If the option deal doesn’t go through, the author may, depending on the agreement, retain the initial payment amount and any renewal amounts received from the buyer and still keep the movie rights with the ability to sell them elsewhere.
Maximum percentage-based initial payments usually fall within 2. 5 to 5 percent of the purchase price.
The copyright search firm will be able to you help you, but their services may be expensive.
The rights and acquisition department should be able to tell you whether the film rights to the work are available, unavailable, or in the public domain. Public domain rights mean you can adapt and sell your adaptation without having to purchase rights from the author or the author’s estate. If the publisher does not control the rights, check with the author’s agent.
Buying a film’s rights outright allows you to completely control the work’s film rights up front, except for any agreements you may make with the author’s agent or whoever holds the rights before you purchase them.
The agreement may include rights to adapt the literary work into a major motion picture in addition to other routes, such as home videos, sequel or remake rights, advertising and promotional rights, or the right to change any part of the original work when adapting it into a movie.
