ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Option (filmmaking)

Hey there kiddo! Do you know what a movie is? It's like a story that you watch on a screen with moving pictures! Sometimes when people have a really good story, they want to turn it into a movie. But making a movie costs a lot of money, so they need to be sure that the story is going to be worth it.

That's where something called an option comes in. An option is like a test run or a trial for the story. Someone who wants to turn the story into a movie will pay the person who wrote it some money to get the right to test run the story. So they can see if it would make a good movie or not.

During this test run, the person who has the option gets to work on the story with the writer. They might make some changes, add some things, or take some things out to see if it makes the story better. They might also find actors and start planning how they would make the movie if they decide to go ahead with it.

The person holding the option usually has a set amount of time to decide if they want to make the movie or not. If they do decide to make the movie, they pay the writer more money to buy the rights to the story so they can turn it into a movie.

So, an option is like a way for someone to test out a story before deciding if they want to turn it into a movie. It's like a practice movie!