John August

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Reading scripts at the WGA library

Education, QandA

I’ve been going through the past Q&As, and another place to read scripts for free is is the library at the Writers Guild, on Fairfax and 3rd in Los Angeles. While you do have to read the scripts there, it’s a pleasant environment, and the staff is very helpful.

–Blake
Hollywood, CA

I didn’t even know this library existed, so thanks for writing in. Another great resource is the Margaret Herrick Library on La Cienega, which is run by the Academy. In addition to screenplays, it has clipping files on many topics, and would be the ideal first stop for any research into Hollywood history.

The status of Barbarella

Dead Projects, Projects

Paul Wood from Essex, England writes:

I contribute to a Drew Barrymore fan site (The Drew Barrymore Collective). I was looking for updates on Barbarella because that’s the film I want to see more than any other. Would you be so kind as to give us an update on how the script is coming along? I’d be interested to know how far along the line the production process is and if the film is still on the cards.

Alas, unfortunately, all of the cards have been played. The project is dormant, and quite possibly dead.

To briefly recap the tumultuous history of Barbarella:

  1. Drew asked me to write Barbarella while I was working on the first Charlie’s Angels. Being a huge fan of Drew and the original Barbarella, I said yes immediately. This was in 2000.

  2. The underlying rights have always been a mess. Ultimately, Fox 2000 and Warner Bros. agreed to pool their respective rights and develop the project together.

  3. Based on the rights they owned, the studios could develop a movie featuring the Barbarella character, but not the plot of the first movie. This wasn’t really much a problem, though, because it’s not like the original movie had a masterful plot anyway.

  4. I turned in my first draft in April 2001, and my second draft later that year.

  5. I flew to France and met with Michel Gondry, who was Drew’s first choice to direct it. But he really wanted her for another movie (which hasn’t been made yet).

  6. Everyone got busy. I did the second Charlie’s Angels with Drew. Laura Ziskin, the other producer on the movie, did Spider-Man.

  7. In 2003, we got everyone back together to figure out what the next step was on Barbarella. Unfortunately, we learned that the rights situation had gotten much more complicated. Unless we could get the movie into production within the next nine months, everything would fall apart. We couldn’t, so…

  8. Everything fell apart.

  9. Now the script is in limbo. Unless someone budges, the movie can’t be made because it involves a character we no longer own. It would be a good writing sample for me, except that I have actual produced movies people can see.

So that’s the sad history of Barbarella. Hopefully, something will change and Barbarella will get her day in the sun.

Dead copyright holders, and being too young

QandA, Rights and Copyright

I read the section on your site pertaining to copyrights and adapting a book or novel to a screenplay.  My only question is, if the copyright hasn’t expired, but the author died some time ago, what is one to do?  I’ve started the adaptation, but I don’t know if I should continue due to my uncertainty. 

Also, I’m a young screenwriter, a teenager, and although I’m confident in my writing, will my age hold me back from breaking into the world of screenwriting?  Thank you very much for your time.

–Brandon
New York City

When an author dies, the copyright passes on to his heirs. For instance, Roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He died in 1990, but in order to make a movie version of his book, Warner Bros. had to negotiate with the executors of his estate to obtain the rights.

In your case, someone, somewhere owns the rights you seek. In all likelihood, the publisher is sending royalty checks to someone, so the standard advice (call the publisher’s “sub-rights” department) still holds.

[Reminder: It’s copyright, not copywrite; the past tense is copyrighted, not copywritten. I changed the spelling in Brandon’s question because it hurt my eyes. And yes, there is such a word as copywriter, but that’s a person who writes copy for advertising.]

As for your second question, yes, your age may hold you back from breaking into the world of screenwriting. But guess what? You’ll get older. Age is the only quality which increases without any effort on your part.

Article about Rawson Thurber in the June issue of Premiere

News

dodgeballThe June issue of Premiere magazine — on newstands now! — has a nice article on Rawson Thurber, who longtime readers will recall was my faithful assistant from ’99 to ’02. He wrote and directed this summer’s DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY, which I’ve seen twice and highly recommend. If you watch television, you’ve already seen his work; Rawson created the Terry Tate: Office Linebacker series of ads for Reebok.

DODGEBALL, which unfortunately couldn’t keep its original-and-better title of UNDERDOGS, began as a spec script Rawson wrote while he was working for me. In stark contrast to all the advice I give on this site, he wrote it specifically for Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn. Since he wanted to direct it himself, he had the foresight to create a funny and award-winning commercial campaign (Terry Tate), so that people would take him seriously as a director. He got an agent, got the script to Stiller’s production company, and within a year had a movie in production. It’s a helluva story.

This same issue of Premiere also features the annual Power List, which is always entertaining. So pick up a copy.