I have one main area that I need advice on and a secondary.
First, the idea is that I take imagery from horror films of the 1980s and (I'm an artist) create paintings inspired by those stills. They may or may not contain popular horror characters. The art work will not be super close in terms of it being a 'copy' of the movie still. More it would be based on the movie still and maybe even stylised so it only loosely resembles the original.
Secondly, could I place some quotes from the movies next to the art?
Appreciate any advice.
You may or may not be infringing on copyrights or trademark rights (or publicity rights) if you take images from horror films and create your own paintings from these works, this with or without movie quotes.
Most artists/authors create their own works because they have been "inspired" in some way by something they have seen or heard. It would not be unusual for an artist/author to be inspired by movies, paintings, or music. And this can be okay.
Copying elements from rights-protected works, on the other hand, can get an artist/author sued.
It would be hard for you to safely use in your art book any stills taken from films without authorization, for example, and you have to be careful how you promote your art book. Although short phrases, even those from movies, cannot be protected under copyright laws, famous movie quotes can make there way onto products marketed by the holders of the film rights and could be protected under trademark laws. And using the names of films or characters in the films to promote your art book can be problematic.
If you think of all of the Star Wars merchandise that has been marketed based on the Star Wars movies and characters, you can better understand why the owners of movie-rights can be pretty protective of these rights. The films (the images, the characters, the words, the phrases) all can be reproduced by the rights holders on commercial products and these products can make a lot of money for the holders of the rights.
You will need a personal review of the specifics of the movies you want to use, how you intend to paint scenes from the movies and how you intend to incorporate quotes from these movies into your works, this to determine if what you want to do puts you at risk of a lawsuit. I suggest you locate an IP attorney in Seattle, trandyball, and discuss with/show the attorney the particulars.
