Recently I’ve thought about writing a script based on the 1982 movie The Border starring Jack Nicholson. What’s the protocol? Do I have to contact someone or just write the damn thing? And what about, when it’s done, I want to shop it (I mean, that’s the goal, of course)? Surely there must be some copyrights on the material. Just asking...

Steve

I think the issue will be that you don't own the copyright or have the rights holders permission... so you couldn't use the same characters etc...

Well I mean you could as a writing exercise but you'd not be able to exploit it commercially.

If you were to use it as base and develop a brand new story, no similarities in setting, characters etc then you may be okay.

I see. Thing is, it is going to be basically the same story, just updated for cultural reasons and such. The story, IMO, was so good. It deals with the border patrol along Mexico and, well, in America that’s about as current as it gets.

Well, to answer your question about copyright, yes someone owns the rights to the story and you'd effectively need their permission to make any derivative work (there's an exception for parodies).

Basically no film has passed into the public domain since Disney started making short films unless (1) the filmmaker explicitly chose a permissive license like Creative Commons or (2) it was shot by the government (which as a matter of law chooses the maximally permissive license, namely CC0 or public domain).

This means you have effectively one potential customer for your script. We just had a One Week Challenge a while ago where everyone came up with TV reboot ideas... knowing full well that none of them could ever be made.

I don't know the business well enough to know if there's any realistic shot of selling a reboot spec script, but if there is it only comes in two flavors: the right-holder buys/options it, or the rights-holder gives you permission to shop it around in return for some fee or cut.

You can only shop it independently if it qualifies as a critique or parody of the original work.

@Steven,

I get what you are saying -- believe me... there was a movie we wanted to remake, but ran into issues... we ended up writing it anyway.  But just words of wisdom for you... or anyone else.

Yes - copyright law applies to adaptatons and remakes and sequels... if you didn't create 100% of the story, you're in legal trouble.

Remakes are *assignments* - the producer (who owns the copyright) hires a writer. Same thing with sequels.

We try to write our own ideas and characters - just be creative.  This is what we ended up doing.

Ghostie

Thanks Frank, Ghostie and Anthony. It all makes sense. It was something that just came to me—just wondering out loud. But what a great movie. Nicholson’s the best.