OPTIONING A SCREENPLAY

One of my ex-students read a great screenplay recently. He thinks it could make a fantastic ultra low budget independent new media film (for under 400k). He asked about the process of showing the script to two potential backers but he’s afraid he might get cut out of the loop.

He wants to try to produce the script himself. He plans to option the script before he shows it to his potential backers. He then plans to give them the general idea about the story but when it comes to optioning scripts, he doesn’t really know how to go about it.

The writer of the screenplay is non WGA and she has not sold anything prior to this. My ex-student wants to be fair to the writer, but also doesn't want to tie up much of his own money if the deal fails to go through.

To maintain control of the project before he shows it to his backers, he will option the script for six months by paying a nominal fee of one dollar. The option for the script (for this or any other price) will be a contract stating the purchase price the writer will accept as the price for the screenplay.

With a planned budget of 400k, if the deal is acceptable and if he obtains the financing, the usual fee to purchase a script is 5% of the budget. Because he wants to pay as little as possible, he plans to try to get the script for 2.5% or 10K but this agreement will be subject to bargaining with the writer.

©2008, Stanley N. Lozowski. All Rights Reserved.