Here's a new idea for a book/film connection that helps the author, Paolo Coelho, get media attention for his new book, The Witch of Portobello. The book has 15 narrators, and he is holding a competition for 15 film-makers to shoot the scenes that relate to each of the narrators.
These will then be stitched together to make a feature film of the book, which will be entered in film festivals and possibly will get commercial distribution.
It's not for amateurs with cell-phone cameras, because he wants high definition with perfect sound.
It's not clear that this is a great deal for the film-makers, because Coelho will keep all the rights to the film. Each selected film-maker will be paid 3000 Euros (about £2000/ $4000) for his or her segment. This may be fine as long as the film is showing only at festivals, but there's no mention of any profit-share if it gets commercial distribution, DVD sales, or TV rights, etc. In my view, he should consider the 3000 Euro fee as an advance against a small share of the commercial income, so I'm not touting this as a great opportunity for film-makers, but I do think it's an interesting example of an author doing something different.
If you want to read more about this on his blog, go here.
