Konigsberg Intl. Inc. The Sanitsky Company v. Anne Rice, (Two Cases)

Inside many a practicing lawyer there’s a novelist struggling to be born. The converse is also true: Novelists sometimes yearn to be lawyers. All things considered, it’s best if all concerned stick with their own callings.

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In 1987, after a lunch meeting with movie producers Frank Konigsberg and Larry San-itsky, author Anne Rice allegedly entered into an oral agreement to sketch out a romantic melodrama involving a love triangle between a resurrected mummy, an English heiress and Queen Cleopatra. Based on this simple premise, Rice would create a “bible” — a detailed story which could form the basis for derivative works in various entertainment media. Rice would then write the novel, and Konigsberg’s and Sanitsky’s companies (K & S) would have two years from the date a television network officially notified them of a decision regarding a teleplay of THE MUMMY to exploit the television and movie rights, with an option to extend. K & S drafted a contract along these lines, but the parties didn’t settle on final terms or sign any agreement. Rice simply delivered the bible, and the producers forked over $50,000.

In the next two years, Rice went on to write and copyright a novel…