Director Atom Egoyan is best known for artistic film endeavors like The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica that delve into complicated emotions and human frailties. While his latest feature, Chloe, deals with those issues as well, it is perhaps one of his most commercial films yet.

Written and Directed by Tze Chun (Film Independent Fellow 2008)  and produced by Mynette Louie (Film Independent Fellow 2009)

Q: Let's say I'm writing a script for a film on the life of Mister X, a public, historical figure.  In the process of doing my research, I run into interesting details about the life of Mister X in a non-fiction book (let's call the book The Real Life of Mister X), and I want to use some of these details for my story.  Do I need to contact the writer of The Real Life of Mister X and ask for his permission? 

Writer/director Tina Mabry and producer Morgan Stiff met in 2003 at USC School of Film and Television's graduate program. Although Mabry had been thinking of going to law school, she changed her mind after watching Gina Prince-Bythewood's Love & Basketball and Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry. Stiff, who was a dramatic writing major at NYU, also opted for film and television when she realized most of the audience she wanted to reach were not avid theater-goers.

Q: A producer is forming an LLC to produce a script I've written.  He wants me to option my script to him, but I wonder if I'd be safer optioning it to the LLC.  Is there a difference between optioning to an individual versus a company?

A:  The answer to your question lies in the words covered by the acronym "LLC": Limited Liability Company.  As you can probably guess, the producer is not forming this company to limit your liability, he's trying to limit his own.