First Contact (TV Special)

right|300px Coppola claimed that Sagan's novel was actually based on a story the pair had developed for a television special back in 1975, titled First Contact. Under their development agreement, Coppola and Sagan were to split proceeds from the project with American Zoetrope and Children's Television Workshop Productions, as well as any novel Sagan would write. The TV program was never produced,
==Legacy==
===Novel===
In 1985, Simon & Schuster published Contact
===Film===
Warner Bros. made a film adaptation.
====Lawsuit====
During the filming of Contact on December 28, 1996, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola filed a posthumous lawsuit against Carl Sagan and Warner Bros. Pictures.
In February 1998, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ricardo Torres dismissed Coppola's claim. Although Torres agreed that Sagan violated some terms of the contract, he explained that Coppola waited too long to file his lawsuit, and that the contract might not be enforceable as it was written. Coppola then appealed his suit, taking it to The California Courts of Appeal (CCA). In April 2000, the CCA dismissed his suit, finding that Coppola’s claims were barred because they were brought too late. The court noted that it was not until 1994 when the filmmaker thought about suing over Contact.
Category:Unmade specials
Category:Francis Ford Coppola
Category:Children's Television Workshop
Category:Novelised scripts
Category:Lawsuit
Category:Alien contact