As Hollywood studios constantly have to meet the worldwide demand for new movies, they are always seeking fresh & original scripts with new storylines. And the potential reward for a good screenplay can be very high, typically around 2.5% of the movie budget which might be anything from $5m to $50m or more.

The problem may be that you do not have the screenwriting abilities to turn your basic concept into a full length copyrighted movie script with the potential to reap those returns: a good basic concept alone is almost impossible to sell as it cannot be legally protected. With my experience as a screenwriter, I can provide the skills to turn your idea into a potentially saleable screenplay.

Treatment

If you just have a general outline of your film idea, I can expand that into a full treatment. This may be several pages long, and creates a very detailed storyline from beginning to end of how the film will play out pretty much scene by scene. It brings the characters to life so the reader can get a very accurate feel for the completed movie; but without line by line dialogue.

Full screenplay

If you like the treatment (or already have one of your own), I can write the full screenplay. In order for you to get a feel for whether it is shaping up well, I would write the first quarter of the script, and you would review it at that point. If you do not like it for any reason, you can decide not to go any further. But if are happy with it, I would go on to finish the full first draft. Once you have reviewed the first draft, there may be adjustments and trims to arrive at a second draft ready to be submitted to literary agents or studios to consider for production.

Copyright protection

Once the script is finished, the easiest way to establish a copyright date before showing it around is to log it with the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which can be done online from anywhere in the world by going to www.wga.org and currently costs US$20. There is no UK equivalent central registration system, but you can lodge a hard copy with your bank or a solicitor.

Click on FAQS & COSTS above for further info