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Unicorn Fans, Support Author Peter S. Beagle!

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Peter S. Beagle: Beloved Author Needs Our Help

Have you read any books by award-winning author Peter S. Beagle?

Do you remember The Last Unicorn? Have you ever seen a child's wonder while watching the animated movie adaptation of that book? Or do you remember the animated (Bakshi-directed) Lord of the Rings from the 70s?

 Peter is an incredibly gifted writer, but perhaps not quite as talented a businessman. Twice he has been burned out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by media companies who either took advantage of him or aren't paying him what they contractually owe.

For example: It's hard to believe, but more than 25 years after its release, he STILL hasn't gotten paid any earnings for the Last Unicorn movie!

As a longtime fan of Peter S. Beagle, I support his efforts to get payment that I believe is long overdue. So I'm posting this to spread the word. 

Here's the scoop. 

Exploiting His Services

You'd Think Someone Who'd Written a Screenplay for a Successful Lord of the Rings Film Would Get SOMETHING...

Peter S. Beagle saved the Saul Zaentz Company's bacon by writing the screenplay for their animated Lord of the Rings for only a consulting fee of $5,000 and two guarantees: that he'd get to write the follow-up film at "more than his usual screenwriting rate," and that he'd be hired for future Saul Zaentz productions.

To make a long story short, Peter barely managed to get his $5000 fee out of them, they didn't hire him for any future productions, and they claim they've never made any money on LOTR (despite earning close to half a billion dollars in the last decade alone, thanks to the Peter Jackson movies...and Jackson himself has said many times that he was inspired to read Tolkien in the first place by watching the movie with Beagle's screenplay).

Refusing to Pay Royalties For "The Last Unicorn" Movie

Taking an Author's Own Work and Keeping the Profits

The LOTR screenplay mess is sleezy, but the following is absolutely unacceptable, IMO.

In the last 8 years Granada Media has sold well over a million DVDs and videotapes of The Last Unicorn, and made cable and satellite TV deals all over the world, and they haven't paid Peter S. Beagle a single DIME of royalties for any of it, because they claim the movie has never made a profit. Fans around the world have rallied to help Beagle with the legal defense fund on this one.

Now, the last update on the help site says that Granada is finally starting to negotiate a settlement of some sort; on the other hand, it's been months since that update was posted, with no report of any progress. And it sounds to me like promises have been made and broken in the past. So I'm dubious.

Full Details and Information About Peter's Legal Struggles

Here's my news source.
A Call To Action in Support of Peter S. Beagle
Conlan Press' web page on Peter S. Beagle's legal struggles to be paid for his work. Includes detailed background information, an FAQ, contact info, and more. Page is maintained by Connor Cochran, Peter S. Beagle's business manager.

Other Peter S. Beagle Links

Conlan Press' Peter S. Beagle Store
All Peter's books and a special 25th-anniversary edition of The Last Unicorn are available through Conlan Press. More than half of every sale at this site goes directly to Peter, since it was set up to help him by is his business manager.
Sign Up for THE RAVEN Newsletter
Online newsletter giving you all the latest news about Peter's awards, works in progress, and often something special by Peter just for the newsletter readers. :)

What We Can Do

 

  • Donate to Peter's Legal Defense Fund through The Conlan Press Website.
  • Add your name, location and comments to the Peter's Fans Speak Out page.
  • Purchase Peter. S. Beagle's books through Conlan Press, which gives a larger percentage of each sale to Peter than other merchants.
  • Purchase the 25th-anniversary DVD edition of The Last Unicorn Movie through Conlan Press. It will be autographed! More than HALF of the purchase price goes to Peter. Sold anywhere else, he gets nothing.

A Few Other Selections from Peter S. Beagle's Works

Direct links to a few items avaiable through Conlan Press

You may request personalized, autographed copies for any of the books or DVDs!

A Fine and Private PlaceA Fine and Private Pace: Autographed Trade Paperback. Peter's first novel. Can you believe he wrote this at 19? It's a bittersweet, highly original story about two souls not ready to make the leap from this life to the next.

The Last Unicorn AudiobookThe Last Unicorn Audiobook: An 8-CD edition is being prepared, but if you can't wait, you can purchase an Mp3 download! 7 hours and 20 minutes read by Peter S. Beagle with music by Jeff Slinguff. Special gift for early bird buyers! Also available: Sample download of first two chapters or a CD/mp3 bundle (download now, get the CDs when they're released).

The Line Between by Peter S. BeagleThe Line Between: Recent collection of Peter S. Beagle stories including Nebula and Hugo Award-winning "Two Hearts", the sequel to The Last Unicorn.

Comments From Fans of Peter S. Beagle

Unicorn Friends, Have Your Say!

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  • MissMerFaery Jan 21, 2011 @ 2:48 pm | delete
    Glad to see a lens here on Squidoo about this! I have been subscribing to the Raven newsletter since the start and buy all of Peter's books, DVDs etc through Conlan Press, Connor is lovely. Thanks for spreading the word to help my all-time favourite author! Blessed.
  • aj2008 Sep 16, 2010 @ 2:59 am | delete
    I had heard of this travesty a few years back and cant believe that there has been no settlement. One of my girls is a huge fan of the Last Unicorn - an avid reader she read the book when she was 9 or 10 and was totally captivated by it. Not just because of the story but because of the incredible writing too.

    There were rumours a couple of years ago that there would be a live action movie with CGI, but it does not appear to have come to anything - I dont know if this is due to the ongoing dispute.

    Peter Beagle deserves better treatment than this.
  • Amalthea Feb 25, 2010 @ 4:24 pm | delete
    Hey fellow Peter fans! There is a new Raven Newsletter (Peter's OFFICIAL newsletter) out: find out about the gorgeous NEW comic from IDW about to be released for the classic fantasy novel/film, "The Last Unicorn" and how to save $125 on the 52/50 Project! http://www.conlanpress.com/RAVEN/2010-02-23_RAVEN.html
  • Dkprincess6 Nov 25, 2009 @ 3:43 pm | delete
    I had no idea this was going on. Thanks for the info!
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Greekgeek

Storyteller, former Latin teacher, student of mythology and the ancient world: I've worn many hats, but always I've dabbled in computers and the web.

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