How do you option a short story to make as a film?

He is in the big money! His agent would give you the details and any specs. (Unless the short story is very popular or was already made into a film, you should not have to pay much to secure at least an option on the property.) It is important to have a legal representative to oversee your rights because many times for famous writers there are back door clauses and exemptions that they can invoke if they change their mind.

Make sure the option is for a period long enough to write the script and get it sold or get the picture put together in some other way. If you believe you will write the script in under a year (four to six months is the norm), I would recommend the option period to be at least five years.

f a studio or other buyer wants to purchase your adaptation, they will require you to assign your rights in the story to them at that time. In the meantime, you want to control the story rights. Otherwise, they may read your adaptation, decide they like the short story but would rather just obtain the underlying story rights (which you do not control) and go directly to the source. They would then hire a more experienced writer and start with a fresh draft based on their notes. Even though you turned them on to the story, you would be left out completely.

I personally would not adapt a short story without controlling the rights. However, beginning writers do it all the time. If you do, you should be aware of the high probability that your script will be a writing sample only. That is not a terrible reason to write a script, but you may want to write something you can market in and of itself. Without control of the underlying rights, you have no way to know whether your work will be marketable even if you do a terrific job on it.

he's in the millions. Ask his agent.