From left, mystery writer Agatha Christie, novelist H.G. Wells and composer George Gershwin. Copyrights on some of their works lapsed early this year, putting certain books and music in the public domain and available to artists for repurposing. (AP file photos)
Imagine it: A new movie adaptation of Herman Melville's sea epic "Billy Budd," or E.M. Forster's India-set drama "A Passage to India," or Lowell Thomas's accounts of meeting T.E. Lawrence — aka Lawrence of Arabia. Maybe set it to Respighi's "Pines of Rome" or Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."
Here's the beauty part, for the producers: They don't have to pay a dime to license the stories or use the music.
Those creative works, and many others first published in 1924, all entered the public domain at the first of the year — and groups of Brigham Young University students are getting a chance to adapt these newly copyright-free works in a 48-hour filmmaking contest.
"I love being challenged to make something out of other things," said Harrison Koford, a junior at BYU studying media arts, who is writing and directing an entry in this year's contest. "If I can repurpose something without having to pay for it, that's better than having to try and make something out of nothing."
Read the full story by Sean P. Means at sltrib.com.