Re: RARA-AVIS: Slayground

From: Allan Guthrie (allan@allanguthrie.co.uk)
Date: 31 Aug 2010

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    The point, tho, is not about the success or failure of series adaptations. If an author grants exclusive screen rights to a character in a deal for one movie, the screen rights to that character are held by the producer and nobody else can make a movie of any of his other books featuring that character. Westlake was just protecting himself and making sure his other Parker books could be filmed. Which worked out pretty well for him. Tony Hillerman once signed a movie option that prohibited him from using his own characters in any further books -- not movies, but books.

    Al

    ----- Original Message ----- From: "docsavage80" <docsavage80@yahoo.com>

    http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:519304

    By the way, the idea that Westlake denied the use of the name Parker due to people refusing to sign on for a comprehensive series of adaptations receives verification in the above link to The Austin Chronicle.

    However, Westlake evidently did not realize that almost all attempts to produce planned out R-rated adventure films or hard-boiled films have flopped, with Shaft as something of an exception. Remember when Kathleen Turner bought the rights to all those Sara Paretsky novels? We only ended up with one V.I. Warshawksi film. Since R-rated film series tend not to produce ancillary merchandise, few people tend to plan them out. Meanwhile, Harry Potter has all its entries turned into PG-13 or PG films.



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