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<DIV>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_! </DIV>
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<DIV>I’m not even sure if I am joking any more ;-)</DIV>
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<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"> <A title=gwern@gwern.net
href="mailto:gwern@gwern.net">Gwern Branwen</A> <FONT size=3
face=Calibri>wrote:</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><BR>> See, in 1994, Nicholson Baker wrote a novel called _The Fermata_.
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<DIV>> A film company bought the option, and hired Robert Zemeckis and </DIV>
<DIV>> Neil Gaiman to produce a screenplay. As is often the case, the </DIV>
<DIV>> studio also took out options on any intellectual property whose </DIV>
<DIV>> central conceit was near that of Baker’s book—which was a </DIV>
<DIV>> protagonist with the ability to stop time and manipulate the </DIV>
<DIV>> people around him as he wished. Whether it was Gaiman—who </DIV>
<DIV>> certainly would’ve recognized the surface similarities to “Six </DIV>
<DIV>> Fingers of Time”—or someone else who advised taking out the </DIV>
<DIV>> option, the result was a large amount of money being paid to </DIV>
<DIV>> the Lafferty estate to ensure that a movie would *not* made </DIV>
<DIV>> of that story, lest it encroach on _The Fermata_.
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