2009 Debutantes

Now that film agents are scouting Bologna and paying close attention to the YA market, I've been getting a lot of e-mail from people with questions about film inquiries.

While I'm happy to check around and see if somebody making a request is legitimate or a scam artist, it's seriously in your best interest to hand all of this stuff off to your literary agent. S/he can get a film agent to negotiate on your behalf, and when it comes to film rights you really, really, really need one.

Film rights are complicated. They have a lot of strange and arcane rules, there's a lot of terminology that may or may not mean anything to you, and you seriously need somebody versed in LA-ese to negotiate for you. You do NOT want to be put in the position Kim Basinger was when she stepped out of a role in Boxing Helena- she was sued for 8 million dollars on a handshake deal, guys. And she lost.

For serious- the only thing you should say to a producer who contacts you is "Thanks for your interest! Let me put you in touch with my agent." Period. Don't say how much fun it would be, or what rights you think are available, or that you'd love to have a movie made- nothing.

"Thanks for your interest! Let me put you in touch with my agent."

Period.

That said, here are a handful of terms that will help you understand your film agent, and help you articulate what you would like out of an option:

Approval, Script/Cast: Means you get the final say on the script, or the casting. Unless your name is JK Rowling, you're not going to get approval.

Attachment: Somebody famous who wants to make your movie. This can be anybody, but it's usually an actor or a director. If your film agent wants to go attachment shopping, s/he's looking for somebody famous who's willing to agree to be in/make this movie. Still doesn't mean they will actually be in/make the movie. It's just a means of generating interest and funds.

Back End: All the profit from a finished film product. You want back end participation (ie, some of that money from the profit.) And you really want it off the back end gross if you can get it.

Blind Option: Somebody wants to option your property, but doesn't want you to tell people about it. Could be they're doing something underhanded, like sniping a property from a frenemy, or they don't want anyone to find out they're about to do a shift in tone, or they simply don't want to publicize a purchase- it's just something they're buying as an asset. Blind options kind of suck, because you get no PR from them. Then again, it's still free money that renews itself on a regular basis, so it's a suck that soothes itself.

Consultation, Script/Cast: Means they will ask you what you think of the script/cast. If you say something that makes them happy, they might even do it.

Credit: How you get credited is complicated and the rules for crediting are set forth by various guild contracts. As a writer, though, the credit you want for film is Executive or Co-Executive Producer. You get more money; they might listen to you about certain aspects of the production, they'll make sure you get invited to the premiere.

For television, you want Created By (money!) and Executive Producer or Co-Executive Producer (money and they might listen to you, or consult with you on the production.) Other credits you could end up with instead would be Based on a Novel/Series By, Story Consultant, Creative Constultant or Story By. (Less money, probably less involvement- courtesy titles.)

My People: Your film agent and your literary agent. It's totally legitimate to tell a producer who snuck up to your back door to talk to your people.

Property: What everybody around you will be calling your book. Once someone adapts your book into a screenplay, that will also become the property.

So, that's it from me for today. Have fun, good luck, and DON'T TALK TO THE PRODUCERS.

Since it worked so well last time, the AMPTP has, at the last moment, walked out on contract negotiations and dared SAG to strike. Will they? Probably. But SAG striking is more complicated than the WGA striking- sure, on the one hand, they have all the famous people that make people show up to see movies and tv shows, very much a position of power. But, they also have an overlapping guild, sister organization AFTRA, who can undermine their position.

AFTRA is the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and by its more sweeping title, as you can imagine, they cover pretty much anybody who entertains you anywhere outside of a feature film. They cover tv actors, news anchors and dancers, voice actors and singers, and even that weird guy who shows up on every show because he can pull a handkerchief through one side of his nose and out of the other.

Unfortunately for SAG, AFTRA is the AMPTP's greedy little lapdog. They've always felt like they were considered the lesser guild because of their emphasis on TV and radio. You know how literary authors look down on adult genre authors who look down on YA authors...? Well, in Hollywood, that hierarchy goes something like this: Producers > Directors > Movie Actors > TV Actors > The Guy Who Gets Your Coffee > Writers.

So AFTRA is in a position to royally stick it to SAG, and have been proven in the past willing to gobble up any old bone the AMPTP offers them. Not only can they undercut SAG's negotiations by making a deal of their own (they will keep tv running juuuust fine during the summer hiatus,) they have a chance to get some big ol' candy sprinkles by pissing SAG off in the process.

As you can imagine, this makes it difficult for SAG to start on a good, even foundation if they need to strike. And the AMPTP, already ticked at having been slapped in the face with an Internet fish with the writers' strike, is no longer in the mood to negotiate. They pre-emptively closed all productions after June 30th, just in case SAG decided to strike. After June 30th, actors have nothing to strike in particular, because their work was already shut down.

Historically, SAG strikes aren't as long as writers strikes, because actors are the face of Hollywood. And SAG goes into this strike with a splintered membership- earlier this year, a fairly vocal group of A-Listers (including George Clooney and Tom Hanks) discouraged the membership from an attempt to strike- when your money men aren't behind the effort, that hardly creates a united front. There's other turmoil in the ranks (namely an issue about which actors should be allowed to vote to ratify new contracts,) so put that together along with AFTRA's willingness- nay, eagerness- to stick the knife in deep, and I doubt we'll have an extremely long SAG strike.

But at this point, I bet we have one, because AMPTP has decided we will. So what does that mean for you, authors debut and established, and any film rights you might have on the table? Well, it might mean a slow down on negotiations. Since AMPTP doesn't plan to start any new productions until SAG's new contract is signed, they're in no rush for new material. However, they'll still want to protect their interests by acquiring as much material as possible to stockpile.

So film rights options will continue, albeit at a slower pace. For most authors, this is just fine- frustrating because there's no hurry to get it done, but fine. However, for the folks who were about to luck into a film deal (the one where there are actors attached and production is actually slated to start- you know, the kinds of deals where you make the big bucks) - don't expect to see any of them until the strike is over. The actors can't attach themselves during a strike, and the producers won't negotiate a film deal until they can get a look at a possible cast.

It's going to be an interesting summer, and it's all Laura Ingalls' fault. Melissa Gilbert detached the SAG contract schedule from the WGA contract schedule when she was SAG president. (She coupled it with AFTRA's contract, because she wanted to merge the two guilds.) That merger never happened and now, WGA and SAG expire at different times, instead of at once when they could form the largest, most solid film professional block at the negotiation table as possible.

Which means two, two, two strikes in one year, instead of one mercifully short one. Thanks a lot, Half Pint!

We've all been talking about film deals the last couple of days- so exciting to see everybody getting some traction! I figured I would pop in with another post about books into movies entry. Today, I'm going to cover film rights, film deals, and explain the glorious world of attachments and short attention spans.

1) Film Rights Sale: Not the same thing as a film deal. All a rights sale is, is a company saying "We may or may not ever make this book into a movie, but we want to have it in our vault just in case." It's a simple business transaction- and if your agent told you on or about the time your Lunch deal memo went out that a production company had shown interest, this is what they're looking at. I talked a lot about that here, so I won't bore you with repetition.

If you get a rights sale, you should assume you'll never see your book on screen. It could still happen, but it's not very likely. Likelihood increases the closer your book gets to being a New York Times Bestseller, or as someone famous reads and loves your book. Never fear- interest that started as a film rights sale can become a film deal. In fact, every film deal started life as interest in a rights sale. So what's a film deal?

2) Film Deals & Attachments: Somebody actually wants to make your book into a movie. Yay! Generally, this is a lucky confluence of events: two or more production companies see your book as a viable property. They're going to bid to win the film rights. When money starts flying, this creates buzz, and when there's buzz, directors and actors get interested. They can make a non-binding agreement to work on the project, should it come to production.

Well. If Angelina Jolie says she wants to do your movie, people scramble to nail down that deal. Your film agent might run with the single attachment. But, there's a good chance they'll let it be known that they have a Jolie project on the table, anybody else wanna get in on the ground floor? So, say Alfonse Cuaron likes your idea, *or* he just wants to work with Ms. Jolie, he'll attach- again, a non-binding agreement to work on the project.

Then, your film agent will be able to go to the interested production companies and say, "Hey, we have a package of this great book, Angelina Jolie as Princess Belly Bra, and Alfonse Cuaron directing. What would you pay NOW?"

As you can imagine, you'll make a lot more money if you get a film deal than if you have a simple film rights sale. However, the likelihood of your book becoming a movie at this point is only *slightly* better than if you only had a film rights sale. People attach themselves to way more projects than they can actually complete, so they can pick and choose when the time comes.

It's not unusual for people to drop in and out of a project- Peter Lefcourt's "The Dreyfus Affair" has been in pre-production for like 12 years, and they're on their fourth or fifth lead actor attachment. It doesn't cost actors and directors anything to say yes. (Unless you're Kim Basinger, and you say yes too late in the process, at which point it becomes a verbal contract. But I digress.) And part of the reason this in-and-out process happens is that everyfreakingbody in Hollywood is a magpie.

3) Short Attention Spans: Unless your project has some absolutely compelling magical shiny sparkle that makes everybody want to bring it back to their nests, your big giant film deal could suddenly go into hibernation. You could get a promise on Friday for a contract on Monday, and that contract may never appear. Hollywood has a very short attention span, AND they have a gluttonous wealth of material to pick through.

Consequently, it's easy for them to pass on deals that seemed done to the screenwriter or the book's author or whatnot. Death by silence is just part of the culture- when a project "goes cold," everybody abandons it for the next hot thing on the horizon. It's nothing personal. It sucks when you're the writer, but I promise. It's nothing personal. And there is hope.

Sometimes, for totally inexplicable reasons, projects that went cold can suddenly get hot again. Usually with a new attachment, sometimes if the original property (your book) does WAY better than they expected, or suddenly your genre has become the IT genre for next summer's movie. It's very cyclical, and completely incomprehensible, but you can take heart in this one fact:

Rights sale or film deal, you get paid before everybody else.

Money can't cure all ills, but it sure does sweeten the pill. :D And speaking of money...

4) Purchase or Option: When I say sale, of course, sometimes, I mean rental. Hollywood works on a system of purchases or options. I have no idea why one company decides to purchase rights outright, or option them. However, I know what the difference is between them, and you might well hear the terms come up.

Rights purchase or outright purchase is just that- they give you X amount of dollars for the right to exploit your property in film media in any way and at any time they want.

An option is when a production company rents the exclusive rights to your property for a specific amount of time. They give you, say, 50 bucks to be allowed to develop your book into a movie for two weeks. If, at the end of the two weeks they want to hold on to that exclusive right, they pay you another 50 bucks.

This can go on indefinitely, and in reality deals with a lot more money than fifty bucks, and much longer periods of time than two weeks. You can option a property over and over, to the same entity or to different entities, and as long as they don't overlap, it's kind of the goose that lays the golden egg.

An actual production cuts that goose open, and that's when you start hoping you had a deal with back-end participation.