Copyright laws

I needed to find a book to adapt and it had to be out of copyright, I started looking into what the restrictions are on copyrights and it’s 70 years after the author’s death.

I went through a list of possible books to adapt, they was a couple of criteria they need to check – around pre 1920 to ensure they were out of copyright, preferably hadn’t been adapted or at least not in the last ten years and strong character development as I wanted a character led narrative.

From a list of best books from the 19th century I came up with this list of possible books for adaptation:

The Red House Mystery, The Canterville Ghost, The Time Machine, Three Men in a Boat, Brave New World, The Velveteen Rabbit, As I Lay Dying, Tender Is the Night, The House of Mirth, A Room with a View, The Age of Innocence, Howards End

Out of this list I found that the best two options were Age of Innocence or House of Mirth, I’m familiar with Edith Wharton which I thought would benefit me in the script writing process. Both novels have been turned into films already although they were over a decade ago. I still feel like I would need to bring something different to the project to help differentiate my screenplay from the previous ones.