Re: Still Waiting...
Over twenty years ago I had the honour of several hours of conversation with Harry Harrison, a great author and a wonderful man. He had lots of advice for someone who wanted to be an author.
While talking about this he told me why the Rat had not been made into a film.
He wrote the book early on and just after it came out he was offered a modest sum for the renewable option on the film rights. He said "Being an impoverished author at the time, I accepted, and have received a depressingly small renewal cheque regularly ever since."
He really wanted it to be on the big screen. He even had his ideal person to play Jim DiGriz picked out - James Coburn - and he was annoyed that he had sold it to someone who wasn't going to use it.
His advice was to always leave a re-negotiation clause 'for later, when you have more money and better lawyers'.
I can only assume that whichever soulless company currently owns the rights is still sending 'depressingly small cheques' to his estate. Sad.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
