Noah Max has secured the rights to his opera “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.”

According to the Jewish Chronicle, film giant Miramax agreed to waive a demand for $1 million from young British composer. Miramax owns the rights to the story after making a film of it in 2008 and asked the composer for $1 million to have his opera based on the book performed even though he made it clear he was not intending to make any money from the project.

Max had spent 18 months attempting to persuade Miramax and he told the Jewish Chronicle, “I made contact repeatedly with Miramax and received only an occasional monosyllabic response as my request bounced between departments, and also between them and Paramount, who recently became a minority owner of Miramax.”

The opera is a personal project for Max, whose grandparents fled the Nazis and the composer has changed the name to “The Child in Striped Pyjamas” because the boy’s voice is that of a female mezzo-soprano.