Tomorrow Studios to Adapt Freedom

Tomorrow Studios (Physical, Snowpiercer), an ITV Studios partnership, is set to adapt Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom for the screen with Scott Free Productions (The Good Fight).

The story centers on St. Louis couple Patty and Walter Berglund, exploring why their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door, why Walter took a job working with Big Coal after being an environmental lawyer and why their once perfect neighbor turned into the local fury.

Melanie Marnich (The Affair, Big Love) is on board to write the TV adaptation. Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements will executive produce the series through Tomorrow Studios, along with Franzen, Marnich and, through Scott Free Productions, Ridley Scott, David Zucker, Jordan Sheehan and Clayton Krueger.

“Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom is a laugh-out-loud, emotional knock-out of a novel, and we couldn’t have conjured a better writer to adapt this material than the brilliant Melanie Marnich,” said Scott. “We are very excited to bring this project to market with our partners at Tomorrow Studios.”

Tomorrow Studios’ CEO/Partner Adelstein and President/Partner Clements said, “In this ever-changing world, parents are just trying to keep up, and Freedom explores this incredible journey as only Jonathan Franzen can. We are thrilled to help bring this series to life, adapted by the incredibly talented Melanie Marnich in collaboration with the passionate, steadfast producers at Scott Free.”

“Of all my novels, Freedom seems to me the most directly pertinent to our current social and political moment—globally, the fragile earth; nationally, the great red/blue divide,” Franzen said. “I’m excited to be working with Scott Free and Tomorrow Studios on the adaptation, and I’ve felt from the beginning that Melanie is a perfect choice to write and run the show.”

Marnich added, “In Freedom, Jonathan Franzen created a masterpiece—hilarious, heartbreaking, relentlessly relevant—and I feel so fortunate to be diving into its world. It’s a dream project and it comes with a dream team: Scott Free and Tomorrow Studios. They are brilliant collaborators, and I’m thrilled to be creating this show with them.”