Literary agent and film literary agent? Do I need both?

I don't know the answer to your question from your point of view of actually having a screenplay ready. I do know that my agent deals with movie rights too...but I think that's a whole different ball of wax...that's not about a screenplay in hand. Maybe someone else can answer this one. Just wanted to chime in with the fact my agent deals with movie rights with my manuscripts (someone is currently interested in my Burn Baby novel...).

The real question isn't your screenplay - it's the movie rights to your novel. If those are sold, the deal might include a first pass on a screenplay adaptation with you as the screenwriter, but the odds are that the final screenplay will be written by someone the director and/or producers have worked with before.

keston925 said:

Hey there,

My manuscript is being picked up by a publisher and should be out in April 2016. I coincidentally studied like a crazy person and turned my manuscript into a screenplay with a cool twist it only varies slightly from the original manuscript.

I have a literary agent, but do I need a film literary agent as well?

Thank you,

Keston

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Ask your agent about shopping rights - he or she may or may not have connections, but should at least know or be able to contact someone who does.

If, just for instance, you did manage to get someone interested in optioning your book, that could be a years-long process that would lead to nothing, or something, or renewals that led to either. However, if whomever optioned it moved forward to an actual screenplay, the odds that they'd want you to write it are very, very slim.