Sorry if this is a stupid question with an obvious answer that I should already know or figure out without asking, or something.
So, say someone writes a spec script and someone else buys that spec script. I think I get that that someone else owns the rights to the film. But, does that someone else also own everything else, too? I don't know, I guess I'm talking about the story, the characters, and the fictional world of the script.
So, for example, though a production company bought the writer's screenplay, may the writer do other things with his/her story, characters, or fictional world that they created? May he/she, for example, go off on their own and write the novelization of the screenplay that they sold? Or, if not, may he/she at least write a different story with the same characters in the same fictional universe that they created?
Or, has the screenwriter's ownership of those elements and his/her rights to them been fully severed?
Does it all depend on the contract or the deal made with the purchase? Does that vary? If so, what's the standard practice or what are the standard terms? What can a spec screenwriter
expect?
For a hypothetical:
What if J.K. Rowling had written Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone the spec screenplay, not the published novel (which Warner Brothers bought the films rights to)? And what if she had sold that spec screenplay to Warner Brothers? Would she still have been able to write the novel version or the sequels as screenplays or as novels as she pleased, or would she have sold all such rights to do so when she sold that spec screenplay? In other words, I suppose, would Warner Brothers own all such rights to the world of Harry Potter, its characters, and any further stories that might be written or published about it etc?
Maybe this is an ignorant question for me to entertain, but I suppose I'm wondering if there is a different power relationship, of sorts, between a studio or production company with a published author from whom they want to buy the film rights with which to make a film adaptation of the author's book compared with a studio's or production company's relationship with a spec screenplay writer? Or perhaps more to the point, is there a difference between the rights or the ownership that the author retains versus what the the spec screenwriter retains?
So, say someone writes a spec script and someone else buys that spec script. I think I get that that someone else owns the rights to the film. But, does that someone else also own everything else, too? I don't know, I guess I'm talking about the story, the characters, and the fictional world of the script.
So, for example, though a production company bought the writer's screenplay, may the writer do other things with his/her story, characters, or fictional world that they created? May he/she, for example, go off on their own and write the novelization of the screenplay that they sold? Or, if not, may he/she at least write a different story with the same characters in the same fictional universe that they created?
Or, has the screenwriter's ownership of those elements and his/her rights to them been fully severed?
Does it all depend on the contract or the deal made with the purchase? Does that vary? If so, what's the standard practice or what are the standard terms? What can a spec screenwriter
expect?
For a hypothetical:
What if J.K. Rowling had written Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone the spec screenplay, not the published novel (which Warner Brothers bought the films rights to)? And what if she had sold that spec screenplay to Warner Brothers? Would she still have been able to write the novel version or the sequels as screenplays or as novels as she pleased, or would she have sold all such rights to do so when she sold that spec screenplay? In other words, I suppose, would Warner Brothers own all such rights to the world of Harry Potter, its characters, and any further stories that might be written or published about it etc?
Maybe this is an ignorant question for me to entertain, but I suppose I'm wondering if there is a different power relationship, of sorts, between a studio or production company with a published author from whom they want to buy the film rights with which to make a film adaptation of the author's book compared with a studio's or production company's relationship with a spec screenplay writer? Or perhaps more to the point, is there a difference between the rights or the ownership that the author retains versus what the the spec screenwriter retains?
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