Over the years, a number of my books have been optioned for movies. What does “optioned” mean? It means that someone, or some group, or some production company, has purchased the rights to start making a movie of the book. It doesn’t mean a movie will be made. It means a start to making a movie. A start might mean writing a film script. Or hiring a director. Or a host of other things. Or maybe the most important of all is raising money (millions) to make the film.
The actual making of the movie is a whole different and complex thing.
People pay money for such an option which is meant to last for X number of years. The purchase price for an option of my books has ranged from $1,000 to $21,000.
Over the years the books that have been optioned are:
Emily Upham’s Revenge
Night Journeys
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (It has been optioned multiple times.)
Nothing but the Truth
Crispin: The Cross of Lead
Something Upstairs
Let it be said none of my books has ever been made into a movie. True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle came closest when two weeks prior to the start of shooting, one of the star actors (and investor) was hurt in an accident, and the whole project collapsed. At the moment, it and Crispin are still under option, which means films just might be made.
Don’t hold your breath.
Filmmaking is both very complicated and very expensive. An option contract can be thirty pages long (single-spaced) and has a variety of clauses and conditions that have boggled my mind. It often contains the phrase “rights to all the known universe.”
One time when my agent was negotiating such a contract — which had that phrase — it was announced in the press that a new moon had been discovered circling the planet Pluto. Having a new grandchild, I asked my agent if she could reserve the rights (for that grandchild) to make a film of the book on that new moon. (Joke.)
Sternly, the agent replied, “Don’t even suggest it. They will think you know something they don’t. It will break the deal.”
One producer explained to me that making a movie was like building a very tall house of cards, the cards being script, director, actors, set design, cinematographer, editor, and on and on and on. (Next time you go to a movie look at all the people who are given credit for working on a film.) Remove just one of those cards — I was informed — and it will all come tumbling down.
One would-be producer wrote to me and said that he and his wife wrote horror films, which their children were not permitted to watch. “Our children asked us to make a film they could watch. Would I be interested in selling the rights to Poppy.” Sure, I said. I never heard from those folks again.
More recently a successful middle-aged film director asked me if she could acquire film rights to one of my books. “I first learned about it when you visited my elementary school forty years ago. I’ve always wanted to make a film of that book.”
Never underestimate the power of school visits!
Let it be said that in all of these options, I have never been consulted about how the film might be made. Once I did request a copy of the written screenplay. When I read it, I realized it left out what I thought was the defining moment of the book.
So I am well aware of how rare it is for a film adaptation to hew closely to the book, and more often than not will disappoint.
Then why give permission?
Simple. A film based on the book means that more people will read my book.
That I’d like to see.
1 thought on “Options”
Thanks, Avi. I always wondered how this works.