Option agreements for film and tv – what should authors and copyright holders look out for?

I have previously written about option agreements. Why? Because they tend to be the starting point for most film and tv projects. A producer might read a great book – or come across any other exciting intellectual property – and their next step would be to contact the author or their agent to see if they would be happy to have their work optioned by the producer.

What follows tends to be a lengthy development period during which the producer tries to raise the budget, find a commissioner who loves the project (if it’s for TV or SVOD), or, if it’s for cinema, find a sales agent, and then to finally start principal photography.

I summarised my thoughts on option agreements in a list of 10 things that every party to an option agreement should be thinking about. You can read it here. I also pointed authors and producers to the key things to look out for in option agreements for tv and film here. And, to help producers, I wrote a blog post for Raindance on how to negotiate option agreements – you can read it here.

But what about the authors? To help authors negotiate the option jungle, I wrote a blog post for authors and copyright holders. The post was published by The Alliance of Independent Authors for self-published authors. Whilst it was targeted at self-published authors, I hope that the advice would be useful for all authors and copyright-owners, whether published or not. You can read it here.

If you have any questions about option agreements, then please feel free to get in touch with me here. As I am an English-law qualified solicitor, I offer advice on English law only. You can get in touch with your query or to book the call, here.