Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson are headed out on tour to promote their new book, a Peter Pan prequel called
Peter and The Shadow Thieves (Disney).
Barry and Pearson, longtime friends who play in the same garage-rock band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, wrote the first book in 2004 after Pearson's 5-year-old daughter, Paige, came up with a question after reading J.M. Barrie's original "Peter Pan."
"Daddy, how did Peter Pan meet Captain Hook?" Pearson recalled his daughter asking.
He remembers replying: "Honey, that's another story. Wait, that's another book, and I'm going to write it."
Barry, of Miami, and Pearson, of St. Louis, collaborated on the swashbuckling adventure stories that fill in the gaps of Barrie's "Peter Pan" — such as why Peter Pan can fly, and where Tinkerbell came from.
In "Shadow Thieves," for example, Captain Hook still has a hand when he meets Peter Pan.
"We call him Black Mustache," Barry explained. "What were we going to call him, Captain Hand?"
*****
Disney has optioned Shadow Thieves as a potential animated film.
So how, you might ask, are Barry and Ridley able to write about Peter Pan without getting permission from the copyright holder, The Great Ormond Street Hospital For Sick Children, or paying the copyright holder some royalties? Well, it's unclear, actually. Disney asserts it has the right to do what it wishes because Peter Pan is now in the public domain. But The Great Ormond Street Hospital For Sick Children ("GOSH") in London claims that it owns the rights through 2007, and also (because of a special law passed by the U.K.) owns the rights to royalties (a perpetual income stream) until 2023. GOSH is the largest center for research into childhood illness outside the United States. Author J.M. Barrie left the rights to Peter Pan to GOSH to help support the research and care of ill children.
After battling with Disney in the past, the Hospital doesn't appear to have challenged Disney on the Barry books, although news articles notes that the hospital was going to sue in 2004. The Great Ormond Street Hospital has licensed an official sequel to Peter Pan, which will be released in October. One of GOSH's biggest supporters was Princess Diana.
It's all a bit confusing, from a legal standpoint. But in any event, GOSH isn't getting a dime from the books because apparently they can't afford to litigate with a giant like Disney. And that's a shame, because there are a lot of sick children that rely on the money raised from the sale of official Peter Pan books and merchandise. And, frankly, we're a little surprised that Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson signed on for the project without requiring Disney to make some royalty provision for the hospital.
Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson are headed out 