Pre-Existing Inspirations Part 1

By Christina Hamlett

During the infancy of cinema, it’s not surprising to discover that the bulk of material was adapted from works that were originally written for the stage.  The physical theatricality of melodramas and vaudeville skits didn’t require sound in order for the plot to be understood.  As title cards and onstage “ambiance” piano players gradually gave way to the first talkies, fledgling writers began to adapt more material from novels and short stories gleaned from magazines such as Collier’s and the popular Saturday Evening Post. 

            During the 1960’s and 1970’s, adaptations from novels accounted for nearly a third of all movies produced in the United States.  Today, that total has dropped to roughly 12 percent and is concentrated on power-house authors such as Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy and that master of horror, Stephen King.

            Novels and plays, however, haven’t been the only sources of inspiration for screen material.  Consider the following:

• Diaries and journals.  The most famous of these, of course, was THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.
• Comic strips.  SUPERMAN, SPIDERMAN, DICK TRACY…need we say more?
• Games, both board and electronic.  Examples:  CLUE and LARA CROFT, TOMB RAIDER.
• Vintage photography.  E.J. Bellocq’s images of Storyille prostitutes in 1917 Louisiana were the inspiration for Louis Malle’s PRETTY BABY.
• Psychological case studies.  The demonically possessed girl in THE EXORCIST was actually a boy in the real-life plot that came to William Peter Blatty’s attention.
• Details at 11.  Pick any story that’s made the day’s headlines and the odds are that it’ll be a movie of the week within six months.

While current statistics suggest that nearly 75 percent of current film fare is original, it doesn’t take a rocket science to observe that the definition of  “original” is murky at best.  Do remakes of prior films such as SABRINA count as new?  What about adaptations of foreign flicks; do translations and Americanized interpretations of their content constitute a fresh story or just a different spin?  And where does one draw the originality line with STAR TREK spoofs like GALAXY QUEST or the similarities between Dorothy in THE WIZARD OF OZ and Luke Skywalker from STAR WARS?

Inspiration comes in all shapes, sizes, and genres.  It’s how much of it you can claim as an original concept that makes the difference between a good day at the box office or a bad day in court.

IS IT YOURS FOR THE TAKING?

Let’s say that it’s three o’clock in the morning and you’ve just finished reading an absolutely breathtaking book.  In your mind’s eye, you already know who you’d cast in the lead roles, what kinds of witty things they’d say to one another, and where you’d want to film it if it were a movie.

If it were a movie…

A light bulb clicks on your head.  Why not write that script yourself?  After all, you love the plot, you’ve bonded with the characters, and you even recognize what it takes to deliver a visually compelling piece of cinema.  And hey, the author of the book—some woman in Great Britain named J.K. Rowling—might be so impressed that she’ll write you a lovely thank you letter.

That’s the fantasy.

The reality is that she’ll have her attorney send you a not-so-lovely letter suing you for infringement of copyright.

Even if she had no desire whatsoever to turn Harry Potter and his adventures into a box-office blockbuster, it’s illegal for you to steal the concept and turn it into something else.  Just as you wouldn’t want your own works “borrowed” by another writer, the rules of registration and copyright exist to protect those whose brilliance has preceded you.  While that’s not to say they wouldn’t be flattered or even intrigued by your enthusiasm to reframe their masterpiece, you need to observe the proper protocol in acquiring permission.

Specifically, that procedure is:

• Find out whether the book, play, or short story is in the public domain.
• If the work is not in the public domain, determine what rights are available for option.
• Consult an attorney and get your agreement in writing.

When William Shakespeare wrote HAMLET or Louisa Mae Alcott wrote LITTLE WOMEN, neither one was concerned about someone coming along and turning their plots into movies.  In the first place, movies hadn’t been invented yet.  Nor, for that matter, was there a regulatory agency to assign and monitor subsidiary rights. 

Creative works that have fallen into what is called “public domain” are a gold mine for screenwriters who want to try their hand at modifying someone else’s material.  Specifically, the term applies to those works which were either published prior to 1923 or those which were published between 1923 and 1963 and were not renewed. 

Today’s copyright laws, by comparison, protect the work for the life of the author plus 70 years or until December 2047, whichever is greater.  For collaborative works, this term is measured by whichever author lives longer.  In addition, the United States has reciprocal copyright relations with most countries of the world.

Because public domain properties are no longer protected by copyright, they may be freely used by anyone who wants to do something with them.  In addition to literary and performance art properties, public domain also applies to published works by the government and its agents and to autobiographical records and journals which have been granted or donated by their originator for the enlightenment of subsequent generations. 

The ease with which you can ascertain who owns a particular copyright depends on the pivotal year 1978 and what part of the country you live in.  Registrations, renewals and copyright ownership transfers became available online from 1978 forward.  Anything prior to that requires a manual record search of U.S. Copyright Office files. 

If their Washington D.C. facility is within reasonable commuting distance—or if you’re planning a working vacation to the national’s capital—you can do the search for free on your own.  If, however, you need to press a staffer into service to do the looking for you, it will cost you approximately $75 per hour. 

Additional information on this process is available through circulars published by the U.S. Copyright Office itself; specifically, Circular 22 (“How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work”) and Circular 23 (“Copyright Card Catalog and the Online File.”)  Both can be ordered directly from their Web site at www.copyright.gov.

Within the context of publication is the issue of what rights have been granted insofar as derivations of the original material; i.e., translations, radio, TV, film, Braille, etc.  These are laid out at the time of the property’s purchase, generally as a boilerplate clause for authors and their editors who don’t have any immediate plans to spin the material into something different.  The specific language regarding subsidiary venues has evolved in keeping with technology, public demand and accessibility.

As recently as 10 years ago, for instance, no one had thought that electronic media would catch on as it did, resulting in the conundrum of whether authors whose novels had already been published traditionally could turn around and reissue them as “e-books” on the Internet, such extensions never having been addressed in their original contracts.  Nor had anyone predicted the proliferation of high-tech video games and merchandising associated with fantasy and science fiction stories.

What this means for aspiring screenwriters is a stint at sleuthing to determine what permissions can be granted in order to take a non-public domain plot to its next level. 

The availability of film rights for existing books is contingent on several factors.  If, for instance, it was written by a well established author and published by a major house, it’s a pretty sure bet that a movie studio has already pounced on an option, if for no other reason than to keep someone else from doing it. 

Even if film rights haven’t been delineated at the time of publication, you still need to work through professional channels of corresponding with the publishing house and/or author’s representative to ensure that they don’t already have something in the works.  In the case of deceased authors, there may also be circumstances of their heirs having objections to a stranger tweaking with their loved one’s masterpiece in any way, shape or form.

Smaller houses, foreign publishers, and self-published authors represent a better chance of negotiating permission for an adaptation because—in a nutshell—a film would (hopefully) promote and enhance the value of the original product.  The downside, obviously, is that a prospective producer could argue, “If it hasn’t set the house afire on its own merit, what makes you think people would go pay to see this at the movies?”

In the same vein, new plays which are produced in regional theaters or have their debuts on university stages are rich in opportunity for development.  What many people don’t realize is that these productions are often “shopped” a long time before officially finding a home with a publisher.  The reason is threefold:

• The more times a script can be tested on an audience, the more chances to work all the bugs out before settling on a final version. 
• Playwrights, such as myself, enjoy the freedom of being able to negotiate performance fees—and participate on the fringes as a consultant—for as long as possible.
• Major theatrical publishers such as Samuel French prefer to have proof of a show’s popularity and longevity before making a commitment to aggressively market it.

In addition, the majority of aspiring playwrights tend not to have agents jumping into the mix, largely because agents view live theater as a riskier venture than books and, thus, one which offers a lot less return for their efforts.  Playwrights also recognize, realistically, that a film version of their story will have a shorter shelf life than the original play and, accordingly, doesn’t pose any long-term conflict of interest.  Further, they’re savvy enough to know that movie-goers outnumber theater aficionados and that a movie adaptation will enable them to share their plot with people who would otherwise not have seen it at all.

Former actress and director Christina Hamlett is an award winning author and professional script coverage consultant whose credits to date include 21 books, 117 plays and musicals, 4 optioned films, and columns/interviews that appear throughout the world.  Her latest book, COULD IT BE A MOVIE (Michael Wiese Productions) can be found on Amazon.