Mikayla
asked
Rick Riordan:
Hi Rick! I have a question about having a book adapted into a show/movie. Did Disney request that they get the rights to Percy Jackson, or did you propose the idea to them? Is that how it works for most book to screen adaptations, or something specific through your publisher? How much say do you get in casting, direction, script-writing, etc.?
Rick Riordan
Neither. It's complicated and involves a lot of legal contracts, but Disney automatically acquired the adaptation rights for Percy when they bought Fox about, what, eight years ago? Disney, however, was in a state of flux with a lot of executives and departments being shuffled around, so Percy wasn't really on their radar. We had to point out to Disney that they now had those rights and convince them to do something with them.
We had sold the rights to Fox way back in 2002. Like all such contracts, it's a "one and done" situation. Once Fox made the films, they owned the adaptation rights forever and ever. There was/is no way we could change who had the rights or sell them somewhere else. However, when Fox became part of Disney, we saw an opportunity to maybe get a new start with adaptations. It was an unusual situation, but we made the best of it. Becky and I were able to negotiate a producing contract which augmented our original 2002 rights contract and gave us a seat at the table in terms of all the decisions you're asking about.
"How much say?" I mean, I can't put a percentage on it, but we are involved in all those decisions as executive producers. That alone is VERY unusual for authors, who typically get zero say in their adaptations. Every decision around a TV show is a group decision. It's never just me, or any other single person, making the call. There are hundreds of people involved. I weigh in, absolutely. If something feels off to me, the team has been good about listening to my concerns and addressing them. I am more involved in some areas than others. I give notes on all the scripts, and read every draft. That's an area where I feel I can help. Directing? I don't know jack diddly about directing. That's an entirely different skill set, so I don't usually have anything to contribute unless I see something in the dailies that I don't understand, then I'll just ask. Casting, yes, again, we weigh in, but the final decisions have to be amenable to everyone -- show runners, producers, studio and network executives. I think we've been very lucky with the great actors we've gotten.
How does it "typically" work? As I said above, most authors have zero control over their adaptations, unless they are already involved in the film industry and are very savvy about that world. Otherwise, the film industry basically says, "Hey, we know how to make a film/TV show. You do not. We are putting up potentially millions of dollars and taking all the risk to make this adaptation. You need to let us do our job." Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it doesn't. The author's only real choice is to sell the rights or not to sell the rights. But getting control or even input? That's very, very difficult.
And once you've sold the rights, that's it. They are sold to that studio forever. You can't later change your mind and say, "Actually I don't like working with this studio anymore, I want to resell the rights and work with Streaming Platform B instead." The whole point of the contracts is to prevent that. The only way rights would change hands is if another huge company bought them out -- the way Disney did with Fox.
It's all very corporate and more complicated than I've just described, but I hope that helps answer your questions.
We had sold the rights to Fox way back in 2002. Like all such contracts, it's a "one and done" situation. Once Fox made the films, they owned the adaptation rights forever and ever. There was/is no way we could change who had the rights or sell them somewhere else. However, when Fox became part of Disney, we saw an opportunity to maybe get a new start with adaptations. It was an unusual situation, but we made the best of it. Becky and I were able to negotiate a producing contract which augmented our original 2002 rights contract and gave us a seat at the table in terms of all the decisions you're asking about.
"How much say?" I mean, I can't put a percentage on it, but we are involved in all those decisions as executive producers. That alone is VERY unusual for authors, who typically get zero say in their adaptations. Every decision around a TV show is a group decision. It's never just me, or any other single person, making the call. There are hundreds of people involved. I weigh in, absolutely. If something feels off to me, the team has been good about listening to my concerns and addressing them. I am more involved in some areas than others. I give notes on all the scripts, and read every draft. That's an area where I feel I can help. Directing? I don't know jack diddly about directing. That's an entirely different skill set, so I don't usually have anything to contribute unless I see something in the dailies that I don't understand, then I'll just ask. Casting, yes, again, we weigh in, but the final decisions have to be amenable to everyone -- show runners, producers, studio and network executives. I think we've been very lucky with the great actors we've gotten.
How does it "typically" work? As I said above, most authors have zero control over their adaptations, unless they are already involved in the film industry and are very savvy about that world. Otherwise, the film industry basically says, "Hey, we know how to make a film/TV show. You do not. We are putting up potentially millions of dollars and taking all the risk to make this adaptation. You need to let us do our job." Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it doesn't. The author's only real choice is to sell the rights or not to sell the rights. But getting control or even input? That's very, very difficult.
And once you've sold the rights, that's it. They are sold to that studio forever. You can't later change your mind and say, "Actually I don't like working with this studio anymore, I want to resell the rights and work with Streaming Platform B instead." The whole point of the contracts is to prevent that. The only way rights would change hands is if another huge company bought them out -- the way Disney did with Fox.
It's all very corporate and more complicated than I've just described, but I hope that helps answer your questions.
More Answered Questions
Lucia
asked
Rick Riordan:
hi! a general life advice question: assuming your career doesn't revolve around the arts/creativity, how do you intentionally make room for that while still being part of the rat race? I'm going into college soon & have no idea how I'm going to survive out there without the chance to foster meaning & beauty. how did you do it? does writing books as a career take away the magic & turn it monotonous? sos haha
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