Posts Tagged ‘Screenwriting’
Turning Your Novel into a Screenplay, by David Farland
David Farland
(From David Farland’s Daily Kick in the Pants)
Recently I’ve been hired to turn my first Runelords novel into a screenplay. I’m nearly finished with the last book in the series, and I want to complete that first, but it’s not too soon to begin thinking about the challenge—and it is a challenge. Always remember that the book is not the movie. They’re different mediums. A book is long enough so that you normally can’t just remove the excess description and still have a workable movie. You need to simplify the plot—not all of it, just the right parts.
So as I prepare to write the Runelords screenplay, I think I should go over the history of the project, first, so that you can understand why I want to take on the challenge.
Many of you know that I began writing the book in 1996, or at least began plotting it then. I plotted the novel knowing that it had excellent potential as a film and videogame franchise, so I made sure that as I plotted it, I kept the special effects budgets fairly inexpensive (it’s easy to write a novel that would cost a billion dollars to make into a movie), and I paid attention to creating a story that I would want to see as a movie.
As the books began hitting the New York Times bestseller list, interest in them heated up. In 2001 I was invited to take a trip to China with some movie producers to see about filming the movies there, and I took another trip in 2002. I decided against working in China at the time, but began a development company in 2002 and helped raise millions of dollars to create the movie. more »
Evaluating the Value of Your Movie Option, by David Farland
David Farland
(From David Farland’s Daily Kick in the Pants—Making the Runelords Movie)
So let’s say that you’ve written a short story or a novel, and a producer comes along and wants to buy your movie option. How much is it worth?
That’s a good question. Right now I’m negotiating a large contract. When I first spoke to one producer, he was surprised that I’d ask for so much for the movie rights to a book (we’re into seven figures). But when I explained the reasoning behind the valuation method, he said, “You’re absolutely right. This property is worth millions—probably more than you’re asking for—, and I’m happy to sign.”
So you, as an author you want as much as you can reasonably get. The producer will of course will want to negotiate as good a deal as he can get. There will almost always be some dickering.
There are a lot of complexities to this, but here are some thoughts. Please note that these method of evaluation a price aren’t cumulative. You choose only one method.
1) In Hollywood, an “idea” for a motion picture is worth a minimum of about $25,000. I know this because a few years ago I met a writer who went to studios and pitched one-line concepts. If the studio liked the concept, “A story about a homeless man who lives under the Statue of Liberty,” they’d pay him $25,000. Now, this was eight years ago when I met the pitch artist, so if you adjust for inflation, you might be able to get that raised a bit.
This number gives you a minimum. If you’re a no-name author who just sold a short story, and the producer wants to base a movie on your story idea, but this is going to be a very low-budget production, then this gives you the floor amount for just about any property. more »
