Recently, I stumbled upon a musician who is currently and probably permanently incarcerated, and I'm fascinated by his story. I want to write a script about it. Now, I don't need speculation, I need facts--If I were to write the script on spec and submit to festivals, could I get sued?
Thank you!
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Ask for his life rights. Then you can sell it. If not fictionalise it. Why take the risk? The benefit isn’t big enough to offset the risk.
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The basic answer to your question is yes, but not for the reasons you’d like. I once reported on a lawsuit filed by a man who accused his neighbor of killing his dog and burying the corpse in the wilderness without a shred of proof except that the dog was missing. In a wild turn of events it all turned out to be true, but the premise of the suit demonstrates that anyone can sue anybody for any reason they’d like. The ONLY option you have is to speculate. So yes, you could get your pants sued off if an overly-litigious person finds out you submitted to a festival. Money and opportunity do ride on those events. Question is how much legal exposure you’re comfortable with and whether or not you think you’re in a defensible position against anyone who may sue you. If you think you are, don’t worry and submit away.
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There really isn't such a thing as life rights. When you get permission from someone, you're settling up front that they won't sue you and they will potentially give you access to non-public information.
If they don't grant you the permission, you can write what you want that is "publicly available" (court documents and press related information). This is why the Lifetime channel gets away with all of these bio-dramas. If you don't get permission, you do have to be careful about defaming people with speculation. Private individuals that don't have public information readily available are difficult to write about if they don't participate. Public people usually have enough information to put together a story.
The first step is to secure what information you have and run it by a lawyer and see if there will be issues.
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Christopher Phillips I am not a lawyer, but I have heard some very professional writers such as John August and others discuss life rights.
A google search gave me this:
https://www.romanolaw.com/2016/09/30/life-rights-agreements-need-know/
They have a longer name. But I think they are just referred to as “life rights”.
Craig D Griffiths Yes. That's just what people call it.
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Screenwriting is tough enough, my friend. Don't make it any harder:) Stay away from the 'life story' and 'real person' scripts. Take the most dramatic situation in the character's life, create a fictitious character and change minor variables for an original story.
Why can't you contact the guy and figure out how to get his permission? That would seem to be the most prudent way to go about this.
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Hey Craig D Griffiths, Stephen Floyd, Christopher Phillips Shawn Speake, Dan MaxXx, and John Ellis--Let me first say, thank you. I would like to add some texture to this. There have been articles written about the man where I got my information from. This does give me some protection. However, obtaining life-rights may be a little difficult because the prison he's in is for, well, the mentally unstable. So, I hope that sheds a little light on the matter.
Thank you again!
-k
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Perhaps propose a documentary, work with a filmmaker. Get permission. Interview people. Without doing so, your piece will be missing authentic nuance and lack the person’s own insights. It will be mostly speculation and conjecture. Depending, you may also need to deal with copyright issues if the public information is really just one or two articles. Can’t really claim much if you are clearly using one published source without getting permission from that publication and/or the writer. Film rights to articles are purchased all the time. Now to switch to your subject’s side, personally speaking, if someone created something about my family member without getting permission and projected falsity, certainly if the person may be incapable of making decisions or unable to defend himself due to being mentally unstable, then I would push back publically and/or sue. The other possible problem could be the prison. Anyway, documentarians rather tend to (not always) operate like journalists. They get signed permission. Talk to all relevant parties. Get various points of view. Get permission to film in locations, etc. Seems more a fit for what you are hoping to do. ;)
Keith Hannigan do you know what the visitations are like? Is the musician allowed visitors?
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Write the story, change the names. If it's a good story, it'll hold up.
I have done this. my boy won American idol in 06. I wrote a movie with that one component - overnight success. he read the freaking movie - five years later - and was impressed. I took that one nugget - him and his story - and created something absolutely different. if any of you were to have done this - you'd know it's easy if you have a higher level of story craft.. anyone can do it. you're going to have to change the story so freaking much anyway - to make it even close to a worthy movie. add new sequences. heighten intensity, add dramatic impact, new characters - basically create a new fiction worthy of cinema... it won't even resemble the real story when you're done. most real-life stories are fender benders and Hollywood demands killer crashes.