Hello, my dear fellow-artists. I would like to know the difference/relevance of optioning a script and selling one. I have of course googled and read lots of articles and contents. But am still confused. I would like to know it with an example. Would someone please explain the entire process to me with an example amount? Thank you and love you all. Ben
Financing / Crowdfunding : Scripts - Selling vs. Optioning by Ben Gilani
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Simply put. A sale is a sale but an option is a lease. An option means that you get paid a small percentage NOT to sell you script to someone else for a certain amount of time.
Example - A producer offers you $1K to option your script for 1 year. You sign the contract and take the money. The next day a director offers to buy your script for $1M. You can't sell because the producer holds the option. Your script legally is ON HOLD, rented out to the producer..
The producer shops it around and if he gets financing, he offers to buy your script. If not, after that year the option expires you are free to sell to whomever you want, but that producer may offer you another $1K for 1 year, renewing the option. You can take it or not.
Hi Anthony, Thank you for teaching me that. But is it clever to option your script? I mean, what if you option it and then there's a producer willing to buy your script?
Also, the option Price/Fee is supposedly 1% to 10% of the Purchase Price. Yes? who would set the purchase price? Is it the same person/producer who options your script ?
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Ben Gilani Sell: Here's $100, thanks for the script, go away and don't come back, I really, really mean that. (says the producer). Option: Thanks for the $100 you gave me 6 months ago. You haven't gone into production yet and the option has run out. Pay me another $100 or go away and never look at my script again, I really, really mean it. (says the writer).
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Shadow Dragu-Mihai, this is the most artistic way of explaining the concept to me. Thank you very much. Beautifully described.
It normally works like this:
No-one's going to give you $1,000,000 for your screenplay if it's not going to get made! So what will happen is, you'll get a percentage (5-10%) of the total sum in advance, which is known as an "option".
If/when the budget is raised and the project enters production, you get the rest of your promised cash.
If the option expires, you're free to try to sell the project elsewhere, but the reality is: it's (basically) dead in the water - nobody (usually) wants to get involved in a project that couldn't even raise its budget.
If that was down to sucker producers, that's not your fault, but it's best to use the script as a showpiece and move on.
C. D-Broughton, thank you so much for explaining. Stay safe.