ABSTRACT
Let’s get a few things straight right away. You may be thinking, “I don’t really need to read this part because I am optioning my friend’s script.” Or you are saying, “It’s my sister’s script, for heaven’s sake; I’m not going to ask her to sign an option, she’s family.” I don’t care whose script it is – you have to do the paperwork. It’s a business, right? Do the paperwork. Also, people can get really weird about their baby, “the screenplay.” I made that mistake early on with a very close friend of mine. She was the nicest, sweetest woman – very trustworthy. The minute we started to get solid interest in the script from some of the big production companies, the writer wanted the moon – extremely unreasonable and unrealistic. We had to walk away from the project and attempt to scrape the egg off our faces. If we had signed an option agreement with her and made certain that everything was clear on paper first, none of that would have happened.
