Another open forum question – from rajiv130:
Is is it reasonable to adapt a comic book for my first screenplay? It’s off the radar and several people have told me it would work as a film. I have zero industry experience/contacts/etc.
It’s a loaded question. Adapting anything presents its own special challenges. What narrative elements to omit is almost as critical a concern as what to keep. However with a comic book, depending upon how long it is, you may not have as many issues on that front as a novel.
And who are these “several people”? Do they have ties to the entertainment industry? Or just amateur comic book aficionados? If the latter, they may be right – the source material could make for a good movie. But what if they’re not? A more important question is if you believe the comic book will translate into a film. Do you have a specific vision for the story, translating into a screenplay?
But before you even consider any of that, you have to answer this question: Do you control the rights to the comic book? If you don’t, then it makes little sense to move ahead. Because if you spec a screenplay based on an intellectual property whose rights you do not control, your script is essentially valueless. Yes, based on the strength of your script, you may be able to convince a studio to secure the underlying rights of the comic book. On the other hand, there’s nothing keeping the studio from securing the rights without you attached.
I suppose if you’re just looking at this as something upon which you want to work to get that first completed screenplay out of the way, that is as a writing exercise, there may be some value in that. However why not generate an original strong story concept and write that? Then at least you have something you can try to sell.
One last thing: When you say “it’s off the radar,” have you considered if it is because of some conceptual or narrative deficiencies in the source material? It certainly feels like the studios are obsessed with finding great comic book franchises. Was the comic book you’re considering widely disseminated? Would studios already have considered and rejected the property?
But again, if you don’t control its rights, then there’s little point in writing a screenplay based upon the comic book.
In terms of getting the rights, you need to contact the writers and determine who owns the rights, then contact them and work out a deal.
Interesting topic. I always find myself critiquing and saying I can do better video game/comic book adaptations than what's being produced. But pretty much the bottom line for a newb like me, is I have to do some good original work before I can gain any assignment jobs or make pitches about comics and games i love.
Someday… someday…
Seeing some of the comic book deals over on donedealpro, I don't think any of them are off the radar.
I've even heard anecdotal stories of screenwriters doing small runs of an original comic just for the studios.
Scott -thanks for the feedback. And I don't own the rights to the comic and nor do I think I can afford them.
Grant – I'm not entirely sure about the status of the comic. But I'm confident someone will pick it up in the future – its too awesome to be overlooked.
I dont know if this is helpful but… I once read an article last year about a screenwriter who wrote a spec based on a comic book… now, he CHANGED all the characters' names and changed the plot around a little bit… and when he sold the spec to a studio, they decided to use THAT actual comic book and they got the copyright, so he was able to change the characters' names back to the original names from the comic.
So I guess, if you wanna write a spec based on a comic book, you should probably change all the names and maybe change it around a bit.
DIMA – That wouldn't seem right to me. Plus it would be difficult in this situation b/c the character is so unique that it would just come off as stealing.
There's a website devoted to comic book characters who are in the public domain. When it comes to adaptations, I'd start there.
Even I added a couple of those characters to my ever-growing list of ideas.
-MM