The economic systems involved in art are very interesting to me. It is very interesting how they vary from authors, musicians, actors, etc... It might make for an interesting lecture.
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There's the saga of Art Buchwald, who sued for his cut of the profits from Eddie Murphy's "Coming to America"---not plagiarism, but their promise to develop a movie for Murphy from Buchwald's idea and then cutting him out of the financial picture---Buchwald won, and then the studio claimed a movie that took in, oh, about three hundred and fifty million dollars gross, didn't make any money.
Buchwald could probably have settled for fairly big bucks at any point along the way---but he always refused to sign a confidentiality agreement about it, being a writer and reporter and not wanting to be inhibited. This held things up and let the case go to the mat and the studios go to the mattresses---simply because they didn't dare have their arcane accounting practices studied or questioned by impartial non-Hollywood judges.
Studios complain about losing money on movies---but the truth is they skim something off the top in overhead, take no risk, and suffer no losses. When dealing with Hollywood, always get your money upfront, never sell all rights to anything, and see that what rights you do sell revert back to you after a specific time.
posted
I wonder if the same thing happened to Christopher Paolini. It's almost like he signed with the first studio that came to him and ended up with a total atrocity for a movie. I mean, it was nothing like the book at all, except for a boy and his dragon. Anyway, I don't know how much he made off of the movie, and I don't know if he signed for a good deal or not, all I know is that I will never let some studio take my story and butcher it like Fox did Eragon. If anything, I will do What Mr. Card is doing and write the script myself and hold out for a producer that might actually care about good story telling.
Posts: 25 | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:"When it comes to authors, they have sweated to create characters that resonate with a large audience. They have created a whole world. And they should be paid for it."
Of course I'm biased, but I think that, sensibly, most people would agree with the above statement.
The contrary reality shows the value we put on creative individuals. There's this perception, I think, that they're a dime a dozen - anyone could sit down and crank off a bestseller! (And looking at the quality of some NYT bestsellers these days, maybe they're right :P)
quote:I wonder if the same thing happened to Christopher Paolini. It's almost like he signed with the first studio that came to him and ended up with a total atrocity for a movie. I mean, it was nothing like the book at all, except for a boy and his dragon. Anyway, I don't know how much he made off of the movie, and I don't know if he signed for a good deal or not, all I know is that I will never let some studio take my story and butcher it like Fox did Eragon. If anything, I will do What Mr. Card is doing and write the script myself and hold out for a producer that might actually care about good story telling.
Given the quality of his writing, I would say that Paolini has already gotten more then he diserves. (I despise Eragon)
posted
Let's be honest. If Hollywood came a-knocking and offered me up-front money of £200,000.(and no-one else was bidding against them) for the opportunity to butcher my book, I would give then some serious consideration. After all everyone knows movies are never as good as the book and no-one will blame the writer. Plus the movie (even if it is bad) will generate more book sales.
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Does anyone know of any examples where an author approached Hollywood (or some indie filmmakers) to have their movie made, and things turned out well?
I know in Japan they've taken several novels, usually fantasy, and have made them into respectable television series, both live-action and animated. That doesn't seem to happen as much here...
posted
Maybe the lesson here is if you are looking to sell your works to be a movie is to keep an eye on foreign markets. I would not mind selling my works to a foreign market if they would be better to me.
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posted
The writers who had the best luck in Hollywood, financially if not artistically, were usually guys like Sidney Sheldon and Harold Robbins, who had worked in the industry before turning to bestselling writing and knew how to make it work for them...
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