THE RULES OF SMURFDOM

 Smurfs U.S. legal counsel Raymond Kurtz

Smurfs U.S. legal counsel Raymond Kurtz has penned a interesting article on how he did the deal to bring the Smurfs to the big screen. Here is a brief excerpt.

The process strung out for three years. My clients were ready to pull the plug a dozen times. But the deal did finally come to fruition. I remember that moment when my BlackBerry buzzed at 2 a.m. with a long-awaited email from a copyright lawyer at Paramount.

But we couldn't exhale yet. We waited for production to start, but years went by and the Smurfs sat in the seemingly endless queue of movies-to-be. Under the terms of our contract, the studio had the option to give the rights back to my client or assign their rights to another studio after several years.

If you want to get a inside view on what legal issues get involved when a major franchise goes Hollywood then here it is.