Screenplays & Screenplay Adaptations

Critique, editing, and ghostwriting services for screenplay adapations, original screenplays, treatments, and more

Writing a book and writing for the screen are two different things and demand very different skillsets. TED’s Director of Development John Robert Marlow knows this better than most. As a novelist, Academy-honored screenwriter, and author of Make Your Story a Movie: Adapting Your Book or Idea for Hollywood (St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan), John is uniquely qualified to help evaluate your story’s screen potential, guide your own adaptation—or ghostwrite the adaptation for you. With the support of professional screenwriters Jacqueline Sinclair and Robert Blake Whitehill,  we provide a full range of critique, editing, and revision guidance services for original screenplays, treatments, and series proposals.

The process varies based on your needs, objectives, and budget and may include the following:

  • A review of your completed manuscript, published book, or work-in-progress, to assess adaptation potential and identify ideas for a screenplay version
  • Professional collaboration and/or ghostwriting of scripts for film and television
  • Development and editing support for scripts and screenplay adaptations
  • Guidance on the film and television markets for stories adapted from your completed manuscript, published book, or work-in-progress
  • Development and editing of pitch materials for for theatrical, streaming, and broadcast markets
  • Advice and guidance from knowledgeable industry insiders on how to pitch your work to agents, managers, and producers

Pricing for screenplay and adaptation support services is billed at either $75 per hour or at a flat rate, based on the length and format of the source material and the scope and nature of the assistance needed. For more information or to get started, please click the button below or contact Ross Browne in the Tucson office.

Informal Q&A or consult with adaptation specialist John Robert Marlow; for writers considering adaptation to feature or series format

One-on-one help with a scene-by-scene outline to chart your adaptation’s course before the writing begins

A candid, industry-savvy evaluation of book or manuscript film crossover potential

Professional adaptation of your story for the screen (feature screenplay or series proposal)

“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they’re going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there’s going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don’t know how many branches it’s going to have, they find out as it grows. And I’m much more a gardener than an architect.”

George R.R. Martin