Animation : Stories from the public domain by Mike Boas

In the US, works from 1927 or earlier are available to adapt and build upon. https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/

This trailer was well done! Thanks for sharing Mike Boas

Mike Boas What an excellent point. I definitely have considered this and I think a lot more filmmakers should -- You also have the freedom to tweak and adjust the IP -- Treasure Island? No, Treasure PLANET. See? -- and there are a ton of great works to choose from. The obviously overused options are Oz, Peter Pan, and Wonderland; but there's also 20000 leagues under the sea, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and a ton more. I've actually been thinking this might be a great way to get some feature films made on an low-budget scale -- any screenwriters interested in a brainstorm?

Mike Boas Speaking of this idea -- Someone recently had success at Storypros with a screenplay based on Public Domain IP-- https://www.stage32.com/lounge/stage_32_success_stories

Langley Coleman, you absolutely should! Also, love the shoutout to Treasure Planet! That movie is so underappreciated.

Mike Boas, thank you so much for sharing the list of public domain properties, that's so helpful!

The Asylum makes these films to capture the popularity of big studio releases, and they are called Mock Busters. The strategy worked really well during the DVD days.

I have a couple of public domain projects in the works, but are for an older audience and are not based on the traditional fairytales that often get remade.

Bob Harper, that's exciting though! When it comes to these public domain projects that we've experienced in various forms already, untraditional aspects in new adaptations are what excite me the most. I'm looking forward to when your projects are far along enough for you to share details and discuss them. =)

Thanks Ashley Renee Smith I have a bunch of stuff going on, hopefully I'll get to talk about those projects soon.

Thanks for sharing @Mike, it's a great point to make! I often go back to classic stories as a base to inspire new projects :)

I have a certain respect for The Asylum, which is relying on brand confusion or at least curiosity from those interested in the “real” IP. It’s just funny in this case that they’re totally in the clear adapting the public domain Little Mermaid. Just stay away from any Disney specific elements, and you’re golden.

So another reason to do it is to grab an audience that is looking for content that feels familiar. I may like vampires in general, but I’m definitely going to check out a new Dracula adaptation. It’s the reason remakes get green lit — brand recognition. So if there’s a story with a potential audience, you get something for nothing. That was part of the appeal for me in doing a Lovecraft adaptation. There’s people who will check it out just because of its source material.

I was thinking about this earlier. Not just animation but public domain. Grimm was a successful TV series. There's a graphic novel company out of Philadelphia that reimagines PD works like Little Red Riding Hood as a sexy Russian spy and they have been successful with film & TV development (one of their graphic novels became the series about Van Helping's granddaughter). It's really ripe terrain for creators and can give buyers a little confidence that audiences are experience something familiar, even if in a new way. Great post and topic.

That's so true, Mike Boas, the built-in fanbase is definitely appealing. I mean, I'm excited to see the new film, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which is coming out this year because it expands on a part of the Dracula story that has never been explored in depth before. If it were simply a vampire movie set on a boat, I probably would have been less interested.