Re Terrill's comment below:
> Smarter than most
> writers, Westlake wisely put clauses in
his
> contracts when Hollywood (and
> France) came a callin' allowing the producers to
buy
> the stories of the
> various Parker novels they were interested in,
but
> not allowing them to own
> the character . . . Writers
> who write series characters
> and get courted by the movies should
emulate
> Westlake's business savvy
> whenever possible, otherwise a producer can tie
up
> two or more books just by
> optioning the rights to one. It's happened to
some
> pretty smart people out
> there.
One smart writer it happened to was Tony Hillerman who sold
(or optioned) one of the early Joe Leaphorn books to a studio
only to find that, unbeknownst to him, he'd also signed away
the rights (or at least options to the rights) to the
character, which not only meant they had some claim on the
rest of the series (and any future entries in the series),
but also meant the studio could develop original screenplays
about the character without regard to Hillerman at all. This
was one of the reasons Hillerman developed the Jim Chee
character. It allowed him to continue his series of Navajo
police procedurals without using a character who was already
in bondage to Hollywood.
JIM DOHERTY
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