Books Into Movies

I've been reading a lot of message board posts and blogs about books becoming movies. A lot of them are saying some books are becoming movies when they aren't. The Mortal Instruments, for one, isn't becoming a movie yet. The rights for that book haven't even been sold to a studio who could make it into a movie.

I don't think many people understand what it takes for a book to be made into a movie. First the rights to the book must be brought by a studio who is interested in possibly making the book into a movie or television sometime. If a studio buys the rights, they have a certain amount of time in which they can move forward and make the book into a film/television show. However, just because the rights have been brought and the book has be optioned to become a film does not nesscarily mean it will become one. It just means that the studio can either invest money to make it a film and begin work on possibly making into a film, by hiring screenwriters and producers and such. However, many books whose rights have been sold and optioned to become a film never make it past just that and never make it to screen. Many studios decide they won't make the book into a film/television show because it's to expensive or other reason and the rights will expire. For example, A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray was optioned to become a film, but it's not going to be a movie anytime soon. Libba sold the rights to a studio about 4 years ago and talked to producers and film makers, but when the rights expired for the second time this year the movie wasn't going to happen.

To read more about making films into movies here's two good blog posts from Scott Westerfeld and Libba Bray.

Everyone keeps saying Uglies is becoming a film, it may but at the moment it's only been optioned by a studio. Mortal Instruments hasn't even had it's right sold. Cassie has answered this question many times and you can read more about it here in here FAQ.