John August

QandA

Getting ahead of copyright battles

Rights and Copyright

Copyright claims are nothing new in Hollywood, but I don’t remember anything quite like this. Eriq Gardner looks at two lawsuits filed by producers of an upcoming Emma Thompson film trying to establish that her screenplay doesn’t infringe on existing works:

In February, Effie Film LLC, the production company behind the coming new film, sued playwright Gregory Murphy. The company hoped to get a declaration that Thompson’s script didn’t infringe Murphy’s play entitled The Countess, which also covered the Effie affair.

Last Friday, Effie Film brought a second lawsuit –- this time against another writer, Eve Pomerance, who in 1995, copyrighted a screenplay entitled The Secret Trials of Effie Gray.

Both Murphy and Pomerance are alleged to have threatened Thompson if she went ahead with plans to make her Effie. In the latest lawsuit, it’s alleged that Pomerance’s lawyers asserted that Thompson’s screenplay is substantially similar to the 1995 registered screenplay.

Thompson, who is represented by Andrew Deutch at DLA Piper, wishes to rest all controversy lest she complete the film and then be hit with legal action from other writers. Her concern is understandable in light of the fact that Hollywood studios get hit all the time with claims from writers alleging copyright theft.

Can potential copyright claims be cleared pre-production?

It’s not a question of can; in general, copyright claims must get cleared before production, because insurance bond companies insist upon a clear chain-of-title. When adapting a book, that’s pretty clear-cut — either you have the rights or you don’t.

Here, it’s more problematic. Copyright doesn’t protect ideas (such as the Effie affair), but rather the unique expression of ideas: story, characterization, scenes and whatnot. Copyright lawsuits almost always occur after production — in the case of In Time, shortly before release, to create the greatest impact.

A preemptive lawsuit is an interesting strategy. I’m fascinated to watch how it plays out.

How kids become screenwriters

Episode - 6

Go to Archive

Scriptnotes, Television, Transcribed

John and Craig look at the new fall shows and how little kids become screenwriters, with discussion of D&D, Malcolm Gladwell and daisy-wheel printers.

For this installment, I wanted to focus on how people become screenwriters. Not “how to” — there are countless terrible books on that. Rather, what is it that calls people to such an atypical career, one that you can’t necessarily practice as a child or learn all at once in college?

Links:

You can download the episode here: AAC.

UPDATE 10-11-11: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

How The Sopranos killed The Godfather

Television

Peter Aspden remembers when TV wasn’t art, and certainly wasn’t something to talk about seriously:

When I was growing up in the 1970s, the lowliest form of cultural consumption was to stay home and watch television. All other art forms, any other art forms, were fine. To have made the effort to leave the house, travel to a temple of culture and see a performance or exhibition was proof of a refined engagement with the arts. To slouch on a sofa and be in thrall to a grotesque diet of cop shows, quizzes and soap operas was to opt out of culture altogether. […]

How different things are today. At the beginning of the 21st century, there is nothing sharper in the cultural firmament than American television writing. You don’t have to brave the multiplex or pay exorbitant theatre ticket prices to watch the most compelling drama, the most scabrous satire, the most committed actors. […] The ultimate act of cultural immersion used to involve going to see a Polish mime troupe in a downtown warehouse that couldn’t afford its heating bills. Today, it is to sink into a DVD box set for an evening of home-comfort transcendence.

It’s an oft-made point, but: the main reason you don’t find many big-budget feature dramas — or even breakout indie dramas — is that cable television has sucked away that audience. It’s a vicious circle: feature dramas tank, which makes studios even more reluctant to greenlight them, so the audience who would see them stays home and enjoys another excellent season of Mad Men.

But for writers, it’s not altogether bad. If you wanted to make a story like The Godfather today, would you do it as a feature or an HBO series?

Sure, I’d love for Hollywood to make more serious feature dramas, but I wouldn’t give them up for the outstanding series we have on TV right now.

Working with directors

Directors, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

In episode four of Scriptnotes, Craig and I discuss migraines, kidney stones and zombie apocalypse preparations before we segue to the main topic: how screenwriters work with directors, from the first meeting to on-set etiquette to giving notes in post.

Screenwriters and directors often come at a project from different directions. The writer is trying to explain the movie he’s already written; the director is trying to explore the movie he’s planning to make.

By understanding what a director wants and needs, you stand the best chance of getting your movie on screen in a way that satisfies both of you.

Links:

You can download the episode here: AAC.

UPDATE 9-24-11: The transcript of this episode can be found here.