tangled Web, though; if someone offered a fat sum for that one, I'd take it. (That bit of the contract was negotiable--I still have those rights.)

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't get any control unless you were a BIG name

Agreed. For all of the bitching that fans do about changes to the story, the original author rarely has any control over that. Giving the original author creative control isn't considered a good idea, because movies are a very different medium from books and what will work on the page won't necessarily work on the screen. So frequently, characters have to be changed or combined, and plotlines altered to bring them into line with what the laws of physics and the FX team can actually accomplish--or into line with the available budget.

Even in the most faithful adaptation, there are changes. A Game of Thrones is very faithful--the director and writers are following the books religiously. But they still have to include scenes that aren't in the books for characterization, for exposition and to make the plot more convincing.

I wouldn't adapt Standish, though. I'd go for Transgressions. You've got a war, you've got separated lovers, you've got sex, you've got witch trials, you've got S & M, you've got psychological horror--I mean, come ON. This is far more cinematic than Standish. Though I can see Standish showing up on Masterpiece Theatre.

[pepperlandgirl4.livejournal.com]

When a book is optioned, it's usually because they want to use the title, the basic premise, or character names that people would recognize and it's easier to pay for the rights than to pay for a settlement. Added to the fact that screenwriters generally pride themselves on creating a new story from a source material rather than simply adapting it, and I'm pleasantly surprised whenever a movie even remotely resembles the book it's based on.

Anyway, I'd sign the contract, take the money, and not make a single peep about creative control. I have creative control over my books, and they can never take that away from me.

[oceankitty1.livejournal.com]

A nice dilemma indeed. But a film can actually destroy your book. I sold a lot of Ms Cowell's books before the film. Now, not so much. I used to read "The Spiderwick Chronicles" for my daughter a few years back, and when the film came out we went to see it. It spoiled the fun for us to such a degree that we were on the verge of tears. I used to sell a lot of the series before the film. Afterward it came to a standstill. No one was interested anymore. People tend to believe the film and the book are the same and if they don't like the film they will certainly not buy the book.
Hang on to the film rights unless you can make a deal and do the screen-writing yourself. I see that done in Norway with good results. So stay away from Hollywood! Evil money, evil!

[markprobst.livejournal.com]

I think you're making the assumption that bad film adaptations kill book sales. Perhaps it's just that any film adaptation at all, good or bad results in a drop in book sales simply because there are lots of people who would rather watch a movie than read a book. But it would only be true for books that were huge bestsellers beforehand. Most of the authors reading this blog don't have sales anywhere near the level or Cressida Cowell or Spiderwick, A film deal for any of us would certainly be a hugh increase in book sales simply for the movie tie-in reprint.

[oceankitty1.livejournal.com]

I so desperately want people to read, especially children. If their only experience with what originally was a good book is to go watch a bad movie then I feel so sorry for them. I guess the ultimate deal would be to have the author do the screen-writing. That would be a win/win situation for everyone :D

[mysid.livejournal.com]

You want to see a children's book turned into movie and having NOTHING in common except the title and main character's name--in this case, one in the same--try Shrek.

[liebesdammerung.livejournal.com]

...Shrek was a book?

[mysid.livejournal.com]

Yep. No Donkey, no Princess Fiona, but he is an ogre.

[liebesdammerung.livejournal.com]

I'm probably never going to be published, but if I were, and my books were popular enough that they wanted to make a movie out of them, I'd probably say no. Unless I also take up screenwriting. Ideally, I'd love to be a screenwriter first, write some good movies, become well-known as a screenwriter, publish a book or two, and then when hollywood/whoever comes a-knockin' at my door, I'll be all OMG! YAY! I can write my own script too! And since I would already have been experienced in screenwriting, I would know which parts to change for the screen. Win-win!

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I wouldn't care if they changed stuff as long as the show was still good and I got paid.

I'm not precious about my story ideas. Let 'em take 'em, generate some publicity for my book, and do what they like after they give me moolah.