Adaptation - acceptable?

[XCheck]

Hey Barry, Jarred:

My wife keeps telling me about this short sci-fi story she remembers reading as a child. We both agree it had a very interesting plot, but we don't know who the author was, and she doesn't remember where she read it - other than it was some kind of a magazine. It was more than 25 years ago, probably closer to 30.

If we adapt the story for a film, is that acceptable?

 

[Barry_S]

Jerr--Presumably that short story is copyrighted, so the short answer is no. However, you're free to use anything in the public domain.

 

[Zak Forsman]

speaking of which, anyone know a good resource for public domain sc-fi short stories?

 

[GenJerDan]

Jules Verne. Early HG Wells. Edgar Allan Poe (if you twiddle your eyes a bit)

Read this: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/sfhist.html

Scienc Fiction as we're using it here generally means stuff that's still copyrighted....but you can go back really far and find things to give you ideas...

 

[Norm Sanders]

Not to mention you can look at these stories for inspiration, and using the same general idea create your own unique take on it. When you stop to think about it, I don't know if there's anything NEW anyone could even do anymore ... it's all about someone's distinct vision of a story/character that can make it stand out from the rest.

 

[KingVidiot]

When you stop to think about it, I don't know if there's anything NEW anyone could even do anymore ...

Quite correct, at least as far as the basic plot is concerned. Depending on who you reference, there are about 7 basic plots, which can be expanded to 36 as described by Georges Polti.

Check these out:

http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Six_Dramatic_Situations