These days it's harder and trickier to get your original
content out there. No matter who you are someone is always looking to take
advantage or exploit you and your material. From web videos to movies someone
out there might have already thought of some aspect of your idea and feels they
are entitled to something for that.
For me this can be tough because I know that I love running
my ideas by people to gauge their reactions. This can make things tough because
if they offer one piece of advice and I use it in someway they have a claim to
my idea. Take Walking Dead creator
Robert Kirkman who recently settled a lawsuit with a former collaborator.
Michael "Tony" Moore states that he grew up with Kirkman and worked
on The Walking Dead and other
projects. Moore goes on to state that he was "duped" by Kirkman and
his agent to sign control of The Walking
Dead over to Kirkman. The deal would grant Moore 60 percent of "comic
publishing net proceeds," 20 percent of "motion picture net
proceeds" and future finical interest other projects.
Even though both parties allegedly had a deal this is a
prime example of how people can become greedy and risk the future of your work.
This is why you need to make sure everything you agree to is in writing,
especially when it comes to someone either offering their input or running an
idea across. Or just make sure you don't talk about it over email, text or aim
so there’s no written record of it (kidding).
Another problem these days is the Internet. In recent years
more people have taken to the Internet to either post their short stories for
feedback or as a means of just getting their material out there. They hope that
someone somewhere will see it and that will lead them to a manager or
publishing deal. By doing so they are making their material readily available
for someone to pick it apart and use it for their own idea.
The recent Santa Pawslawsuit against Disney is an example of how you need to protect your material
and be careful whom you give it to.
Ray Harter, Richard Kearney and Ed Corno are suing Disney because they
feel that the movies Santa Buddies: The
Legend of Santa Paws and The Search
for Santa Paws are unauthorized copies of their short story and script, Santa Paws: The Story of Santa's Dog.
The plaintiffs claimed they conceived of their Santa Paws in 1991. They also filed suit against former William
Morris agents John Ferriterand Barry Jeffery allegedly shopped the project
around to studios. U.S. district court judge Catherine Perry made judgment in
favor of Disney, ruling that the short story Santa Paws is not substantially
similar to Disney's Santa Paws.
The Santa Paws
case kind of leads into my next point and that is about remaking content that
has already been made. One of the things on my list that I want to accomplish
is that I want to be able to create a true Resident
Evil movie and not the films Paul W.S. Anderson has made. However, in order
to do this I would either have to write my script on my own and then hope that
Capcom and Sony Pictures like it or go about the way Mortal Kombat: Legacy was created and write and shot a short video
and hope it get’s Capcom and Sony’s attention.
Of course, if I go about the Mortal Kombat: Legacy way then I have to worry about Capcom and
Sony suing me for infringing on their copyrighted material. These days with
more and more remakes and reimagining’s being made it can be hard to know who
truly owns the rights to the project and everything associated with it. Kings
Road Entertainment is currently suing their former head of production SvenEbeling over the rights to All of Me.
Seems like Ebeling and West Coast Productions were working on a remake of All of Me with Dreamworks, but things
fell through. Ebeling was fired, but not before he alleged gave the rights of All of Me to WCP.
So should I try to get my idea for a Resident Evil movie made, I will need to make sure I go about it
the right way or I will be owing Capcom and Sony quite a bit of money.
Just by reading this it seems like the entertainment
business isn’t as fun and glamorous as most people think. It is a business were
you need to protect yourself and everything you create because the second
someone else gets a hold of your idea it’s gone. Then you’ll be sitting there
watching other people succeed on that one thing that could have launched your
career. That is why research is so important to everything you do and also
trusting the right people to handle your work because if they slip out you are
out of an idea.