Many writers dream that someday their story or script will garner interest from someone who wants to develop it into a film or TV project. Usually, the first step is where that someone, maybe a producer or a production company or even a studio, offers the writer a contract known as an option agreement. As with all such matters where art meets commerce, every writer should have a literary agent and an informed lawyer advising them about their business dealings once they get to this stage of the process, where the creative spills over into the business world.
An option agreement at its most basic is a contract whereby the writer grants to a producer, production company or studio, for a period of time and for a payment, the right to make a film of the writer’s book, story or screenplay. The three main material issues that usually arise in negotiating such a deal are the length of the option period, the amount of the option payment and the purchase price if the project comes to fruition. How each of these issues will be resolved will vary depending on the negotiating leverage of the respective parties (i.e., whether the writer is a beginner or has had prior success in the industry and whether the producer is an experienced player or just a fledgling production company trying to get traction).
