via NYTimes, Arts Briefly, 3/13/07 :

Author Offers Film Option To His Latest Novel
The author Jonathan Lethem announced yesterday on his Web site that he planned to give away a film option to his latest novel, "You Don't Love Me Yet," published by Doubleday. Mr. Lethem, the author of "Motherless Brooklyn" and "The Fortress of Solitude," said he would select a filmmaker who agreed to two conditions: that 2 percent of the budget be paid to him when the film gets a distribution deal, and that the filmmaker release ancillary rights to the film five years after it has its premiere, so that they may be entered into the public domain. Under the question "Why?" on his Web site (jonathanlethem.com), Mr. Lethem said he had lately "become fitful about some of the typical ways art is commodified." "You Don’t Love Me Yet" goes on sale today. JULIE BOSMAN

more via Bloomberg News, 3/13/07:

Author Lethem Proposes Unusual Movie Rights Deal for New Book    
By Patrick Cole

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Novelists who sell the film rights to their work usually get paid before Hollywood makes the movie. Author Jonathan Lethem wants to buck the trend.

Lethem, a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author, said he will option his new novel "You Don't Love Me Yet'' on May 15 to a filmmaker who agrees to give him 2 percent of the movie's budget as a fee. The sum would be paid when the finished film gets a distributor. The book will be published tomorrow by Doubleday.

Here's the other condition: In an unprecedented move, Lethem wants the filmmaker to release "ancillary'' rights -- such as the right to distribute the novel on the Internet or make a stage play based on it -- to the public domain five years after the film's debut. Usually, novelists sell all the rights forever to the filmmaker.

"Artists ought to engage directly with the question of how art is commodified, rather than leaving it entirely for corporations and public advocates to hash it out,'' Lethem said in a statement today issued by Doubleday.

Lethem's proposal is part of a growing trend among writers in Hollywood to retain some of the rights to their works. Advocate groups for artists, such as the not-for-profit Creative Commons Inc. in San Francisco, is encouraging authors to decide which rights they want to keep instead of relinquishing all of them.

A New Model?         

"In terms of mainstream filmmaking, this is completely unprecedented, and if it actually happens it would be a groundbreaking model'' Creative Commons Creative Director Eric Steuer said in a phone interview about Lethem's proposal. "For a writer of his clout and prominence, it's really cool that he's the one to take the charge on something like this.''

Set in the alternative music world of Los Angeles, "You Don't Love Me Yet'' is the story of Lucinda Hoekke, a bass player who falls in love with an anonymous caller to a complaint phone line where she works.

Lethem is the author of "Motherless Brooklyn,'' which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1999, and "Fortress of Solitude'' (Doubleday 2003). He won a $500,000 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "genius'' award in 2005.

more recent Lethem news:

LATImes BOOKS, March 11, 2007:
Jonathan Lethem's improbable serenade
'You Don't Love Me Yet' takes songwriting and the city center stage.
By Josh Getlin

The New Yorker Q & A,  Online Only, March 19, 2007:
Questionnaire: Jonathan Lethem + CRESSIDA LEYSHON

Short Story in this week's The New Yorker:
Lucky Alan
By Jonathan Lethem