This is just a hypothetical question that popped into my mind this morning. Suppose you sell a script, say an intelligent-like disaster movie. And as it goes through the process of becoming a film it becomes a trite, contrived summer blockbuster. One that bears little or no resemblance to your original script. Is there any chance in the world of selling the original script again? And if so, how much different would the movie that came from it have to be in order to do something like that? (And I'm not necessarily talking about turning right around and trying to re-sell. But wait a time, like 10 years or something.) Can anything like that happen?
Screenwriting : Re-selling a script by Richard Allis
Re-selling a script
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The changes would have to be substantial. Even then the chances are the contract would prohibit the writer from selling the original script again. But perhaps in 10 years or something it could happen.
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Once you sell a script, it's sold. If you sell the brilliant version and they turn it to crap, they still own the brilliant version they bought. So you just write a bunch more scripts.
In my opinion, you're always better off moving on. If you write a substantially different version, you might have a chance of making a sale after 15-20 years, if the first one was hot enough at the box office. Otherwise, you're really talking about something bought or optioned but not produced. Certainly, an optioned property can be sold again after the statutory limit, I think it's seven years, but don't quote me, has been reached, it's still unproduced and it goes into "turnaround." You'd have about two years to shop it to new buyers and if someone buys, you owe the original purchaser the amount they paid to option it, plus interest, so that would come off the top of your new paycheck.
If you sell someone a car, you can't resell that car to someone else 10 years later. This is fundamental to the meaning of the word "sell".
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No. Once you sell it, you don't own any of the IP in it. It's theirs forever unless out of pure goodness they decide to give it back to you -- an unlikely outcome.
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If the movie changes that substantially during production, add a new title, pick new character names and voila...you have a new movie.
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Yeah, @Tony, you have a new movie and a copyright infringement lawsuit. To be clear: when you sell a script, you transfer the copyright of the script you sell. Whatever movie they subsequently make, they own your original script. You couldn't commit more blatant copyright infringement if you tried to sell Star Battles featuring the adventures of Han Solomon and Luke Skystroller.
What might happen if they take well-rounded historical characters and turn them into caricatures? Same thing? Can they own your interpretations of real people like that? Especially when they don't use them? When those interpretations would be available for anyone to come up with who has read a history book? -- And a side question: How often does anyone think Hollywood turns well-rounded characters into caricatures? How much of an issue is this?
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When they buy your script, they own it. They often buy scripts just to take them off the market because they have a competing project coming out. They still own those scripts. If they buy your car and paint it green and never change the oil and drive it like an idiot... they still own your car and you can't sell it.