Adapting a book into a screenplay.

shyguyfilms

shyguyfilms

Active member
Earlier last week, I was trying to think of a story that I could turn into a screenplay, and eventually a film, but I couldnt think of anything. So I asked one of my roomates what she thought. She said I should adapt a book into a screenplay, so the natural question of 'rights' came up. She told me that as long as a certain percentage of the story was changed, including names etc., I wouldnt have to obtain rights to the story.
My first reaction was that changing anything in the plot, would have the potential of changing the whole story.
So my question is this: Would changing a certain percentage of the story change the it enough to make it 'mine'?


If anyone wants to know what book iI was thinking of adapting, its "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky...
 
Changing 100% would :). I don't think you'll get away with just saying 'yeah, I based this on Joe Blogg's book, but I changed 60% of it'.

A better idea would be to either find a book that's out of copyright, or where you can option the film rights. Or heck, take the plot and characters from a Shakespeare play and change the setting, Hollywood has done Shakespeare ripoffs a million times before, they can always do it again :).
 
shyguyfilms said:
If anyone wants to know what book iI was thinking of adapting, its "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky...
Click to expand...


You're already in trouble... you posted what book... so anything close would get you into trouble with the book author because he can already prove you copied it... and changed it to meet your needs.
 
I agree with Mark G - there is no way to absolutely be safe from being sued besides to base it off of a story already in the public domain (I think the period of time is around 75 years or so). And something as well known as Perks of Being a Wallflower would probably be pretty recognizable even if slightly changed. To my knowledge, the only time percentages of whats changed matters is when scriptwriters are working on a rewrite and whether they get a 'written by...' credit. Safest way would be something original, or something you know for fact is public domain. Better safe than sorry - good luck!
 
If you're going to do a book protected by copyright, you're going to have to obtain the movie rights...whether optioning or buying.
 
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