Richard Adams Estate wins back film and TV rights to WATERSHIP DOWN

The estate of author Richard Adams celebrated a major victory yesterday when they regained control of the film and TV rights to his best-known work, the 1972 novel Watership Down.

Adams sold the rights to the novel to film-maker Martin Rosen in 1976. Rosen was originally planning to act as producer and overseer of the animated project whilst John Hubley directed, but Hubley quit after arguments with Rosen, who took over as director. The film was released in 1978 and proved a critical and commercial success. Rosen went on to direct an animated version of another Adams novel, The Plague Dogs, in 1982. Rosen retained control of the film and television rights to Watership Down, acting as a producer or licence-holder on both an animated TV series in 1999-2001 and the recent CG-animated 2018 Netflix mini-series.

The Richard Adams Estate, working under the title Watership Down Enterprises, raised a concern that Rosen had not paid the correct royalties to the estate on profits made by the film and TV series and their related merchandising lines following Richard Adams' death in 2016. Rosen also profited from an audiobook of the novel, despite audio rights not being part of his original deal. 

The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) ordered Rosen to pay costs to the Estate and also an initial payment of $95,000 for infringing copyright, agreeing unauthorised deals and denying royalty payments. His control of the Watership Down TV and film rights was also summarily terminated with immediate effect and control reverted to the Estate.

When to Write: Debut Ages of Famous SF&F Authors

A few months ago, a fellow blogger announced they were writing their first novel via social media and were immediately criticised for being "too old" to start writing. This was a bizarre comment for several reasons, not least of which was that the person in question was really not that old at all, but also the idea that writing - a livelihood not dependent on fast reflexes or immense physical stamina, but one that benefits from life experience - should have any kind of appropriate age for it in the first place.
Still, I thought it would be interesting to take a snapshot of well-known SF&F authors and look at the ages they were when they debuted, and the results are surprisingly varied.

Coming in at the bottom end of the range is Catherine Webb, a British science fiction and fantasy author who has published critically-acclaimed work under her own name and under two pseudonyms: Kate Griffin and Claire North. Webb was 16 years old when she published her first novel, Mirror Dreams, 23 when she published A Madness of Angels (her first Matthew Swift urban fantasy novel) and 28 when she published arguably her best-known novel, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. She's only 32 now, with twenty novels under her belt in a career spanning sixteen years. More impressive is that Webb has attracted immense critical acclaim for her work, which is imaginative, thought-provoking, restless and constantly innovative.

Better-known, although considerably less artistically accomplished, is Christopher Paolini. His Inheritance series of fantasy novels began with Eragon, published when he was 19 years old.

Next up is that well-known young gun George R.R. Martin. His first published work was "The Hero", published in 1971 when Martin was 22 years old. His first novel, Dying of the Light, was published when he was 28, and he was 47 when his best-known novel, A Game of Thrones, was published.

Terry Pratchett got his novel-writing career off to an early start, publishing The Carpet People at the age of 23. However, he had long waits between his early books. His Discworld series kicked off with The Colour of Magic, published when he was 35.

China Mieville was 26 when he published his first novel, King Rat, but, overwhelmingly impressively, was only 27 when he published the massive, classic fantasy Perdido Street Station. He was still only 36 when The City and The City, one of his best-known novels, was published.

Robin Hobb aka Megan Lindholme was 27 when she published her first short story and 31 for her debut novel, Harpy's Flight. Her most famous novel (and debut as Robin Hobb), Assassin's Apprentice, was published when she was 43.

Arthur C. Clarke got into science fiction writing early, with numerous fanzine stories published in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but his first professional sale was "Loophole", published when he was 28. His first novel, Prelude to Space, was published when he was 33. However, his best-known novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey, was not published until he was 50, and his most acclaimed, Rendezvous with Rama, until he was 55.

Scott Lynch was 28 when he published The Lies of Locke Lamora, narrowly beating out Brandon Sanderson, who was 29 when he published Elantris.

Statistically, especially in SF&F, most debut authors are in their thirties when they start publishing. Falling in this bracket are Iain Banks (30 when he published The Wasp Factory, 33 when he published his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas); Robert Jordan (31 when he published The Fallon Blood and 41 when he published The Eye of the World); Joe Abercrombie (31 when he published The Blade Itself); Ursula K. Le Guin (31 for her first short story, 38 for A Wizard of Earthsea); Terry Brooks (33 for The Sword of Shannara); and Patrick Rothfuss (34 for The Name of the Wind).

For those starting publishing a bit later than the median, there's Raymond E. Feist, who published Magician when he was 37. Gene Wolfe was 39 when he published his first novel and 49 when he released his best-known novel, The Shadow of the Torturer, which opened his Book of the New Sun sequence.

Steven Erikson was 39 when he published his debut novel, This River Awakes, and 40 when he released his first Malazan novel, Gardens of the Moon. 

J.R.R. Tolkien was 44 when he published his first novel, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, and 62 when he began publishing its sequel, The Lord of the Rings.

Terry Goodkind was 46 when he published his debut novel, Wizards' First Rule.

David Eddings was an impressive 50 years old when he published Pawn of Prophecy, beginning The Belgariad.

Richard Adams was 52 when he published his debut novel, Watership Down.

Outside of SF, there are a lot of examples of famous writers who got going in middle age or later. Raymond Chandler was 45 when he published his first story and 51 when he published The Big Sleep. George Eliot aka Mary Evans was 40 when she published her first novel, but 55 when she released her masterwork, Middlemarch. Frank McCourt was 66 when he published his debut novel, Angela's Ashes, which won the Pulitzer Prize. 

The conclusion to be drawn from this is that there is no good or bad time to start writing. If you have talent and skill and good judgement, that will become apparent if you're 16 or 76.

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RIP Richard Adams

Richard Adams, an accomplished fantasy novelist, has died at the age of 96. He was best-known for his children's novel Watership Down.

Adams was born in 1920 in Wash Common, Berkshire, and served in the Second World War as a brigade liaison in the Middle East. Upon returning from the war he studied for a degree and joined the Civil Service in 1948, continuing to work there until 1975 when he left to focus on writing full-time.

In 1970 he began telling a story about rabbits to his two young daughters, coming up with a new episode each evening to tell them on the way to school the next day. They were caught up in the story and asked him to write it down. After being turned down several times, it was published in 1972 to immediate critical acclaim and high sales. The book was noted for its worldbuilding, with the rabbits being given distinctive characteristics and a highly-detailed society and mythology.

In 1974 Adams published his first novel for adults, and his first explicit work of secondary world fantasy. Shardik is set in a detailed fantasy realm known as the Beklan Empire and focuses on Kelderek, a hunter who becomes convinced that a huge wild bear he has encountered is the incarnation of the god Shardik. His faith in the bear is sorely tested but ultimately leads him to find happiness and contentment.

In 1977 Adams revisited his concept for Watership Down, this time in a novel about dogs who escape from an animal testing laboratory and seek salvation in the world outside. However, their ability to deal with the outside world is compromised by the medical alterations performed on their brains. The Plague Dogs also enjoyed a strong critical reception.

British film-maker Martin Rosen adapted both Watership Down and The Plague Dogs into animated films, in 1978 and 1981 respectively. Watership Down's film was an enormous success, thanks to its distinctive voice acting, the impressive quality of its animation and the film's theme song, "Bright Eyes", sung by Art Garfunkle. Between 1999 and 2001 Rosen adapted Watership Down a second time as an ongoing TV series which lasted for three seasons. It was not as well-received as the earlier film due to being aimed at a younger audience and having most of its violence and graphic imagery removed.

"All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed."

After a supernatural thriller, The Girl in a Swing (1980), Adams returned to fantasy with his longest novel, Maia (1984). A semi-prequel to Shardik, the book tells the story of a young woman sold into slavery in the Beklan Empire who manages to turn her circumstances to her advantage. Traveller (1988) recounts the life of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the POV of his horse. Daniel (2006) explores the ramifications of the slave trade on a young plantation worker who manages to escape and campaigns in England for the abolition of the trade.

In 1996 Adams returned to his most famous creation for Tales from Watership Down, which adds more episodes and short stories to the original narrative, including a larger and more substantive role for does (the original novel having been criticised for ignoring the fact that, in the wild, female rabbits are more likely to leave an established warren to establish a new one than young males).

Adams's influence on modern fantasy and particularly children's fantasy is considerable; Watership Down may be the most important and influential children's fantasy novel published in the half-century gap between The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, due to the sheer number of animal fantasies that followed in its wake (most notably, the Redwall saga by Brian Jacques and Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams). The book is notable for its dark, often terrifying tone, which the 1978 film version does not shy away from either. Adams would later muse that maybe the book was too dark for children, but also that this may have contributed to its success. Adams resisted the urge to write more stories set in the same world, instead preferring to pursue more original work, until twenty years later when he published a related short story collection.

Last year it was announced that Netflix and the BBC are working on a new, animated Watership Down TV series. Consisting of four hour-long episodes, the new series will feature voice acting from the likes of James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, John Boyega, Ben Kingsley, Olivia Colman, Ann-Marie Duff and Gemma Arterton. It is expected to be released in late 2017.