I think 'Yes" Holli.

I think 'yes' too.

Ooh, coming in late to the s's discussion, but I've been wondering. What am I supposed to do with my name? It doesn't actually end in an s, just an s sound. But if the Buffistas are saying s's for everyone except Moses and Jesus, and I'm evidently not them, I suppose it's s's for me. Liese's. It looks funny. But not as funny as Liese S.'s message center, which, as I may have mentioned before, amuses me with the sibilance every. single. day. I may start using it as my standard mic check routine, instead of Jabberwocky.

Anyway, it's not an issue with my name name, just my pseudonym, which I rarely say, but I always vacillate before posting.

OK here's a question, not about writing, but about selling writing.

Suppose I've come across an old novel, a neglected novel by a famous and long-dead writer, and I think it would make a great movie.

Let's say it's the neglected Dashiel Hammett novel, The Maltese Pigeon.

I want to write a screenplay, an adaptation of this book.

If I write it, and send it off to a studio or whatever, what stops them from saying "oh yeah, good idea, an adaptation of The Maltese Pigeon" and doing it themselves?

(What would quite possibly stop them is the fact that most studio executives don't read books or even watch films, going by the story of the guy who changed the names in the screenplay of Casablanca and had it rejected by all the major studios without them recognising it. But apart from that.)

Assuming they did recognise it, and they didn't use any of the things that were specific to my screenplay, could they just grab the idea and go with it? I mean, I can hardly copyright the idea of a modern version of an old book...

Suppose I've come across an old novel, a neglected novel by a famous and long-dead writer, and I think it would make a great movie.

Okay, you are on VERY dicey ground already. How dead is long dead? A hundred years? Any less than that and it's still copywrited material that SOMEONE could make a claim against you. Children, cousins, original publishers, estates.

Second of all, most production companies don't take adaptions from unknown writers. If they wanted to do an adaption, they'd just go through the motions on their own. If they DID get inspired to seek out the original, they'd most likely discard your script. On the other hand, I'd doubt they'd actively steal from you.

Oh, and you'd be surprised about studio execs reading books. When most people in film or TV go home, the last thing they want to do is watch TV or a movie. Fiction does quite well in L.A.

Thanks for that, Victor, I was hoping you'd be around.

How dead is long dead? A hundred years?

Over a hundred, and are you sure about that figure? I thought it was fifty?

Anyway, in this case, not an issue. Say it's Jane Austen's novel The Maltese Pigeon that I want to adapt, and if I do adapt it, it'll be in a modern setting, so it won't leap out at you from the page.

What about that Othello thing, "O" that came out recently -- say some guy adapts it and doesn't tell them. Or does the fact that it's Shakespeare and lots of teachers will welcome the idea of a teen-friendly adaptation make them more likely to want it?

I think the cutoff is still hovering around 1922 -- it pretty much keeps getting moved back as soon as the Mickey Mouse copyright looks like it might go public domain. Depending on where you are (national laws vary) it's either all works written before 1922, or else where the author died before 1922.

it pretty much keeps getting moved back as soon as the Mickey Mouse copyright looks like it might go public domain

Cool conspiracy theory.

But again, not an issue. Long dead, children long dead, great-grandchildren long dead.

My main contribution so far is just having a brainwave in which the novel translated itself to a modern setting, so what I've really got is a pitch, like if you said "It's Othello, but with high-school basketball!".

Cool conspiracy theory.

Actually true, though, or I think publicly acknowledged, or something?

God I'm tired....

It's pretty well-known, I think.