Producing : Question for Producers, Managers & Agents (or anyone who can speak with experience to this topic)... by Arial Burnz

Great question - as a writer, I think all that you do to help yourself sell your stories and get them made, is good for you. As a producer, I want all the ip involved with the story and would not accept any piecemealing. Good luck and keep creating!!

Cherelynn Baker - Thank you so much for your input. I would agree with you regarding anything we do that keeps us writing is good for our craft and getting it sold.

From the producer standpoint, would you mind clarifying about the "piecemealing"?

I'm thinking you might mean that if you read a screenplay based on a novel, you want to be sure that all the rights to the story - novel, movie, etc., - are included in the rights you own for the IP. Is that correct? So then...if an author writes a screenplay based on their novel, that's a done deal, meaning all in one package, yes? So it's more about the rights and less about the audience?

Thank you again for your speedy reply!! This really helps.

It's always good to have your own IP. If you can show it has audience that's even better.

Dan MaxXx Hi, Dan!! It's been a long time since we've chatted. Hope you're doing well. :)

I will have to respectfully disagree with you about the novelists writing screenplays, as I am a novelist and I also write screenplays. As Robert McGee said, it's good for a writer to explore different mediums to become more well-rounded.

However, I do know of several producers who do indeed have their own go-to professional screenwriters to write adaptations.

But the question was NOT SHOULD a novelist write a screenplay. The question was IF a screenwriter ALSO had a novel behind a screenplay they'd written (which came first doesn't matter), would that increase their chances of getting that screenplay sold?

Thanks for chiming in, though.

Martin Reese - Thank you for your reply!

What Dan MaxXx said. A studio exec told me that if I came across a book that had good sales, and had a good story to let him know. All the studios have book scouts in NY looking at galley proofs to see what to option or buy.

Dan & Lindbergh - That's what I kinda I figured. If a book isn't selling, why would they want to get attached to the project? I had actually thought that if one had a book already published and then wrote an adaptation, the first thing the studio would look at is the audience. How many reviews...or lack thereof. I would think it would hurt a screenplay if the sales of the attached book wasn't at least bestselling status. Thank you for your input, gentlemen.

Does anyone else have a case in point to share that would prove otherwise?

I have mentioned about this before in an older post..

My answer is: "Yes" and "No" in a way.

Yes, "some" Producers will have an eye on the user base of the published book, it's market value and demographic need to see it as a film.

and

No. Most producers what I have seen specially among American studio backed producers, writers, filmmakers whom I have heard in many forums, care less about "Novel turned Script" or it's users base because novel based is writer's artistic merit driven and their film studios and films, scripts they work on is more "tried and tested genre" or formula based. Producers lean more of an art agnostic or take safe bet investment mindset just with genre formula films. It's sad but that's the reality.

For instance, yesterday I was listening to a discussion on clubhouse by producers and few Agents, Managers. One Ex Producer proclaimed most American studios look for Genre specific films, predominantly Horror or Thriller aligned with emotion, is the easy for global sales of their film. And the way most spoke seemed like they care less about writer, forget talking about novel, hardly anyone cared any form of artistic expression of novelist or writer's freethinking mind or liberty of expressing a story or of screenwriter and more being specific on what genre they expect and are willing to sell.

They said if you are well known writer, director and have good cast than trying mixed genre or such as novel based is "thinkable" , or else best approach to make film and earn is going with genre and in a way formalism driven.

So the context is that Novel will have bigger emotional arc and multiple genre fused in a way to help the readers take their own time to read through for long hours and characters change too is bit complex. However turning that into 2 hour movie is not only issue with IP rights but also to keep the essence intact for the prior readers accept the movie and to get acclaimed Novelist + Director + Actor combinations is a tricky match and it gives less liberty for Producers to do changes in the script later on or even to predict the profit is bit hard.

I'm not saying formulaic movie is bad or it doesn't have art or not taking any moral stand point, but sharing the perspective of how producers look at profit.

In Eastern demographic films though be it Indian or Iranian or Japanese, Korean or Chinese, the approach to get funding or producers willing to try novel or book is different and it's not formulaic or structure but more of a story, plot in any way so "novel" format is well received, appreciated and most follow traditional approach so do producers, studios,here are willing to workout even just reading the novel itself.

Though new studios will ask for the user base of novel but most producers, studios definitely will give high consideration for the novel based script. We don't have a Genre or ACT structure centrist film making approach but a recognizable Script form is good enough, not even the way most specific scripts as we see in Hollywood.

So if you are American novelist, screenwriter, you have bit more rules, restrictions, hurdles in a way to get "YES" from studios.. As an American writer, novelist, you got to be lucky to find Studios or producer reading your novel and willing to produce that film all by novel itself, but there is fair chance it's possible in Eastern film circuit.

There is a fun Indian movie, "Dhrishyam" . It's two part movie on murder. It got family drama, thriller, murder mystery. This is common in most Indian films where you see multiple genres, sometimes novel based or even songs too, we hardly follow too strict rules and people expect to break the rules. Do watch this Drishyam movies as you will see how films are made, and the the main character not only handles the family drama, murder mystery but also writes a novel alongside plans of making his film. It's fun ride. There is another movie called "Andhadhun", which would be interesting watch. That movie was based on short film already being made. Its murder mystery too.

Rohit Kumar - Excellent input! Thank you so much for your in-depth reply and opinion. MOST appreciated. :)

Arial Burnz Thank you for taking my inputs positively. I sometimes speak in a way which might offend people due to cultural differences, but I'm just being blunt, honest with what I have personally observed seen experienced. However there is a novelist screenwriter Julia Cameroon whose book, "The Artist's way" is well known among American writers, and I believe you might have read her book too. Her approach, methodology which she writes/speaks in her book more aligns with how we Indians write or make film or any art form. Like her Morning pages method is more inline with Indian culture, we have something called "Brahma muhūrt"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmamuhurtha) where we work early morning. It's most common practices in many work, art forms here in India.

So if it's possible for you to get in touch with her, you might get some insights on how to turn your novel into film.. I heard her speeches on youtube, she seems fun, loving, jovial, beautiful woman. I feel she might help you more in your journey.

https://juliacameronlive.com/Boost of luck

Rohit Kumar - No worries, Rohit! I took your comments in the spirit they were intended - to be helpful. I actually posted this question because I honestly DON'T want to turn my novels into screenplays. It's a pain in the ass. LOL I have a ton of ideas for screenplays and was trying to decide which projects to work on and was trying to pick the projects that might have more of a chance of getting seen. If a book will NOT help drive more interest to my screenplays, I'm happy to write new story ideas for the screen. I wanted to know if my efforts would pay off better in the end. It seems it would only cause more work with about the same results. Thank you again!