So you’ve found a book, video game, short story, or comic that you just absolutely love.  You love it so much you want to bring it to the big screen.  Great.  The world is waiting.

The only thing you have to consider now is: do you have the rights to do so?

Most artists don’t like to deal with the technical and business side of writing, but when it comes to adaptation, it’s essential that you understand what you’re getting into before you throw your blood, sweat and tears into a 120 page script.  
Before you start, ask yourself this question:

Who Controls the Rights to the work you want to Adapt?

A: Someone big and important (a bestselling author, a famous organization, a Hollywood studio) owns the rights.  If this is the case, there’s really no fighting it – this story isn’t available.  I’m all for sticking it to The Man, but if The Man has billions of dollars and wants to adapt it himself, you’ve got a big problem.  One of the easiest ways to find out if someone big and important owns the rights is to Google the title of what you want to adapt with the words rights (Ex: “Alice in Wonderland + rights”).  This doesn’t always provide answers, but you can bet if someone already has their velvet gloves all over a work, it’ll be there.

B: The author owns the rights and is not willing to negotiate with you.  If you know the author of the work you want to adapt, chances are you can find contact information for them.  If you inquire about their interest in optioning the rights of the work for film adaptation and they send you an unequivocal “no”…well, there you have it.  They don’t want to share.

C: The author owns the rights and is willing to negotiate on an option or even handing the rights over to you completely.  Once you’ve contacted the author/owner of the work and find out they are open to the idea, it’s now time to decide if you want to go this complicated process alone, or hire a lawyer.  The reason a lot of people go the lawyer route is because if even a stitch of paperwork is out of place when it’s time to go into production, the whole project can get derailed.  If you feel confident in your research and bargaining capabilities, then you could certainly try to acquire the rights yourself – just remember, a handshake is great when it comes to friendship, but when it comes to money…get it in writing.

D: The work you want to adapt is in the Public Domain.  Basically, PD means that the author’s copywrite of the material has expired, and it’s just floating around to be interpreted.  Shakespeare’s works and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytales are two examples of things that are now in the Public Domain.  THIS is a great site to teach you about when and how something goes into PD, and THIS is a great list of works currently ripe for the taking.

We all know you’re a fabulous storyteller, but before you start devoting yourself to a masterpiece, make sure you’ve done the first and most important part of any adaptation – fighting for the right to have the rights.