As a film producer, I’m always on the hunt for new screenplay ideas. I’ll often browse bookstores looking for recommended novels with stories and characters that could translate well to the big screen.
It’s certainly a tried and true formula. Of the 96 Best Picture winners, 43 of them have been based on books.
If you’ve got a great book that you’d love to adapt into your own screenplay, here are some tips on how to option the rights and get it made.
DO YOUR RESEARCH
Once you’ve identified the book or article you’d like to adapt, read up on the author and find out if they’ve optioned the rights to their books in the past. Do the same thing with the publisher. See if you can find out the terms and the production companies involved. If it’s an author with a lot of film adaptations, like Cormac McCarthy or, of course, Stephen King, there will likely be a model that you can follow.
REACH OUT TO THE RIGHTS HOLDERS
This is where you make your case to the author or publisher. Oftentimes, the rights holders may be interested in licensing their work for adaptation, but they want to be sure they sign on with the right creative team. Let them know what you have in mind and why you’re the perfect person to translate their work to film. They want to know that you care, and that you’re invested in maintaining the integrity of the story they’ve created.
PITCH YOUR TERMS
Once you’ve established a correspondence and gauged their interest, it’s time to negotiate the terms of a potential option. This is where it’s wise to involve entertainment attorneys or agents who’ve been through this intricate process before. But if you’re solo and keeping it simple, find examples of other option agreements and terms, and decide for yourself what the length of the option period should be and how much you’d be willing to pay or commit to raising for the rights. Write a proposal and present it to the publisher or agent, including research on the marketplace, competing stories and your capability of getting the film made. Sell yourself and your talent, and if you do it right, the author will want to sign on to work with you.
DEVELOP THE SCREENPLAY
You may have already written a draft or two of the screenplay you’d like to write. But once you arrive at the stage where an option agreement is drafted and signed, you’re ready to dive in and make it real. Remember, you have a limited amount of time to write and secure financing for the film before your option expires. But for that window of time, the story is yours to seize. You’ll have to weave some magic to get a deal with a production company, but this is why you signed up to write films in the first place. Take the story and the characters you fell in love with and make them come alive for you and for an audience. And do this before your option expires.
PITCH YOUR PROJECT
Once you’ve got the perfect draft, it’s time to pitch the whole package to producers. Leverage the author’s interest in collaborating with you and the production team. You can also try to self-fund the project, like we’ve done here at Bardya Pictures, through crowdfunding sites and co-producer agreements with professionals from your own or other industries. But whoever you pitch to, it’s time to put on your best marketing hat and convince the purse-holders that your story will resonate and, most importantly to them, will make a healthy return from box office and streaming contracts. Show them examples of projects just like yours that have provided good returns for investors. But remember, just like on set – the Story is king. Sell your story.
EXERCISE THE OPTION
If you get through the gauntlet of negotiating terms, writing a genius screenplay and securing funds for production, it’s time to exercise the option and pay the rights holders the agreed-upon amount for adaptation. Once they’ve been paid, the production can proceed, and you can start to identify ideal directors and talent – in collaboration with the author, if you so choose. And what author hasn’t had opinions about which actor should play their creations? Use their vision and inspiration, and then, as a writer and creative producer, be assured that the final decisions are best left to you.
So there you have it. If you want to see how it feels to adapt a book, start with a classic that’s in the public domain, like a Sherlock Holmes novel. And if you feel you’ve got the chops, find that incredible page-turner and try to make it your own.