No time to admire the superb view of Paris from the 18th floor of the BnF’s Tour des lois. It is because the 200 publishers and producers gathered on June 7 for this 15th edition of the Audiovisual Meetings organized by the Civil Society of French-language publishers (Scelf) are not there to daydream. While Paris is suffocating, things are running dry here too with more than 800 scheduled meetings. The challenge ? Seduce the world of cinema and audiovisual via a catalog of some 350 adaptable works, recent or forthcoming. For the rights transfer managers of large and small houses, it is a question of listening to the wishes of potential buyers (societal novel, thriller, biopic, SF, youth, comics, etc.), pitching the right work and fine-tune your arguments…
A small training gallop before the discount, this June 26, the study on the cinematographic and audiovisual adaptations of books from 2015 to 2021 (and an annual volume of around 4,000 titles) commissioned by the CNL in association with the Scelf and the CNC. A long-awaited study, the last, relating only to cinema, dating from 2014. Since then, as Nathalie Piaskowski, the director of Scelf points out, the multiplication of distribution platforms, eager for content, have considerably transformed the market. , blowing up the number of option contracts. Not to mention the confinements which have changed the situation.
Michel Bussi, Tatiana de Rosnay, Pierre Lemaitre and Georges Simenon in the lead
A first figure stands out: between 2015 and 2021, adaptations released in France increased by 28% in volume, an increase mainly driven by audiovisual! In other words, nearly 1 work out of 5 is adapted from a book – 20% for cinema films (ie 581 films) and 17% for audiovisual productions (800 films or series). Let’s face it: the most suitable works during the period are not French. So Spidermanby Stan Lee and Steve Dikto, by X-MenJack Kirby and Stan Lee and Thousand and one Nightwhich each gave rise to four creations, while Marvel drained 27 adaptations, Stephen King 17, Harlan Corben or even Agatha Christie seven.
However, the French edition is doing more than honorably well: almost a third (ie 176 books) of adaptations released in cinemas are taken from national works. Champions in the field: Michel Bussi, Tatiana de Rosnay, Pierre Lemaitre and Georges Simenon with three adaptations each. The icing on the cake: many adapted works are successful in theaters, such as Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (taken from Jean-Claude Mézières’ comic strip) and its more than 4 million admissions or even The promise of dawn (Romain Gary) and his good million.
If literature interests producers and directors so much, it is because it represents an army of texts that have already been worked on and filtered, thus offering a first basis for scriptwriting and saving time. In addition, the notoriety of a book can play in favor of the film or the series to come. As far as the appeal of the winners is concerned, the study is clear: between 2001 and 2020, six Goncourts (including goodbye up there And Soft song), five Goncourt high school students (Human Things, Small Country, Based on a true story…), seven Renaudot (The Snow Panther, Our Lady of the Nile, The Gray Souls…), two women (Farewell to the Queen…) have been adapted
1 out of 7 or 10 options will be exercised
But the road to adaptation can be a long one. It all starts with an option (10% of the guaranteed final minimum, variable according to the notoriety of the author or his work, i.e. from 5,000 to 10,000 euros on average) that the author will share with his house of edition – except exception, some cadors keeping their rights, alone or with agent, like Emmanuel Carrère, Michel Houellebecq, Pierre Lemaitre or Yasmina Reza. An option that can be exercised, renewed or abandoned.
So The Swallows of Kabul, by Yasmina Khadra, published in 2002, was it the subject of two options (in 2007 and 2010) before appearing on the screens in… 2019. According to Nathalie Piaskowski, out of the 700 options in progress, it is estimated that 1 in 7 or 10 will be lifted to become an audiovisual work. Still, successful or not, the contract flatters the ego of the author and now serves as a marketing argument for the book, like an assignment of foreign rights or in pocket. No more question of depriving yourself of it, therefore.