Option now, pay later

Author Jonathan Lethem, who has sold film options for several novels but has never seen one turned into a movie, has come up with a new twist: He’s offering a film option for his newest novel, “You Don’t Love Me Yet,” to a filmmaker who agrees to pay Lethem 2% of the production budget when the film finds a distributor.

Ordinarily, authors sell the film options to their books before production begins.

The filmmaker must also agree to let ancillary rights to the book revert into the public domain five years after the movie’s premiere, said the author, who announced the arrangement on his website Tuesday.

Lethem, who has argued that copyright law needs to be interpreted more expansively -- to allow for a more unbridled creative process -- said he would announce the winner of the film rights next month.

-- Josh Getlin