Adapting a book, ever tried it?

[nixonten]

A particular book I know would I think make a good film. It has a story with events and stages as written.
I can buy the 'rights' for 2 years. It seems affordable.
Any comments would be interesting to hear. Especially if you were successful.

I adapted a classic children's book (with permission) for the stage. I think it worked, but this was only a youth theatre.

If you want to make the film yourself - why not? Double-check what rights you're actually buying, though.

If you want to write a film adaptation and try to sell it to a film company - don't. They may think 'great idea!' but as ideas cannot be copyrighted, they'll simply wait until your 2 years are up, buy the rights themselves and get a professional writer to write the adaptation.

Good for you, OP. I've only ever worked on my own original ideas.

The only two comments I have are:

1. are the rights available for more than two years affordably and what is the detail around expiry? It can take time to polish a script, secure a deal, get financing in place, start filming and so on. Two years might mot be enough.
2. once you have secured the rights, it might be an idea to get a producer on board in the right space for your prospective footprint/budget sooner rather than later.

Good luck.

@RoseRedCityHalfAsOldAsTime

If you want to make the film yourself - why not? Double-check what rights you're actually buying, though.

If you want to write a film adaptation and try to sell it to a film company - don't. They may think 'great idea!' but as ideas cannot be copyrighted, they'll simply wait until your 2 years are up, buy the rights themselves and get a professional writer to write the adaptation.

This. A friend (a very high-profile and prolific novelist ) has had several of her novels optioned for film, and none has ever made it into production despite having, in two instances, very well-known actors attached to the script.

Thanks for all the comments. More to think about.