Documentary as basis of feature film – a new model?

When “Racing Dreams,” a Marshall Curry-directed documentary about kids racing go-karts with dreams of NASCAR, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, its makers likely had hopes for a good distribution deal and DVD sales. What was likely, but apparently is underway, is a scripted dramatization. Two “Star Trek” writers are developing a project around it.

MTV News reports that “Racing Dreams” “has been tapped for a dramatized treatment by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.”

The larger discussion is if documentaries, particularly those with low budgets and low production values that may keep them from having broad distribution, will become the new pool of “properties” that agents and prospective writers and directors are scouring for ideas. “Grey Gardens,” the HBO film based on the landmark documentary of the same name by the Maysles brothers, is one example, although the film is actually about the documentary being made. But look at a successful documentary such as “Crazy Love” and how rich it is with dramatic possibilities.

The would-be filmmakers are reaching far and wide for optionable properties. While movies have most often been adapted from novels or biographies, “Maybe He’s Not That Into You” was made from a self-help book and “Mean Girls” from an article that became a self-help book.

So why would a documentary filmmaker want his or her film made into a nonfiction film? For the money and for wider exposure. We could see some value to packaging a documentary as an extra on a DVD of the dramatized film.

But: Does the filmmaker “own” the characters in one’s doc, or, since these are real people (note that the “Grey Gardens” protagonists are long dead), do they have some rights to block it? Whose story is it? The legalities shall make for an interesting discussion, should this sort of thing become more widespread.