Reverse Adaptation

I understand that many screenplays are adaptations from books. But have you ever heard of adapting a book from a screenplay?

I'm writing a screenplay now and am considering adapting it into a book when I'm finished as there will be a lag time between getting it accepted and hopefully on the big screen. It would be fun to see which one becomes a hit (hopefully both!).

you can find many paperback versions of movies... they're usually written on the cheap by writers hired by the producers...

i know of no best-selling books having been movies first...

has anyone else?

love and hugs, maia

"they're usually written on the cheap by writers hired by the producers..."

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Another example of people making profits off your ideas!

Novelisations

They're called novelisations, and they're usually hired by the studio to write it when the movie is in screenplay format so they can time the release of the movie with the release of the book.

For example, the recent 007 movies have all been novelized by Raymond Benson, who has written his own 007 books not based on any movies. But, as far as I know, these novelisations (if I'm spelling that right) rarely sell specatcularly. However, you'll notice that whenever a movie based on a book is released, the book's publisher usually will re-release the original books (like Lord of the Rings) with pictures of the movie stars on the front.

Just looked through my books and found a really strange peice of cinema history- Jurassic Park, the novelisation. That's right, a book based on the movie based on the book. I must've bought it, so I guess they do sell every once in a while.

Movie maestro

Re: Novelisations

So, novelizations are often timed for release of movie. How interesting. Since I'm considering writing a novelization as well as the screenplay, perhaps my timing should be earlier to preclude someone else from profiting from my ideas?

Re: Novelisations

are you justino's cousin? :smack

don't be silly!

YOU profit from your ideas, if you sell a screenplay... your sale contract will include what rights you're selling, so if you don't want anyone to profit w/o getting a piece of it, all you do is make sure it says that in re any use of your screenplay beyond production and release of the film made therefrom [including novelisation], you get X% of the profits...

of course, first you have to write a book and/or screenplay well enough for it/them to have a chance of being sold, right?... and then you have to be lucky [or connected] enough to get a chance to sell it!

i think you're worrying about your horse before you've even put the cart before it, if that makes the sense i thought it did:huh ...

hugs, maia

Re: don't be silly!

I sense some negative feelings to my question. I'm new at this so if I asked a stupid question, I'm sorry. And something about being Justinos cousin sounds like humor at my expense. I was hoping for a bit more maturity here.

Re: don't be silly!

sorry - justino used to go out of his way to argue moot points on things that matter very little. i guess he quit. and then you showed up complaining about people taking money from you... money that you haven't even earned yet. that's all, nothing more.

write on! and spend more time worrying about the content of your screenplay so one day those complaints are more meaningful.

Re: don't be silly!

I don't understand why you want to do this.

Generally, material is well suited to either be drama or prose, but not both. If think your story should be a novel, then you should just write the novel. If you think it's more cinematic, aim for the screenplay. It sounds like you've lost some of our enthusiasm for the script, though, and that the prospect of writing a novel is more exciting right now.

If you're just trying to figure out the best way to "cash in", you're probably not doing your material a great deal of service.

FJ and G -

If you were to write a screenplay that got sold and produced into a film, you would still earn a profit from the novelisation, just like how you would earn money from DVD purchases, not to mention that you get the chance to write the novel yourself.


Here's the URL. www.wga.org/separated_rights/3.html

re dew's observations, 'could' should be substituted for 'would'... you'd only have those options if such were spelled out in the contract governing the sale of the property [screenplay]... it's not all automatic, as implied...

if you sell all rights, for instance, you'd be entitled to nothing but the price you're paid for same... which is why anyone negotiating a sale for a major piece of writing should consult an attorney who specializes in that field, before signing anything...

hugs, m

mammamaia -

I may have misread the site, but can you explain this, which is stated in the beginning:

"Entitlement to Separated Rights is subject to final WGA determination and may not be negotiated in a writer's individual contract. "

To me, this doesn't look like the producers or the studio has any say as to whether the writer will get Separated Rights, but rather the WGA will determine so, which is explained on the site.

The second part to it is, in my understanding, that Separated Rights are non-negotiable, so that any contract presented to the writer cannot ask the writer to give-up those rights, if he/she is qualified to receive them (with the exception of the right mentioned in the Mandatory Rewrite section).

dew... those are just the wga rules 'n regs... for clarification, you'll have to go to their site and ask the experts there...

if you're not a wga member, and are negotiating a contract with a prodco that is not a wga signatory, then the terms of the sale can be anything you and they agree to... and you should have an entertainment attorney handy to make sure you get what you want... or as much of it as possible and still make the sale...

if you don't have a script in negotiation at the moment, going into all this detail now is an exercise in futility and a waste of time you could be using to write... complete a marketable piece of work first, and then figure out who you can sell it to and how!... make sense?

hugs, m