hi this is tom malloy today we're talking about optioning a book or life story right for a movie [Music] hi my name is tom molloy i raised over 25 million dollars for financing movies i produced at the time of this video 16 films i've written 30 screenplays options sold or made to movies 24 of those screenplays and i'm starting a bunch of movies so i'm an encyclopedia on filmmaking all right today we're talking about optioning a book for a movie or a life story right so i did a video way back on optioning a screenplay and how that works and it's very similar but there's just a little couple different nuances meaning an option let's just i want to go back and define this an option is when you have a special contract it's an option contract you can get from any entertainment attorney where you're saying you have the option to make it like say that let's say this book and you sign the option contract for a specific amount of money and you have the rights to try to make that into a screenplay and try to make it into a film for a term right meaning it could be say two or three years or something like that and understand with the option contract is that if you don't uh successfully make that into a film in that in within that term then the rights revert back to the original writer so uh let's say that you want this uh book and you want to option that because you eventually ultimately want to make it into a film so you option it obviously you have to make it into a screenplay first and so you option to you have the right to make it into a screenplay and then the right to make it in the book in the option contract it will state that the person can't then try to sell to other people you know and i want tom making a screenplay and i also want bob and julie all these people making a screenplay doesn't work that way right that's what the option contract prevents is that they've optioned it to you now it happens i mean there's been times where i've optioned um screenplays and nothing happened with it so there was a screenplay in existence i put an option contract together tried to get it going didn't work it went back to the writer and that's what you have to understand is that all option contracts are not going to automatically work out the key is you can get an option on lesser known products for zero or basically you put one dollar in the contract and you don't actually give the person a dollar it's just a symbolic thing right so it's not always about uh you know having heavy finances try to option something but um if it's going to be something like a life story or a book that's out there and has a fan base then you're going to have to pay right so i remember one time being a young writer and reading a book of short stories by a very famous mystery author um and i said god one of these stories i'd really like to make into a movie and so what i did is i reached out directly to the writer just found and they'd said hey listen here's who i am i'd like to make one of your short stories into a film he said that sounds great here's my agent i called the agent talked to him and he said yes well this is what this writer got on the last option now at the time it was it was a big number right so it's not always that way sometimes an agent or manager will say you know like take a shot i'll make us an offer you know and then you offer five grand or something like that to be able to make it into something the same goes true for life right say you meet somebody and he's got this incredible story or she's done these amazing things and you go this would make a great movie the same thing the option contract is the same you're basically saying uh can i have the option to make this into a movie your life story and you don't try to sell your life story to anybody else in this time period until i'm successful or unsuccessful at doing it and so that's really what it is again if you need an option contract go to any great entertainment attorney they could put it together for you but it's a great way to know that stories books even older movies that are foreign films that you want to bring in and remake in the united states or life rights are optional you can option these things to make that into a movie for you and many times it doesn't cost that much money at all if you want more videos and training on filmmaking check out the link below also please subscribe to our youtube channel