Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood

tessgerritsen.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 130 posts

Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood

#11

Post by dxhdr »

prawn wrote: post #8
dxhdr wrote: post #3

What's wrong with these people? Why couldn't Warner Brothers reach out to Tess and say "Hey, we're going to produce a sci-fi film based on GRAVITY. We'd like to work with you and are interested in re-negotiating your contract for a new version of the story." You know, acting in good faith. Instead they just screw her, no recognition, no money? How is that the default thought process for a company? This may be vindict…

"Instead they just screw him..." Just a quick correction, but Tess Gerritsen is female. Otherwise, I agree. Very unfair and they deserve what is (hopefully) coming.

Fixed thanks

Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood

#12

Post by comrade1 »

lisa_henderson wrote: post #5

Everyone should stop for a minute and imagine what would happen if this legal precedent spread to the tech startup world. We might then have situations where a highly experienced programmer might sign up with a startup, and sign a contract with that startup, but then have the contract declared null and void if the startup is acquired. I can imagine a "less likely" and "more likely" way this might play out: 1.) "less…

But that does happen, in way. The most well-known was Zynga - when they were getting ready to go public they did a claw-back on their outstanding options and shares. They screwed over a friend of mine that was one of the early employees.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240529702046219045770183...

Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood

#13

Post by mdturnerphys »

chrisbennet wrote: post #9

Even if they honor the contract she will get nothing besides being credited. Her contract states that she gets a percentage of the profits - and the movie will probably never make a profit. Return of the Jedi never made a profit "despite having earned $475 million at the box-office against a budget of $32.5 million" (Wikipedia "Hollywood Accounting") Very sad.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood

#14

Post by cdolan92 »

mdturnerphys wrote: post #13
chrisbennet wrote: post #9

Even if they honor the contract she will get nothing besides being credited. Her contract states that she gets a percentage of the profits - and the movie will probably never make a profit. Return of the Jedi never made a profit "despite having earned $475 million at the box-office against a budget of $32.5 million" (Wikipedia "Hollywood Accounting") Very sad.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

Crazy. I wonder what the follow up for Stan Lee's lawsuit was

Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood

#15

Post by logicallee »

LukeB_UK wrote: post #10
Mandatum wrote: post #4

I don't believe this is HN-relevant.

Derivative works and licensing are a huge part of the software development industry and open source. Edit: Updated for civility.

I upvoted you. Actually your parent should remain ungreyed as extremely civil and couched in terms of a personal opinion, which elicited a thoughtful response from you. If you delete your first sentence and downvote complaint we get:

  Mandatum 31 minutes ago | link

  I don't believe this is HN-relevant.
  reply

     LukeB_UK 28 minutes ago | link

     Derivative works and licensing are a huge part of the software development industry and open source.
     reply
Which is great insight to the thread.

Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood

#16

Post by arobertson »

chrisbennet wrote: post #9

Even if they honor the contract she will get nothing besides being credited. Her contract states that she gets a percentage of the profits - and the movie will probably never make a profit. Return of the Jedi never made a profit "despite having earned $475 million at the box-office against a budget of $32.5 million" (Wikipedia "Hollywood Accounting") Very sad.

If it is well known that the studios use various accounting methods to hide profits, why do the people in the industry still accept contracts based on profits?

Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood

#17

Post by bsder »

chrisbennet wrote: post #9

Even if they honor the contract she will get nothing besides being credited. Her contract states that she gets a percentage of the profits - and the movie will probably never make a profit. Return of the Jedi never made a profit "despite having earned $475 million at the box-office against a budget of $32.5 million" (Wikipedia "Hollywood Accounting") Very sad.

Yeah, there is a reason why everybody who negotiates a contract with Hollywood or the music industry asks for percentage of gross, not net.

Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood

#18

Post by LukeB_UK »

logicallee wrote: post #15
LukeB_UK wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Derivative works and licensing are a huge part of the software development industry and open source. Edit: Updated for civility.

I upvoted you. Actually your parent should remain ungreyed as extremely civil and couched in terms of a personal opinion, which elicited a thoughtful response from you. If you delete your first sentence and downvote complaint we get: Mandatum 31 minutes ago | link I don't believe this is HN-relevant. reply LukeB_UK 28 minutes ago | link Derivative works and licensing are a huge part of the software development indust…

Thanks for the input, I've updated my post for civility.

Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood

#19

Post by spiritplumber »

dxhdr wrote: post #3

What's wrong with these people? Why couldn't Warner Brothers reach out to Tess and say "Hey, we're going to produce a sci-fi film based on GRAVITY. We'd like to work with you and are interested in re-negotiating your contract for a new version of the story." You know, acting in good faith. Instead they just screw her, no recognition, no money? How is that the default thought process for a company? This may be vindict…

I think it's because large corporations without a public figure at the helm think like paperclip maximizers. There is a process that counts cost vs. reward for various strategies, and the most efficient one is selected. TW is big enough that they don't have to worry about their reputation taking a big hit from doing this once, or even a dozen times - people will still pitch scripts to them.

What puzzles me is why we hardly ever hear of military or even professional reprisals against these companies.

Re: My Gravity lawsuit and how it affects every writer who sells to Hollywood

#20

Post by greenyoda »

chrisbennet wrote: post #9

Even if they honor the contract she will get nothing besides being credited. Her contract states that she gets a percentage of the profits - and the movie will probably never make a profit. Return of the Jedi never made a profit "despite having earned $475 million at the box-office against a budget of $32.5 million" (Wikipedia "Hollywood Accounting") Very sad.

"Even if they honor the contract she will get nothing besides being credited."

She mentions that the contract also entitled her to a "production bonus", which sounds like some kind of lump-sum payment if her book is made into a movie.

Post reply on HN