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Mar 15 2015
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3rd Annual 2014 First Look Project Results

By First Look Project Results

SCREENWRITING Action / Adventure Animal Heist by Aneesh Chaganty & Sev Ohanian – Winner Sev Ohanian graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in 2012, and has been a producer on 7 feature films since, including his first film: Fruitvale Station which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2013. He’s also produced short form content such as the Google Glass spot Seeds (directed by Aneesh), which received worldwide acclaim. He was named in 2014 one of the 11 Innovators Changing Hollywood by The Wrap, alongside Angelina Jolie, Jimmy Fallon, and other high-profile industry names in film and television. Currently, Sev serves as an adjunct professor at USC. Aneesh Chaganty (USC ‘13) is a writer and director whose most recent work, a Google Glass spot called “Seeds”, became an internet sensation after garnering more than 1 million YouTube views in 24 hours. Following its success, he was invited to join The Google Creative Lab…

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Mar 03 2015
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February 2015 Script Sales

By Script Sales

For the second month in a row, Script Pipeline alums have made some waves: Evan Daugherty has signed on the write the Tomb Raider reboot, and Tripper Clancy will pen Hasbro’s Hacker Camp, each adding another script to their growing slates of projects. In other news, February was a rather busy month. Sony made a few purchases: Sniper Elite, a thriller based on the Gil Shannon novels by Scott McEwen and to be written by Sheldon Turner; Michael Finch and Alex Litvak’s Medieval, which is described as The Dirty Dozen set in the Middle Ages; and Steve Conrad’s adventure/comedy pitch about a driverless car race from Paris to Beijing, Gore Verbinski helming. Brendan O’Brien and Andrew J. Cohen’s comedy The House was part of a bidding war, eventually finding a home at New Line. John Hamburg, Nicholas Stoller, and Ian Helfer sold their comedy Why Him?, a comedy about a feud…

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Mar 03 2015
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The Affair – Pilot

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

This gem of a series seemed to fall under the radar early on. No fault of Showtime or the series creators—the cable TV landscape is, shall we say in no uncertain terms, incredible. Add this one to your list as a superlative example of how to infuse a compelling structure into a very straightforward dramatic series. Not-so-much-of-a-spoiler alert: two married people have an affair, and things eventually go bad.  Note that the writing itself in the pilot script, based on by-the-book fundamentals, could be better. In theory. But then you get deeper with dialogue and character, and suddenly it becomes clear why Sarah Treem (plus whoever else had their hand in penning the series) may be one of the best TV writers out there. You could write a dissertation on how well the series is structured, how it keeps us guessing without falling into the trap of blatant on-the-nose plotting….

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Mar 01 2015
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7th Great Movie Idea Contest Finalists

By Great Movie Idea Contest Results

Grand Prize Winner The Starter Marriage (Romantic Comedy) by Matthew Tolbert Matthew Tolbert is an award-winning screenplay, comic strip, comic book, short story, and greeting card writer. And beer snob. His works have been syndicated and published nationwide. Proving that espresso works, he has written for Marvel, Malibu, and other comic book companies, has had science fiction, fantasy, nonfiction short stories, and poetry published in a variety of magazines, and greeting cards produced for Gibson Cards, Allport Editions, and Beyond.com. The Starter Marriage, a romantic comedy, is his first feature length screenplay. Present writing projects include his fifth script (this one is on Leif Eriksson) and a nasty email to his cable company. Finalists Download Me (Sci-Fi/Comedy) by Mel Hamill Hell Week (Comedy/Horror) by Monica Byrnes & Toria Sheffield VMS (Sci-Fi/Action) by Alexander Janko

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Feb 26 2015
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Tomb Raider Reboot Hires Script Pipeline Contest Winner

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MGM and Warner Bros. hired Script Pipeline writer Evan Daugherty in February 2015 to pen the new Tomb Raider film. Graham King (The Departed, Argo) producing. Instead of a sequel to the 2001 Angelina Jolie version, the new plot will feature a younger Lara Croft on her first adventure. Evan found representation with manager/producer Jake Wagner after winning the 2008 Script Pipeline Screenwriting Competition. Adaptations are nothing new for Daugherty: his resume includes recent feature releases Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Divergent, in addition to in-development TV series projects Esmeralda (ABC), Midnight Mass (NBC), The Foundation (Fox), and Five Ghosts (SyFy). SUBMIT A SCREENPLAY
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Feb 02 2015
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January 2015 Script Sales

By Script Sales

2015 started out strong for former Script Pipeline Finalist Matt Altman, who sold his sci-fi/action spec Sam & Liz: A Killer Love Story to Relativity Media. Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street) has been hired to rewrite Zombies vs. Robots, based on the comic book by Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood. January was also a good mention for comedy with Barry Sonnenfeld signing on to direct Nine Lives by Dan Antoniazzi and Ben Shiffrin in which a businessman finds himself in the body of the family cat. Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley sold their comedy pitch Psych to Sony and Columbia. Bobby Farrelly has signed on to direct the comedy One Night Stan, written by Kevin Barnett, Chris Pappas, and Mike Bernier. Benderspink and CBS Films are producing Senior Year by Andrew Knauer and Arthur Pielli, a comedy about a high school cheerleader who wakes up from a coma after twenty years and decides to go back…

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Feb 02 2015
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The Grand Budapest Hotel – Screenplay

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

If ever there was a writer/director who audiences share a love-hate relationship with. . . . Wes Anderson established a unique approach to storytelling and style early in his career (although “unique” doesn’t exactly express how distinct this technique has become, compared to the current studio-level landscape), and The Grand Budapest Hotel serves as the next iteration of his brand. But the screenplay isn’t exactly a primer for beginning writers. It’s rather long, rather wordy, and rather low-key as far as plot, even for the genre, a dramedy that, like many of his other films, almost defies a specific categorization. Novel-like in its execution. So why should you read it, especially if you’re a long-standing member of the “Wes Anderson Makes No Sense and is Terrible” club? Because of the writing. Imagine that–a screenplay worth reading because of the writing. Believe it or not, though, not all great screenplays feature great writing. Some nail the…

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Jan 07 2015
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December 2014 Script Sales

By Script Sales

It was a slower month for script sales (as Decembers usually are). Richard Tanne will write Southside with You, a romance based on Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date. State Street Pictures and Paramount are moving forward with Zach Frenkel’s 2013 Black List comedy Make a Wish. Ted Nusbaum sold his coming-of-age sports drama In the Crease, which takes place in the world of lacrosse. Will Ferrell tostar in a comedy about the competitive world of Shakespearean theatre companies, based on a pitch by David Guion and Michael Handelman. And Disney picked up Brandon Barker’s revisionist Robin Hood spec Nottingham and Hood. Other script sales include: – Jim Carrey will star in Deep Cover, based on a pitch from Johnny Rosenthal. – LAIKA Entertainment is gearing up for their next animated feature, with Chris Butler (ParaNorman) and Marc Haimes on scripting duties, and Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron, Rooney Mara, and Ralph Fiennes lending their voices. – Michael Starrbury (a former…

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Dec 15 2014
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Micah Barnett

By Exclusive Interviews

– Micah Barnett, writer of The Rabbit (Warner Bros.) with Chris Tucker attached to star. Micah also sold the television project Ricochet to NBC in 2013. In 2010, after receiving a “Recommend” on his screenplay The Merc List, Script Pipeline introduced Micah to manager Jake Wagner, who later signed him. What’s your background in the industry? What made you become a screenwriter? I was an English major in college and didn’t study film or even consider it a career, but I always loved movies. And I remember with only about a month before graduation I read an interview in some school publication with an alumni, Wendy Finerman, who talked about producing Forrest Gump. This was the first time I really thought about where movies came from. . . and I realized that, hell, someone has to actually create all of these great movies I’ve been consuming since as long as I can remember. Eventually, I worked up the…

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Dec 03 2014
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November 2014 Script Sales

By Script Sales

A (presumably metric) ton of scripts were picked up from the 2014 Brit List, including Tamzin Rafn’s comedy Alice in La La Land, Matt Greenhalgh’s thriller Silencers, Paul Valnay’s sci-fi Sick Robot, and Lydia Adetunji’s psychological horror A Little Music. Back in the States, Industry Entertainment optioned Adam Taylor Barker’s Dig, a revenge thriller set in the Appalachian Mountains. McG will produce the spec script The Babysitter, a coming-of-age horror from Brian Duffield. Mark Waters has signed on to #direct the #highschoolcomedy #Catfight by Amelie Gillette (hashtags should be kept to a minimum). And Paramount bought two specs: Eric Koenig’s Matriarch, a thriller that pits a female prison psychologist against a female serial killer, and the screenplay ARES (Allied Recovery of the Extraordinary and Supernatural), in the vein of Indiana Jones and Men in Black, written by Michael Starrbury, a former Script Pipeline “Recommend” writer. Other script sales include: – Universal took over Aaron…

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Dec 03 2014
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Gone Girl – Screenplay

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

One of the most debatable points in screenwriting: “The book was better. . . .” Of course the book was better. The book is always (well, sometimes) better. Because it’s a book. There are few rules in novel writing as far as plot and structure. No length or budget restrictions. Characters are explored and detailed to exhaustion, and the audience–the reader–becomes more emotionally invested. It’s one thing to sit in front of a screen, it’s another to bear the imaginative burden of conjuring up images by yourself. The typical result is a deeper, satisfying experience. But it’s nearly impossible for films to stay entirely true to their literary counterparts (unless audiences are receptive to a seven-hour time commitment, and that sounds dreadful). So the screenwriter takes the source material and adapts–in every sense of the term. It’s no terrible surprise, then, that adoring fans of Gone Girl the novel became ardent critics…

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Nov 30 2014
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Oldboy Director Attached to Helm Contest-Winning Screenplay

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The sci-fi thriller Second Born, winner of the 2010 Script Pipeline Screenwriting Competition, attached director Chan-wook Park (Oldboy) in November 2014. Written by David Jagernauth, the project is being produced by former Bold Films President David Lancaster (Drive, Whiplash) and his company Rumble Films. David was part of a stellar group of screenwriting winners in 2010 that included novelist Teresa Lo and screenwriter Tripper Clancy (Stranded, Hacker Camp). A separate sci-fi/action project of David's was previously in development with Script Pipeline execs. SUBMIT A SCREENPLAY
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Nov 10 2014
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Debbie Lollie

By Exclusive Interviews

– Debbie Lollie, writer of Help Me Out, aka The Ex-Man (2013 Script Pipeline First Look Project Winner) You won the First Look Project with a romantic comedy revolving around what’s considered a “high-concept” premise. Was this a deliberate decision? To write something that might appeal to execs at the studio level? The goal and hope with any screenplay is always that it will be made into a movie. Therefore, attracting the industry’s attention with a “high concept” project is a key objective, but that term is highly subjective and difficult to define. I think of it as being a gut instinct. Something about a story idea just hits you and provokes an emotional reaction. I think another aspect is that the project is commercial. But a strong caveat here. I don’t think one can set out to write a “high-concept” script. That can’t be the primary driving force. Due to the subjective nature…

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Nov 05 2014
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Collateral – Screenplay

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

In a way, one of the more underrated, or at least slightly-less-than-discussed, screenplays in the genre. Collateral encompasses most every element you need–er, prefer–in an action/thriller. A ticking clock, high stakes, an innocent protagonist we can pull for, a “heartless” and dangerous villain. . . . Screenwriting 101, right? But Stuart Beattie’s script is a richly-layered psychological study of character (yes, really) as much as it is a popcorn crime tale. As the story behind the story goes, apparently Beattie came up with the idea, or at least the seeds of the idea, when he was 17. A classic “what if __?” scenario that developed into a treatment, followed by a script, and the final product, which apparently hardly resembles its original incarnation. A testament to the screenwriting process in itself, by the way–rare is it when a writer’s first draft, or initial concept, sees the light of a projector. When reading this…

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Nov 05 2014
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October 2014 Script Sales

By Script Sales

Hollywood got into the Halloween spirit this month, with several horror and thriller projects moving forward. Rob Zombie will direct his own script 31, a Most Dangerous Game-esque story with murderous clowns hunting carnival workers (what, you expected something else?). Sam Raimi producing A Man in the Dark, written by Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues, in which teen burglars break into a psychopath’s house. Comedian Jordan Peele sold Get Out, a horror script that focuses on the fears of being a modern black man, to Darko Entertainment. Radar Pictures picked up Travis Baker and Richard Tanne’s spec horror/thriller Midnight. Shawn Levi will produce Andrew Barrer and Gabe Ferrari’s spec Low Tide, and Original Film optioned Eric Heisserer’s pitch Exposure, a supernatural thriller in the vein of The Ring. Other script sales include: – Emma Thompson has been tapped to rewrite Bridget Jones’ Baby. Hopefully, things will work out better for Bridget than they did for Rosemary. – Seth Grahame-Smith will write Lego Batman, a spinoff from The Lego…

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