What It Takes For Your Book to Become a Movie

It does happen! Meet The Unbreakable Boy

Do you ever wonder if your story will become a movie? Don't you watch movies sometimes and think, "I can do WAY better than this!"

Well...it does happen! I write narrative nonfiction/memoir, and four of my books have been optioned, two have made it to filming, one has been released (a short documentary that made it to over 50 film festivals), and one is releasing across the country TODAY with Lionsgate Studios.

How does it happen? I work very, very hard to write the best story I can. This includes a commitment to entering into a deep developmental process, knowing what the cultural conversations out there are, extendive research and interviews, writing to make the people and places come to life, creating and refining a strong story arc, and creating powerful visual scenes.

The better the book and the story, the better your chances, but industry relationships are also very important. Another factor in my case is having a friend (actually a former student from when I taught English at a high school) who went to film school and became a director, screenwriter, and producer. We have stayed in touch, I backed his first short film on Kickstarter, and he is a fantastic storyteller using the language of film (which I am definitely not fluent in!)

There’s also the matter of luck. Very few projects that are optioned make it into production. Somewhere along the way, a decision maker in the entertainment business has to fall in love with the story and become its champion. That happened here when, after some hard work, Scott Lerette had a fortuitous meeting with the wonderful Peter Facinelli, an actor and producer (he plays the role of the pastor in this film).

Your book may potentially be interesting to producers and film agents, and so it's not a bad idea to educate yourself on how the process works. (One warning; it's typically very slooowwwwww....The Unbreakable Boy was written back in 2012-13!)

In case you're interested, here are my books that have entered the moviemaking pipeline:

• Thunder Dog - optioned several times. Has not been funded yet.

• Painting with Metro - optioned by Cinenatura. Funded through Kickstarter. Filmed as a short doumentary and became a film festival favorite, winning several awards. It's called "My Paintbrush Bites" and you can watch it here:

• Sanctuary - optioned by Cinenatura.

• The Unbreakable Boy - opens TODAY, February 21, 2025. Optioned by the Erwin Brothers at Kingdom Story Company. Written & directed by Jon Gunn, starring Zachary Levi, Peter Facinelli and Patricia Heaton. Distributed by Lionsgate Studios. Trailer is here:

Join me today in heading out to a theater to enjoy the Unbreakable Boy. I’m working on a different book project this morning, then I’m heading out to get my ticket!