(urth) OT: R.A. Lafferty estate's problems explained

[Gerry Quinn]

A little late to the party here... but it just occurred to me that if _The Six Fingers of Time_ can get an option due to the freezing time idea, then surely Cordwainer Smith’s estate should be making money off Sharknado.  I mean, whales that fly around in the air attacking people are right there in _On the Storm Planet_! 

I’m not even sure if I am joking any more ;-)

- Gerry Quinn


 Gwern Branwen wrote:

> See, in 1994, Nicholson Baker wrote a novel called _The Fermata_. 
> A film company bought the option, and hired Robert Zemeckis and 
> Neil Gaiman to produce a screenplay. As is often the case, the 
> studio also took out options on any intellectual property whose 
> central conceit was near that of Baker’s book—which was a 
> protagonist with the ability to stop time and manipulate the 
> people around him as he wished. Whether it was Gaiman—who 
> certainly would’ve recognized the surface similarities to “Six 
> Fingers of Time”—or someone else who advised taking out the 
> option, the result was a large amount of money being paid to 
> the Lafferty estate to ensure that a movie would *not* made 
> of that story, lest it encroach on _The Fermata_. 
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