Legal rights and Author question

[kicktheball]

I recently hired a writer to write a screenplay based on my story. I paid him a nice sum and worded the contract to give me complete “rights” for any adaptation or usage in the future.

I also wrote a large incentive bonus into the contract if the screenplay made it to production. Unfortunately, the script came out like a bad after school special and I ended up changing 48 percent (based on lines) myself. We couldn’t get anyone interested until after my iteration was complete. Now, we have many interested parties.

Question: I am assuming that I can at least share the screenplay writing credit based on the fact that it was my story and I had to re-write half of it myself.

I also think that the bonus $$$ figure should be cut in half. This is fair…but is it legal? The initial contract didn’t cover the potential of a deliverable that needed to be fixed.

[NoNeckJoe]

The initial contract didn’t cover the potential of a deliverable that needed to be fixed.

Sounds like the terms of the contract have you cornered. I did some work-for-hire a couple years ago, and if the script ever went into production, regardless of what revisions the script went through, I was going to see a considerable bonus (of course it never did). But had the producer turned around and told me the script had changed so much, it was only fair to reduce my bonus, I would've said fine, I'll see you in court. Just my take on the situation having been on the other side of the fence. Good luck with it.

[AaronB]

"The initial contract didn’t cover the potential of a deliverable that needed to be fixed."

Next time you'll know to think of this. You want to get an entertainment industry lawyer to vet these kinds of agreements anyhow.