New queries, issue 4548

Creative adaptation

Is the adaptation of a novel for the screen ‘creative’ for the averaging of profits?

Our client adapts novels for television and film. HMRC is arguing that because he did not write the original book a claim to average profits should fail. Our line is that the adaptations turn a major novel of hundreds of pages into a concise two-hour drama. In our view this creates a new and separate piece of writing from the efforts of experience patience and creative literary talent.

We have provided HMRC with two examples. First  Gone with the Wind was a novel by Margaret Mitchell. It was adapted as a film employing a screenplay by Sidney Howard. The novel and the film are distinct and separate artistic works. It would be ridiculous to suggest that Howard had no creative input into the film.

Second  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a...