I believe you'd need to go to the publishers and discuss Optioning the Film Rights to the material. You won't have to worry about them thinking you want to take the publishing off their hands!

To be on the safe side as far as your own IP goes, it would be best to write your screenplay first, then perhaps use that in your pitch trying to get the rights - because they'll be able to see how you used their material, and you have something to prove that if they were evil and went and made your movie without you, that it IS your movie.

Morgneto, Master of Morgnetism

Thanks Morgneto. That's basically what I was thinking, but thanks for confirming I'm heading down a decent path.

Phil

I'm not a lawyer. For legal matters that could affect your career, I suggest a lawyer over people posting on a messageboard.

Morgneto is correct that acquiring the films rights doesn't have anything to do with the publishing rights. But Morgneto is dead wrong regarding the advice to write a script without owning the rights. Think about it this way: kebl takes the time and money to buy the rights to this material. Morgneto writes the script first and presents it to the owner (now kebl) and says "this proves I wrote it first. It IS my movie". Would it be evil of kebl to say, "Sorry. I own the rights, it took me three long years and lots of hard earned money to get them. It's not your movie, it's mine."

It's not a matter of anyone being "evil", it about ownership and the rights of the author. If you write a script based on material you don't own, that script is not yours to copyright. The owner of the material is within their rights to ignore what isn't, legally, yours. But in reality, no one will listen to your pitch, or read your script in the first place.

Using your example - the Anne Frank diary cannot be adapted into a stage play or screenplay without the adaptation rights being purchased. You can write about a particular historical event but you cannot use details published only in a diary without permission.

But I'm not a lawyer. I may be wrong. If this is something you are serious about, contact a lawyer. Do not write the script, hoping that you will be protected.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

That's not really what I meant. He said he didn't want to pitch something, then have that company turn around and buy up all the rights themselves, making the film without him. Not that he wanted to claim that he had rights that someone else already purchaed off the author simply because he had a script.

I'm no expert of course, but in my estimation having a screenplay for a pitch shows your style and dedication to the material. Of course this draft script would not contain the diary materials, because like you say the copyright is not up for grabs on that.

Morgneto, Master of Morgnetism

I think it depends upon what you mean by a historical event. If you're talking an event specifically told from a real person's point of view and that person is in living memory (Anne Frank as opposed to Lincoln or Julias Ceaser) you are going to have to get permission.

If the event is something like the Titanic, and you're characters are all fictional but some diary gives you details on how the boat went stern up and the band played I think you are pretty safe as long as those details are not specific to the diary writer and you leave that person out.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA