MOVIEMAKER.COM WINTER 2019 21INDIE LAW
COURTESY OF FOCUS FEATURES / PHOTOFEST
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
B.S. & M.F.A. IN MOTION PICTURES
ON THE SCREENWRITING TRACK
COM.MIAMI.EDU/CINEMA-INTERACTIVE-MEDIASHORTS FEATURES PILOTSshot her much older lover Joey Buttafuoco’s
wife Mary Jo in the face. Every news outlet
covered the story. Three television movies
were made by three different networks. One
network secured Amy Fisher’s life rights, one
secured Joey Buttafuoco’s life rights, and one
secured the rights of the newspaper columnist
that covered the story more extensively than
anyone else.
If anyone can make a film on the subject,
does having rights help in any way? The real
value is supposed to be that you’re getting
inside information that no one else is getting
from the person whose life rights you have ob-
tained. But in a more practical sense, studios
simply feel at ease when some rights—any
rights—have been secured. When you begin
a pitch by stating that you hold rights, third
party buyers’ ears naturally perk up and they
take the pitch more seriously.RIGHTS ARE A COMMODITY.
ALWAYS BE AWARE OF WHAT’S AT ISSUE
AND WHAT YOU’RE GIVING AWAY
If a big company is providing the financing
for your project, then they are going to want
to secure the entire copyright, including all
ancillary rights. Your goal is to carve out little
pieces to make sure that you, too, are a part
of those ancillary rights. But what’s always
shocking is when a small distributor, or, say, a
foreign sales agent, presents an independent
moviemaker with a sales agency contract,
and the language in the contract grants that
foreign sales agent “rights in all media and
formats presently known or hereafter created,
including ancillary and derivative rights
throughout the universe in perpetuity.”
While this language makes perfect sense
in a situation where a studio is fully financ-
ing your project, it’s absurd when the sale
agent is merely picking up the film after
its been made, and only for a term of yearsduring which he or she tries to find different
territorial buyers for your film. Under these
circumstances, why would the sales agent
have any rights to a sequel or remake? None
of the ancillary rights should be on the table
with that type of buyer.SECURING THE RIGHTS IS EVERYTHING
I had the privilege of representing
Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz, the
primary screenwriters of Spike Lee’s 2018
feature BlacKkKlansman. Wachtel and
Rabinowitz have keen business savvy that
allows them to spot great story ideas and
secure those rights early for themselves. They
found the obscure 2014 autobiography of
Ron Stallworth, the African-American
Colorado Springs police detective who
infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s, at a
time during which it hadn’t generated much
buzz among literary critics or made its way
to the bestseller lists. Still, the screenwriters
recognized that the book would make a great
film, and more importantly, they were able toreach out to the author directly and secure the
rights, ensuring them the ability to take the
first crack at writing the script and obtaining
co-producer credits.
Producer David Klawans has developed a
winning business model by hiring writers to
pen compelling, yet somewhat obscure stories
he plants to entice movie backers. For exam-
ple, it was Klawans who recruited L. A. Weekly
staff writer Joshuah Bearman to write an
article for Wired in 2007 about a CIA mission
during the Iran Hostage Crisis, which Klawans
and Bearman sold to Smoke House Pictures,
and which ultimately became the 2012 Best
Picture Oscar-winning box office hit, Argo.
Presently, multiple films based on articles that
Klawans either read or commissioned are
in development. These projects include
Uncatchable, based on an article about a
modern day Robin Hood, and Jailhouse Rock,
based on an article about a prison guard who
organized a singing contest for inmates.
Finding these diamonds in the rough and
developing them, or having the knack to sell
industry financiers on a unique vision as to
how these projects can be exploited, can result
in success. The only thing a producer has to
do is spot the right projects and fight to hang
on tight to his or her control of the project as
it gets further developed down the line.PURCHASE RIGHTS UP FRONT
So, how do you go about securing rights?
If possible, you can always outright pur-
chase them from the original rights holder. If
a small author or magazine writer has a story
and you approach them, wanting to convert it
into a screenplay, some people are so tickled
by the notion that they may outright sell you
those rights for cheap. Perhaps they’re willing
to sell all rights for $20,000 plus five percent
of the profits you make from the film. Perhaps
they want a bit more, or perhaps you can buyNO KIDDING: TO STAY IN THE PICTURE, HOLD
ON TO THE RIGHTS TO YOUR PROJECT LIKE YOUR
NAME IS ROBERT EVANS