Advice — dina appleton

Are Sequels Fair Game?

Posted by Dina Appleton on

I am interested in writing a sequel to someone else's movie. I was wondering, do I need permission from the original filmmakers, or can I just write the screenplay and market it as one of my own spec scripts? Margaret C., Far Hills, NJ Dina Appleton & Daniel Yankelevits respond: Great Question. Here's the answer -- you are free to go ahead and write the screenplay -- but purely as a showcase of your work. Any potential buyer of the screenplay would be precluded from exploiting it in any commercial way without separately securing the underlying rights. Sometimes (though it's...

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Can I Keep the Rights to my Characters' Images?

Posted by Dina Appleton on

Duane Eaders of WA asks: Is it possible to retain the rights to your characters -- names, appearance, etc. -- once you have sold your screenplay? For example, what if you have developed a character/person/creature that you intend to expand into a franchise of multiple films, toys, games and so on... (like Gremlins, Jack Ryan, Spy Kids)? How do you continue to legally create the screenplays and all of the spin-offs if the purchaser of the original concepts owns all the rights attached to your screenplay? Our Experts Dina Appleton & Daniel Yankelevits respond: Unfortunately, it is extremely unlikely that...

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The Ins and Outs of TV Series Writer Deals

Posted by Dina Appleton on

The television business has undergone a dramatic change in recent years. In the past, studios would lavishly spend millions of dollars on long-term development deals with TV writers referred to as 'overall deals' in the hope that during the two to four year term of such arrangements (during which the studio is paying the writer's overhead plus a salary), the writer will create a hit show for the studio. Those days are now gone -- unless of course you're Dick Wolf or David Kelley!Nowadays, a writer is typically engaged to perform the initial step of writing a pilot script, and...

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