SCREENWRITING: What’s an option?

Your first $$$ will likely be for an option on a script you wrote. An option is when someone gives you a certain amount of money (anywhere from $1 to $1,000,000,000) for the exclusive right to buy your script sometime in the future. This ‘sometime in the future’ has a deadline. Options expire after a certain amount of time (usually 12–18 months but negotiable). So essentially it’s a way to take your script off the market. It’s like an engagement ring.

Example: My superhero script PossumMan is loved by JOE PRODUCER.

Joe Producer gives me $100 to keep it under option for 1 year. If during that year, Joe wishes to buy the script he’ll pay me a pre-negotiated ‘purchase fee’ — say $100,000.

At the end of one year, the contract expires and I can shop the script again.

Usually, the option will have a renew clause where for a certain amount of $$ they can extend the time period. So Joe Producer might be able to pay another $100 for another year of option.

All of this is negotiable (if you’re in the Writers’ Guild there are guidelines both sides must follow).

The producer will typically send you a ‘hopefully’ straightforward contract. Getting it checked by a lawyer is advised.

During the option period the producer will try to do stuff to get the movie made — rewrites, attaching actors & directors, trying to get financing, etc.

Early on in your career, many slum producers will offer you $1 for the option (Ie — a free option). Most folks would say never to do this — why take your baby off the market for free?!!! Any producer worth dealing with can pay you something! Right?

But these freebies do sometimes pay off.

My first produced credit was off a free option. I made over six figures on that one.

I had a friend who had one with a ‘percentage of the budget’ purchase price on a super cheap option. He bought his first house went that one eventually sold to a studio and made into a 50 million film!

Also, sometimes you option scripts that have already been shopped and are otherwise gathering dust and just the potential of having someone work to get it made is worthwhile.

One word of advice, if someone wants a free or super cheap option…negotiate stuff for yourself in the contract. If you’re ‘doing the producer a solid’ then they should give you a payoff if the movie gets made. When folks used to ask me for a freebie — something I can’t do anymore because of my WGA-ness — I’d ask for very short option periods (3–6 months?) and bigger money on the renewal fee (this one is free, but the next one — $$). I also may ask for bonuses on the backend based on budget or other stuff. If you’re giving up a free option…you’re in a good spot to ask for something in the unlikely event the movie gets made. Don’t be shy. You’re the one doing the favors here!

Shopping Agreements:

Shopping Agreements are kind of like options without any money exchanged or the negotiated price.

Typically, it’s an agreement for a producer to ‘shop’ your project for a given period.

If the producer gets interest, they’ll have to negotiate an option or purchase agreement then — so you’d technically have leverage.

Sometimes shopping agreements can specify ‘who’ the producer is allowed to shop the project to and/or can actually be non-exclusive — ie — they don’t stop you from doing anything.

When I’ve done shop agreements it’s almost always on my dusty old scripts and usually for a short period of time — never more than 4 months.