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What you will learn with screen adaptations:
While looking out for original screenplays, filmmakers are increasingly interested in existing material with public recognition that may lend itself to a screen adaptation. From comic books and toys through to computer games and magazine articles, it’s all fair game..
But what does it take to successfully develop existing material for the screen? Come and discover the creative, practical, business and legal aspects of adaptation during this insightful panel discussion which includes a novelist, a screenwriter, a literary agent, a producer and a lawyer.
Who should attend:
This session is a must for any screenwriter or filmmaker contemplating an adaptions for the screen of a true life, novel or short story.
About the Panelists:
Tony Morris
Film & TV Lawyer
Graduate in Law from the University of Manchester, Tony Morris has been a qualified solicitor for more than four decades. He currently practices as a consultant at Level, a London based law firm specializing in Media, Entertainment, Sport and Tech. Tony has gained wide experience of working across the spectrum of the media and entertainment industries though his primary focus is on the development, production, financing and exploitation of films, television and streaming programmes and other audio-visual projects. He has also recently been providing input to a few selected film projects in an executive producer capacity including Ditto Films’ Warhol.
Tony has been lecturing regularly since 1997 at film schools around Europe; he presents the legal module for the Raindance course for Independent Film Producers and is a regular guest lecturer at the National Film and Television School. Tony is the author of The Filmmakers’ Legal Guide, first published in 2016 and the third edition of which will be launched at the Raindance Festival 2024.
Outside of the law and watching films, Tony’s interests include attending live gigs – especially Jazz, Iyengar yoga and avidly following the fortunes and misfortunes of Portsmouth FC.
Tony presents the Raindance evening class; Legal Requirements for Filmmakers
About Level Law:
Level Law is a London based law firm specializing in Sports, Media, Entertainment and Tech working with clients and partners around the world to deliver effective solutions. Level is made up of forward-thinking lawyers who are immersed in the industries with which they work and who have chosen to operate outside of the traditional law firm model.
Peter Fellows
Screenwriter / Producer / Director
Peter Fellows is a multi-award-winning screenwriter, producer and director best known for his work on the popular HBO television programmes Veep and Avenue 5, the critically acclaimed feature films The Death of Stalin and The Personal History of David Copperfield, and for Everything You Didn’t Say – an award-winning short starring Olga Kurylenko.
In 2017, Peter was a recipient of the BAFTA Rocliffe new writing award for his screenplay, Dry. He was listed as a Forbes 30 Under 30 in April 2021, and recently wrapped on a new short film starring Nikki Amuka-Bird, Amar Chadha-Patel and Rebecca Root. His critically acclaimed Channel 4 sitcom pilot Disability Benefits, co-written by and starring comedian Rosie Jones, was released in May 2022 and will be going to series in 2024, whilst his non-fiction historical shows Vikings: The Rise and Fall and Frontier were nominated for Emmys in 2023 and 2024 respectively. Peter’s debut feature film as writer-director will be going into production in early 2025.
Lesley Thorne
Literary agent
Lesley is Managing Director of the independent London based literary agency Aitken Alexander Associates Ltd and runs the Film and TV Department which she founded in 2004. Alongside adaptation work, she also guides authors to write for screen and represents screenwriters who originate their own material. Successful screen adaptations which Lesley has negotiated include the recent ITV series Breathtaking produced by Jed Mercurio’s company and co-written by author of the memoir Rachel Clarke; AMC/Sky series Mary and George, starring Julianne Moore, based on Ben Woolley’s book The King’s Assassin; Andrew Haigh’s film of Willy Vlautin’s novel Lean on Pete (Curzon/A24); Sky Atlantic/Showtime’s adaptation of Edward St Aubyn’s five Patrick Melrose novels starring Benedict Cumberbatch; Clara Salaman’s Too Close for ITV, starring Emily Watson and Denise Gough, both nominated for Best Lead Actress BAFTA that year and Ariane Labed’s adaptation of Daisy Johnson’s novel Sisters, filmed as September Says and debuted in competition at Cannes. Three further book adaptations in production or post: Grief is The Thing With Feathers by Max Porter, adapted and directed by Dylan Southern and starring Benedict Cumberbatch; The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin starring Vanessa Kirby and directed by Ben Caron; and Cillian Murphy stars in Max Porter’s interpretation of his novel Shy, filmed as Steve.
Ben Woolley
Author of The King’s Assassin
Benjamin Woolley is a writer, broadcaster and academic who has specialised in the often fraught relationship between the sciences and arts. His first biography was Bride of Science (1999) about Ada Lovelace (1815–52), the daughter of the poet Lord Byron whose collaboration with the engineer Charles Babbage led to her being described as the world’s first computer programmer. His next book The Queen’s Conjuror (2001) was a bestselling biography of Dr John Dee (1527–1608), Queen Elizabeth I’s maverick astrologer. The book went on to inspire an opera about Dee by Damon Albarn, formerly of Blur, which was performed by English National Opera as part of the London Cultural Olympiad. The Herbalist (2004) is a biography of the apothecary and republican radical Nicholas Culpeper and his bitter rivalry with the founder of modern medicine William Harvey at the time of the English civil war. His most recent biography The King’s Assassin (2018) is the scandalous story of George Villiers, lover and murderer of King James I. Now a major TV series, Mary & George, starring Julianne Moore and Nicholas Galitzine, playing Mary Villiers and George Villiers (mother and son) was broadcast earlier this year on Sky and AMC. It was produced by Hera Films, written by D C Moore and the lead director was Oliver Hermanus. Ben acted as consultant all the way through development and production of the series.
As well as biographies, he has written and presented documentaries for the BBC on subjects ranging from the rise of Singapore to the end of the Space Age. His script for a documentary on the solar system for the Discovery Channel won an Emmy award. His most recent production was Games Britannia (BBC4, 2010), a three-part history of Britain told through the unexpectedly revealing medium of board games.
Co-Founder / EP – Snafu Pictures
Paul has been at the forefront of animation and visual effects for nearly 20 years, working across TV, film, advertising, and games at some of the world’s leading studios, including The Mill, BBC, Framestore, and Glassworks. Before founding Snafu Pictures, he served as Managing Director at Axis Studios in London.
During his tenure at Axis, Paul executive produced animation and VFX for a variety of acclaimed projects, including two seasons of the fan-favorite hybrid production Happy! (SYFY/
As co-founder of Snafu Pictures, Paul collaborates with Dan Dixon and HOP Ross Main as an executive producer on a diverse slate of film and TV projects. He was the producer and executive producer of the Netflix series Bad Dinosaurs, which launched in March 2024 and remained in the global top 10 for five weeks. Snafu is now venturing into feature films with the high-concept sci-fi Beckoning from director Sava Živković, and they are adapting the New York Times bestselling graphic novel The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil.
Additional resources:
Webinar: Legal Requirements for Filmmakers
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