script based on a song?

[ALLWritety]

HI
I have done a search but didn't find any thing. If there is a thread can you direct me to it please.

There is a song that told a story which i think would make a really good movie.

How would one go about doing this?

What are the legalities of writing a script based on a song? I know you will need to get permission.

The person who wrote and sang the song is now dead. I have wrote to the Co. to ask their or the person's relatives permission to base the script on that song. I don't know who owns the rights. They have not yet replied to me.

The actual lyrics won't be in the song per se. I would use the song and the story to tell my story.

Could I write the story anyway stating that the story is based on that song, by that artist?

Any words from the wise?

Kev.

[Plot Device]

The Barry Manilow song "Copacabana" was made into a made-for-TV movie back in the 1980's. Barry Manilow starred in it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088951/

And it won an Emmy


I also believe "The Ballad of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was POSSIBLY going to be made into a movie--but that's not the same situation as the "Copacabana" because the whole Edmund Fitzgerald thing was a true story already, and someone just made a way cool song about that true story. If anything, I think a producer would need to secure the rights from all the widows of the deceased sailors.

"Brandi" is another one rumored for possible movie adaptation.

Meanwhile, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club band" was made into a movie starring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees. That one was a sort of a farcical, light 'n' fluffy rock opera with about a dozen Beatles songs in it, and it had no real substance to it. The thing about that film is it had no stand-alone dialogue. ALL characters in the film just sang Beatles songs from beginning to end as they spoke to each other. The only person who DIDN'T sing was the narrator. Needless to say, that movie was desperately dependent upon not just one Beatles song but MANY of them.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078239/



And, as one last example, the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was a department store song dreamed up in a flash by an advertizing guru back in the late-40's. It became so popular that the clay-mation wing of Hanna-Barbera produced a Christmas movie about it. And I believe that was Hanna-Barbera's very first stop-motion animation effort, and it paved the way for all the rest of those Christmas specials (and even their Easter special--and who could forget "Rudolph's Shiney New Year" with Mr. Heat Miser and Mr. Snow Miser?-Gawd! I loved those songs!!!! "I'm Mr. Heat Miser! I'm Mr. Sun! I'm Mr. Green Christmas! I'm Mr Hundred-and-one!")




::EDIT:: Just checked IMDB--The first "Rudolph" film was from 1948. And it wasn't Hanna-Barbera, it was the magnificent Max Fleischer.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156031/


::EDIT:: Ooops!! My bad! The made-for-TV movie we are all so familiar with was made by Rankin-Bass (not Hanna-Barbera, and not Max Fleischer). And it was from 1964.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058536/





I believe if you're going to be so utterly true to the song (as "Copacabana" was, and as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was) I think you're definitely going to have to secure the rights, just as you would have to for a book.

[xhouseboy]

Ode to Billy Joe

[zeprosnepsid]

I think your options are the same as someone adapting a novel or short story. Either change it enough that it's not obviously recognizable as that thing, or get the rights (which obviously you have already set out doing). How long have the musicians been dead? Any chance it's public domain by now?

[bluejester12]

And, of course, Puff the Magic Dragon.

[javili]

This is very common in Mexico. A big hit ranchero song will almost 100% become a movie. These are movies with narcos with big guns and cars and lots of women and songs by ranchero or grupero bands. They are just so terrible.

I would like to see movies based on bands and people playing music, not the songs. American movies are a lot about bands and musicians.

Do you think there would be interest in films about Mexican musicians?

Gracias
Javi

[dpaterso]

Cause we gotta little ol' Convoy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077369/), rockin' through the night
Yeah we gotta little ol' convoy, ain't she a beautiful sight?
Come on an' join our convoy, ain't nothin' gonna git in our way
We're gonna roll this truckin' convoy, cross the USA
Convoy... Convoy...
(C.W. McCall, Bill Fries and Chip Davis)

-Derek

[ALLWritety]

Hey Dpat
i loved Convoy the movie and the original song. There is a"cleaner & nicer" song but the original song is the best. It blows the other out of the water.
K