If you notice, any version of Peter Pan will have a special thank you for permission from the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to which Barrie left either the rights or the royalties to. Not sure if that completely answers your question, but might give you grounds for a further search.
Although the story you want to write isn't a direct adaption of the story, you will still have to get permission to use James Barrie's characters. When Barrie finished the novel, he gave the copyrights to a hospital to take care of after he died. The hospital that has these copyrights now is the Great Ormond Street Childrens' Hospital in London. My school did a production of "Peter Pan" at my school a few years ago, and we had to pay the hospital a royalty fee to do it. I think it was around $50.00. Obviously, to write a screenplay the fee will be more that that, but I'm sure that you would get the copyrights. By the way, Barrie gave his copyrights to "Peter Pan" to the childrens' hospital because that's how much he loved children.
Hi, I'm an up and coming director-meaning I hav visions, but no video camera. I love Peter Pan, it's my favourite book in the whole world, and I've read a lot of books. I was going to do a re-make of Peter Pan, but some one beat me to it. So now I'm saving up for a camera to film my own Peter Pan based film, but looking at it from a different angle-if ya know what I mean. I love your idea by the way. Anyway, about the copyright thing, you either have to get the author's permission or the company who holds his right's permission, or you can use his stuff after 50 years. I think thats right, you may have to double check though.
If you really want to pursue this, you will need to contact either an entertainment attorney for your answer, or research copywright laws. If Barrie had an Estate, his heirs might still own the rights.
Hi, I am a screenwriter/story writer. I have had this vision for a while now to write something peter pan based, only more concerning the other lost boys. I'm confused over this whole copyright thing, however. Say I write this as a screenplay, and then the screenplay goes to be made... where does the copyright stuff stand? Is it public domain, for the age of the piece? Would the movie be a performance? Or would my writing an original story, only using pre-owned characters, be enough to take me out of the whole copyright enfringement thing anyway?
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