“La Daronne”, “Petit Pays”… adaptations to the cinema, a jackpot for writers?

Before appearing on the big screen in the guise of Isabelle Huppert, "La Daronne" was a bestseller by Hannelore Cayre, sold over 200,000 copies.

According to a study carried out by Livres Hebdo, one in five films is an adaptation of a book.

Is cinema a gold mine for writers?

We interviewed those concerned.

How much are the adaptation fees?

On average, producers buy the rights to a work for between 40,000 and 200,000 euros.

Traditionally, this amount represents 2% of the film's budget, but the figures can soar for bestsellers or books coveted by several buyers.

“They can go up to around 300,000 euros for certain exceptional projects,” says Heidi Warneke, director of rights transfers for Editions Grasset.

Director of audiovisual rights at Gallimard, Frédérique Massart confides that the rights of Leïla Slimani's "Sweet Song", for which she received "dozens of proposals" before and after the Goncourt prize, were torn off at 200,000 euros, like those of “Repairing the Living”, by Maylis de Kerangal.

And she remembers a "record" at 700,000 euros, for another French novel ... In general, writers share these rights 50/50 with their publisher, but some negotiate as soon as their publishing contract is signed. keep their audiovisual adaptation rights.

This is the case of Hannelore Cayre, who therefore kept the 40,000 euros in adaptation rights for "La Daronne".

To these sums is sometimes added a "bonus" in the event of box office success, as well as a few thousand euros during TV broadcasts of the adaptations.

But the real jackpot concerns the (rare) Hollywood adaptations, and those that publishers are now negotiating for series broadcast on the platforms.

What if the writer becomes a co-writer or consultant?

By co-signing the screenplay for “La Daronne” directed by Jean-Paul Salomé, Hannelore Cayre received an additional 60,000 euros.

Other authors are content to "advise" the filmmaker.

Gaël Faye “talked a lot” with Eric Barbier, the director of “Petit Pays”, but without asking to be paid: “I was just paid for a plane ticket and hotel nights when I came to the shooting in Rwanda, ”he says.

Thierry Coppée, the author of the comic strip from which “Les Blagues de Toto” is inspired, has, meanwhile, signed a consultant contract with the producer of the film: “I had already advised the directors of an animated series and I knew it took time, ”he argues.

Relaunched book sales?

Each time a book is adapted for the cinema, it comes out in bookstores, flanked by a banner bearing a photo of the film.

Does this help boost sales?

“Cinema does not fundamentally change the life of a novel,” assures David Foenkinos, who has seen four of his works appear on the big screen.

However, the writer-filmmaker recognizes a few exceptions: after the success of Jean-Paul Rouve's “Souvenirs”, 70,000 copies of his book had passed in his pocket.

The author of “Toto Jokes”, Thierry Coppée, reports for his part that his series has seen a 20% increase in sales compared to 2019 since the release of the comedy in the cinema.

And the album from the film has already sold 32,000 copies.

Adaptation: an “accomplishment” for writers?

Many authors experience the transposition of their book to the cinema as a - second - accomplishment.

“I am a cinephile,” confides Leïla Slimani.

I have always considered my writing in a cinematographic way: I write in scenes, I see how my characters are dressed… There is a consistency, a continuity in my books becoming films.

The writer says she was very moved the first time she heard Lucie Borleteau, the director of "Sweet Song", "appropriate" her story.

Gaël Faye remembers his “great emotion” on the set of “Petit Pays”: “Suddenly, I remembered the moment when, with a sheet and a pen, I had written what mobilized There are dozens of technicians and extras… ”As for Hannelore Cayre, she sums up her discovery of Jean-Paul Salomé's film:“ It was amazing ”.

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What if the writer hates adaptation?

The law allows him to "dissociate himself" from it. “When I saw

, I had the choice between three options, says Hugo Boris. I could ask that the credits be entered in the

credits

if I liked the feature film,

if that was not the case and, if I hated the film, I could demand that it not. there is no reference to my book. "David Foenkinos thus opted for the formula" freely adapted "for" I am better ", of Jean-Pierre Améris:" The adaptation displeased me, it happens ", relativizes the writer. But does a "failed" adaptation harm the work of an author? “Among writers, we have fun saying that if an adaptation is failed, it is because of the director and that if it is successful, it is thanks to the author! », Ironically Foenkinos.