Rights regarding people who are alive - Case in Point Oliver Stone's W.

Jon-Luke said:

I've been trying to get information on how to go about getting rights to write a screenplay about someone's life and I've noticed that Oliver Stone is busy filming a project called W. (Working Title) that must have been a nightmare to get the rights for. The project in question is about George W. Bush - See this link http://www.slate.com/id/2188423/ for more information (Or go to the trusty old IMDB).

So did they get the permissions and rights from everyone they are going to portray (From Condoleezza Rice to Tony Blair) or is this whole "Thou shalt get the rights before write about anyone real" thing all a bit of a farce?

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There's a difference between Oliver Stone and a person like me. He is already deep in the industry, has connections and so forth. So someone like him may be able to write something like that and get backers and permissions and such because of his connections and because of his portfolio, whereas it would be all but impossible for someone like me.

There is also an enormous gap between public and private figures. It makes a difference how well-known an individual is, and whether someone in the public eye is there temporarily or may recapture their anonymity.

Its a fine line.

Its not possible to write a persons 'life story' without their permission, it IS possible to write about historical/news events that happen in the public eye.

Tricky. Yeah.

Hence the publication of 'unauthorized biographies'. You gotta have a good legal team peruse the thing with a fine toothed comb.

Everything that has happened 'in the public eye' with public figures can be written about. Take the latest HBO film "RECOUNT" about the 2000 recount in Florida. Full of public figures and politicians. Everything that happened - 'happened'. Much of what actually transpires on the 'tv' screens are actual broadcasts. (But clearing the use of news footage in a commercial film is a different subject). Writing conjectural scenes can be the tricky part. Are you writing a scene based on the comments someone made?Is it purely conjectural on your part? Does it become defamation, or is it libelous???

Are you telling the story, from the point of view from someone whose rights you DO have, and filling in the blanks with THEIR account?

Someone like Oliver Stone will have a studio legal department look carefully at his script and decide how close to the line he can go. You're free to hire a lawyer and do the same thing with Britney Spears life story, you can take out E&O (errors and ommissions) insurance, in case your legal team gets it wrong... you can afford all that because the movie is going to make a mint, right?

This may not be what you have in mind at all, but why not base your screenplay on the person and make it really close to whatever in their story is sensational without making it a biography?
I'm thinking of Primary Colors with John Travolta and Emma Thompson. It had a lot of similarities with the Clinton scandal and that scene where she slaps him in front of his assistant when the assistant tells them that a woman has gone public about her former affair with him, you couldn't write that into a biographical Clinton movie and ... well, it was priceless.
I'm also wondering: if you did that, -pitch it as a "Clinton" or "Britney"-based story- and it got attention as a screenplay, couldn't the studio then decide whether they wanted to rewrite it as a biographical movie? Just wondering.

Jon-Luke,

First, Welcome.

"Public Figure" is a legal term. The legal references on Wikipedia seem to nail it well. Key statement in the defining it legally: "A public figure (such as a politician, celebrity, or business leader) cannot base a lawsuit on incorrect harmful statements unless there is proof that the writer or publisher acted with malice (knowledge or reckless disregard for the truth). The burden of proof is higher in the case of a public figure."

The legal departments would have no issues with the story because everyone Mr. Stone is focusing on is a "public figure" and he probably invented a few "private figures" to help carry the story along. Karl Rove, for instance, I believe is considered a private figure. So is Dick Cheney's chief hatchet guy, David Addington.

Jon-Luke said:

So following this information would that mean that it would be perfectly okay to write a script about a famous person, let say hypothetically If I wanted to do a script about Britney Spears life so far... This should be fine because she's in the public eye?

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On the proviso that the movie would be felt to be to a degree in the public interest. If it is just to profit by her fame, then no, she has the right to make money under the publicity laws. So a documentary on the Biography Channel is all right, but a fan-made compilation of concert footage is not.

Part of the problem with writing someone else's life story, is a producer is going to ask you up front "Do you have the rights to it?" So it's a self-selecting situation. They don't want to have to do it themselves, especially if you're a no-name newbie.

These are done all the time without rights for them on TV. There's a Madonna TV movie. There's that Jacksons movie. I think there's even a Kennedys movie. People don't get rights for these thing because they're public figures. As noted above, you just need to avoid slander. You can't say they eat babies. But the Jacksons movie does say their Dad like beats them, because that information is out there.

But most of this stuff goes straight to TV. Stone's movies on real people have made it to theaters, but most are on TV. Also, to kind of get around the rights issues, many are based on books. It feels to me that most theatrical movies about real people are the kinds of things you'd need rights for like 'The Astronaut Farmer'.

What I always suggest with a thing like this, is if you really want to write it, then do it, but don't make it your spec script. Have something else you submit to agents and prod cos and if they ask for more they'll be more amenable to something slightly problematic. If it's good they'll still want to make it.