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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 3288324" data-attributes="member: 20741">Because when books or scripts get "optioned", they are preserved by a studio for a brief period of time to consider whether or not they will acquire the rights on an exclusive basis.That is a mere option.  It is a legal exclusive interest which gives Party A the exclusive option to buy something from Party B during the term of the option.Mere options happen all the time anytime anyone reviews a script and they are hardly newsworthy. Options are somtimes paid for, but it is unusual to pay a lot for them.When you buy the rights, you buy them either outright or for a period of time, within which the licensed property must be filmed or the rights revert back to the author.  Some people call this an option - but that isn't what it is. That's a rights acquisition for an agreed sum which may be defeasible on the happening of an event (failure to release a film by 2011, say)- a very different sort of deal than a mere option.I think DragonLance must have been optioned a dozen times before a movie deal was finally signed last year.The purchase of rights - which is what has happened in this case, is not a mere option. It does not necessarily commit the studio to production - but it is not a mere option.  GRRM notes that the deal for the rights closed a few days back. There is a distinction on a legal and customary basis as to what a mere option is  - and this isn't one.  GRRM is committed to write an episode and to exec-produce. That is not a mere option.  If George happens to call it that on his website in the subject line of his blog post - - sorry George, that isn't what an option is.When writers and producers and exec producers for a project have been hired and they are looking for shooting locations - that's called pre-production.It is not only casting and spending money on costumes, props and sets - which is what you may have come to think pre-production is. While that is pre-production as well - that does not make the current explorations any less steps in the pre-production process.People get too involved with the term "greenlit".  What is meant by greenlighting is that project funds are supplied for casting, principal photography, physical assets and post-production costs.  That's greenlighting. Sometimes it comes in stages. Weta Workshop created a boatload of propos and costumes before the movie itself was greenlit for actual casting and photography. The practice varies from film to film. Greenlighting does not mean a mere commitment of money committed for pre-production exploration, expected casting costs, basic scripts and budget exploration.  That's a separate set of costs authorized in film production without committing to actual production.</blockquote>

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