Last night I went to see 'Spartacus: The Panto'. It was great fun.

Anyway, I take it you'd need permission of the copyright holder if you were to turn a movie into a panto? I couldn't just write 'Aliens: The Panto' and get a local Am Dram group to put it on, could I? Or would a huge multi-million dollar movie makin gmachine not really care about a village play, especially if it wasn't a for profit exercise?

Anyone know?

Then I was thinking that Macbeth has so many of the ingredients for a good panto. Witches, ghosts, plots and a strong female character. That's public domain, isn't it? Can't anyone just put on a shakespeare play if they so wish?

I really haven't got a clue, so anything anyone knows would be very handy!

All the best,

Ben

Ben, it's certainly open season on Shakespeare, but modern films would be different - there's be copyright in the script, but also in ideas, plots etc. Copyright exists for 70 years after after the death of the author, (or 70 years after publication if it's posthumous). I think there are some things you can get away with if you're not charging admission, i.e. making money, but others are forbidden without the copyright holder's permission full stop. Even if Mega Films Inc. didn't want to pursue you for money, there's the moral rights question, where authors have the right not to have their work misrepresented or un-credited.

The Society of Authors and The Writers' Guild could advise you. The latter specialise more in screen and radiowriters and playwrights, so might be the best bet.

No one will formally tell you that you'll get away with it, of course - if you decide you might, it would be up to you! I bet there's someone out there on WW who knows more about it than I do.

Emma

Thanks Emma, useful advice.

I've just found out the names of the writers of Spartacus: The Panto, so I think I'll try to get in touch with them to see what they did.

All the best,

Ben

As I recall, the screenplay of Spartacus was based on the novel of the same name by Howard Fast. IIRC, Lewis Grassic Gibbon also wrote a novel of the same name. In any case, the basic story is a historical event, so I suppose it depends on how much the panto was based on any of the modern literature, and how much on the historical tale.

Cas