Mike,
Thoroughly understand the need/desire to not give specific information. Feel free to contact me directly if the following isn't specific enough. (martin@tveffects.com)
It sounds like you want to acquire the rights to a literary works, which may be somewhat straight-forward. I'm assuming that the story is in a fixed, tangible form? (i.e. Book, unpublished or published manuscript, etc.)
I'm also assuming that the works that you are looking to acquire is copyrighted? If the works are published, you'll likely need to negotiate with the publisher -- not the author/heirs.
For general copyright information, you can refer to
The Library of Congress Copyright Home Page. Hope this helped a bit.
Martin
www.tveffects.com
