Once you or your agent has sold your screenplay to a producer, that\u2019s the end of it, right? Not necessarily. The studio is now the de jure author of a screenplay, essentially holding all rights that come along with copyright ownership. However, writers have managed to carve out a few of those rights to keep for themselves. These are known as separated rights. <\/p>\n
\nTo receive your separated rights, you need to do one of the following: <\/p>\n
\n1.\tWrite an original story (treatment) or screenplay and story, and receive \u201cstory by\u201d or \u201cwritten by\u201d credit for doing so.
\n2.\tWrite a story (treatment) or screenplay based on underlying material (novels, plays, etc.), but create a substantially different story than the one contained in the underlying material, and receive \u201cscreen story\u201d or \u201cwritten by\u201d credit for doing so.
\n3.\tWrite a story (treatment) or screenplay based on underlying material that you do not have access to (e.g. an out-of-print book). <\/p>\n
\nClearly, the most typical way a writer receives separated rights is by being a credited writer on an original. Another important point is that separated rights are assigned for story authorship, not screenplay authorship. \u201cScreenplay by\u201d isn\u2019t enough to get you separated rights. You need to either receive \u201cstory by\u201d for an original or \u201cscreen story by\u201d for an adaptation. Since the \u201cwritten by\u201d credit includes a credit for story authorship, that also qualifies. <\/p>\n
\nNow that you know what qualifies you for separated rights, let\u2019s look at what they actually are. <\/p>\n
\n1.\tPublication Rights: You control the right to publish the screenplay and books based on the screenplay. The studios still have the right to employ a writer to create a novelization of the screenplay, but they must offer that job to you first, and even if you decline to write the novelization, they must still pay you a minimum fee.
\n2.\tDramatic Stage Rights: After the release of the film, the company has two years in which to produce a stage version of the screenplay. If they fail to do so, the writer now controls the right to produce a stage version.
\n3.\tSequel Payments & Credit: If the company produces a sequel to the screenplay (for theatrical or television), the writers with separated rights receive WGA minimums for those sequels. In addition, the writers get a \u201cBased on Characters Created By\u201d credit for theatrical sequels.
\n4.\tMandatory Rewrite: If you sell or option a spec, you must be offered the first rewrite. This separated right is obtained prior to the awarding of credit. Obviously, it ceases to be relevant once the first rewrite is complete.
\n5.\tMeeting With A Production Executive: Works on the same basis as Mandatory Rewrite. If you sell or option a spec and then do your rewrite, the company must let you meet with an executive before they fire you. Basically, this gives you the right to grovel.
\n6.\tReacquisition: If original material (in the case of reacquisitions, material not based on any pre-existing material) has not been produced within five years, the writer has a two-year window within which to buy back the literary material, and may do so as long as the material is not then in active development. “Active development” includes when a writer is employed on the project and\/or when other above-the-line players are employed on a pay-or-play basis. The writer’s two-year window starts five years after the completion of the original writer’s services or five years from acquisition, whichever is later. That time may be extended if the material is sold or optioned to another company. After the two-year period, the writer’s right to reacquire expires under the Separation of Rights provisions, and the writer must negotiate directly with the Company. To reacquire the material, generally the writer must buy it back for the amount the writer was paid for the purchase and\/or writing services. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once you or your agent has sold your screenplay to a producer, that\u2019s the end of it, right? Not necessarily. The studio is now the de jure author of a screenplay, essentially holding all rights that come along with copyright ownership. However, writers have managed to carve out a few of those rights to keep for themselves. These are known as separated rights. <\/p>\n
\nTo receive your separated rights, you need to do one of the following: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayfortunes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayfortunes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayfortunes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayfortunes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayfortunes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayfortunes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayfortunes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayfortunes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayfortunes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}