I've got a script that's based on a true story, and while I have the life rights to the protagonist, there are a number of other characters in the story who are based on real people. To what extent do I need to get releases from those individuals? Most of them I'm not worried about, but the antagonist I kind of am, especially since there's a TON of evidence linking that individual to this story, so there's absolutely no way I could successfully argue that this isn't this person.
Producing : Releases from Real People by David Kassin Fried
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First, is this person a public figure?
The protagonist could be considered a public figure, I suppose. She's a blogger, speaker and activist whose website gets upwards of a million hits per year. The antagonist not so much.
It's a complex topic without an easy answer. If the person is not a public figure, he will have more ground to potentially file a complaint because you've taken his story without obtaining his rights. Check out this article, which may help give you some context - http://archive.fortune.com/2010/09/27/technology/Suing_The_Facebook_Effe.... When you say, "To what extent do I need to get releases," well, it depends on what you're trying to do. For example, if you're trying to sell the script to a studio, the studio might say, "We freaking LOVE it. We're comfortable buying the script now and dealing with the rights later. If we move closer to greenlighting the movie, then we'll put our lawyers to work in trying to get all the rights." Or they might say, "We like it. But there's no way we're spending a cent or another second on this project until you show us that all the rights are attainable." Or they might say, "We like it. We will buy it if you change all the characters to composites whose rights we don't need to obtain." Et cetera. That's why there's no easy answer.
Thanks Regina, that's a great article and it definitely helps. The thing is, I'm not taking these people's stories, I'm taking the protagonist's story, and everything is told through her point of view. There's even a line in the final voice over, "So-and--so isn't nearly as much of a bitch as I made her out to be." But from what you're saying, it seems entirely probable that a distributor will refuse to touch the finished film if these releases aren't signed, in which case we should get them signed before we make the movie, rather than after. In more detail, here are the characters we have who are based on real people: - The protagonist, whose rights we have; - Three people who are friends of the protagonist, and we should have no problem getting the rights; - The antagonist, who is definitely portrayed as a villain but who I might be able to get to sign a release through one of the protagonist's friends; - The protagonist's dad, who's only in two or three scenes, but whom she hasn't spoken to in a decade, and last time I spoke to her about him she said she had no idea whether he was dead or alive. Needless to say, he is not portrayed in a positive light. Unfortunately, doing a Google search I discovered a local news article written about him five years ago, so it may be possible to track him down; - Half a dozen others who are or could be changed to be composites. Seems like it may be time to pony up and pay a lawyer $1,000 to read the script and tell me how best to handle it. :-/
To clarify, "I'm not taking these people's stories" - maybe a better way for me to phrase it is "if you're telling a story about them" and they're not public figures, or if they can watch the movie and say, "hey, that character is clearly me."
Research media law and defamation torts, you will find your answer. You'll see how easy is to adapt on a legal way.