Ask Phil: Let’s Make a Deal

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Dear Phil,

The cousin of a friend of mine wrote a short story that I think is perfect to be adapted into a screenplay. I met with the cousin and we were both excited about the creative possibilities, but then he started asking me how much money there was in it for him, and how he would be paid. Of course I’m just a struggling screenwriter trying to break in to the industry, which I explained to him, but he still wants some kind of legal contract or document showing how he would participate in any money that might come through down the line. I don’t want to hire a lawyer or spend any money in that area, and I’m almost ready to walk away from the whole project, except for the fact that I love the idea so much. How should I proceed?

Signed, Let’s Make a Deal

Dear Let’s Make a Deal,

This is a classic situation, Let’s Make a Deal, so I hope you will take some comfort in knowing many other people have had this experience. It is very common, especially when starting out, to have the negotiations about a single project creative partnership lead to the scuttling of the project. People, especially those not in the industry, are often concerned that you, as a screenwriter, are going to take their Million Dollar Idea and rip them off, leaving them to be the guy in the bar pointing to that weekend’s box office domination of the movie that was really his idea.

One things I tell clients and screenwriters about these situations is, first of all, to try not to get caught up in the negotiations. Professional, working screenwriters have deals that break down all the versions of future profit participations for all the participants, and this is part of the deal in part because there is money involved in the beginning of the process. You sell a pitch, your agent negotiates the fee, and then you get paid to write it while signing on to the usually pre-negotiated future residual profit sharing terms. 

However, when it’s just you and a friend's cousin it’s a different experience. There’s often no money up front, which makes it even more important to this cousin to negotiate a deal that he feels will ensure he does not end up as the bitter guy at the bar bemoaning how he got ripped off. And the more you try to replicate the standard entertainment lawyer dealmaking experience that further you will get from the creative juice that got you interested in the project in the first place.

I suggest you try to explain to this cousin in simple terms how trying to negotiate every possibility for some future box office smash will strangle the deal. Maybe offer him a flat fee if you are able to sell this project as a pitch or a spec. But will happen if the movie gets made? If it becomes a hit? If it spawns sequels? Nobody wants to get involved in the legal and ethical morass that will develop if that’s the care right? You might be inclined to say no, but I say absolutely! 

Sure, the idea of some kind of dueling lawsuits and allegations of creative theft don’t sound fun, but I for one hope you end up having this problem, because this would mean that you wrote a script, sold it, it got made, and the movie ended up being a smash success! So one way to approach this problem is to satisfy the cousin with some kind of flat fee based on whether you end up selling the script or not, and agree to figure out any other issues as they come up, if they ever do.

Another approach doesn’t exactly help you in your current situation, Let’s Make a Deal, and that is to be more discerning about who (and if) you enter into creative partnerships with. It’s always cleaner for you to generate your own material, and to only join forces with people in the industry, like other screenwriters or producers, if at all. 

When someone at Thanksgiving asks you if you’d write their script, and you sit through their pitch and end up actually liking it, that’s the moment when you should actually put aside the excitement of a new creative project and consider if you really want to start this journey with this person hitched to your wagon. I know it’s serious screenwriter catnip when an idea hits and you can see the movie in your head, but often the involvement of someone else in the Big Bang of creative creation is a fatal flaw that can hang over you during the entire writing process. 

So either proceed with a skeletal agreement that satisfies this friend's cousin for now, and hope that in the future you’ve had such great success that you end up suing each other, or just drop the project and pick up something you won completely. Getting stuck in a dead end negotiation about a project that doesn’t yet really exist involving someone not in the industry will be a waste of time and energy that you can better spend on developing and writing your own projects. 

Therapist and screenwriter Phil Stark answers reader questions about topics at the intersection of screenwriting and mental health. Got a question for Phil? Email him at starktalktherapy@gmail.com