All I have is a 6-part TV adaptation of an obscure 72-year-old novel to which I don't own the TV rights. I don't even know how to find out if anyone owns the TV or movie rights, and I couldn't pay for them if I did.
“To deal with Angel, you need more than just a script. They deal with filmmakers, which means you need to be a potential producer or director with a script and crew lined up, just waiting for money.”
It is exceedingly difficult to sell “just a script” these days. It’s even harder for a script that is an adaptation without rights. I had a professor in film school who let me read his adaptation of a NYT best-selling novel for which he had an option to buy the rights. His option was about to expire. This professor had directed famous actors like Sigourney Weaver when he was in his prime, but he was looking to raise money for smaller projects. I had some connections at the time but we were not able to raise the money before his option expired.
IF you own rights to the underlying work of an adapted screenplay, or if you have an original screenplay, YOU are the owner/producer until such a time as you grant those rights to someone else. Really, all you need is the money and everything else is a matter of hiring the right people. If you find an independent filmmaker who is interested in your project, he or she can do the rest. But VidAngel seems like the best current platform for conservatives to do this.
Works published after 1923, but before 1978 are protected for 95 years from the date of publication. This leaves 13 years before your underlying work becomes public domain.
You may be able to find the owner by trying to contact the author or publisher (should appear with the copyright notice). If the author is deceased, his or her family probably retains whatever rights he or she had.
The film and TV industry are about to undergo a massive change as AI enables the creation of content much more cheaply than ever before. This has the potential to empower creators because things that were too expensive to make (for an expected ROI) in the past will now be affordable.