A publishing dream turning into a nightmare

I published this children's book with AuthorHouse in 2011. However, recently I learned that they had "cancelled" it a few years later without telling me. The reason for this - in my opinion criminal cancellation - was that AuthorHouse didn't use the "saddle stitch" binding anymore so they wanted me to republish the book for almost £300 in some other kind of binding. That means that this so-called publishing house not only took my money for the first publishing, but also held my book hostage until I paid once more for the same service.    

As I hadn't been told of these secret plans of AuthorHouse I was very surprised to hear about this "cancellation" a few years after the publication. That was a stab in the back, so to speak, but also it was extremely inconvenient as I, at the same time as I found out what AuthorHouse had done, was being approached by The American company "The Spotlight Media Productions" about this children's book. To my utter surprise it appeared that they, actually for quite some time, had been working on a plan of turning my book into a movie. I had never thought along those lines, but of course I was flattered. However, I wondered at the proceedings of "The Spotlight Media Productions" as they didn't set out with offering to buy 1) either an option in the book or 2) the movie rights. They never sent me a contract, but expected me to write a movie script, "Hollywood standard". A steep demand which I wasn't happy about, especially because to me it looked like "The Spotlight Media Productions" expected to "buy" me and my book for free .....

Because of this I ended all discussions with "The Spotlight Media Productions", demanding them to cancel all plans of using my book for in any way. Also I filed a complaint at "Complaints": 

I know that having a book turned into a movie is what many authors are dreaming of, but even so there are rules for these transactions, and the Production Manager of The Spotlight Media Productions, Charlie McDowell, didn't seem to abide to any of them so I don't regret to bring an end to their plans for my book. Right from the very beginning I wanted an agreement, i.e. a contract, but whenever I mentioned this claim I was met with silence. Not being either naive or inexperienced to me that was a danger signal so I decided to put down my foot, thus cancelling the project."

https://www.complaintsboard.com/the-spotlight-media-productions-use-of-one-of-my-published-books-c1407279 

All in all this is a crazy, and maybe even unique, situation for an author. I KNOW that I ought to take AuthorHouse to court, but I haven't decided about that yet. As to "The Spotlight Media Productions" I'm surprised that they dare risking their image over something like this. Also I wonder if other authors have experienced anything like this with these two companies. If that's the case we should do what we can to stop this exploitation now ....