Script Pipeline

Amblin Partners and Neal Street Productions have picked up Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns’ spec 1917. Mendes will direct the WWI drama and co-produce with Pippa Harris. Platinum Dunes and Tyler Perry Studios are bringing Ryan Belenzon and Jeffrey Gelber’s spec I Am Yours to Paramount. The project is described as thriller in the vein of Fatal Attraction. Writer Emilia Serrano had two of her comedy specs optioned: The Throwdown and an untitled quinceañera project. The Throwdown follows two Latina American cousins as they fight over a family restaurant they inherited and found a home with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions. Meanwhile, her quinceañera project follows a 30-year-old woman who brings her family on a work trip disguised as a “double quinceañera” because she missed her first and found a home with 26 Keys Productions and Pascal Pictures. Noah Hawley and Amy Pascal will produce. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot preemptively picked…

Tom O’Connor’s Cold War spy spec Ironbark has found a home with FilmNation Entertainment. The true story follows Greville Wynne, a British businessman, as he helps the CIA end the Cuban Missile Crisis and avert disaster. Benedict Cumberbatch is set to executive produce and star. Another historical spec landed at Gran Via Productions. This one: Alex Cramer’s Rawhide Down. The screenplay follows the immediate aftermath of John Hinkley’s assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in real time. Paramount Pictures picked up Cory Goodman’s horror spec The Oberline Incident. The plot is being kept under wraps, but it’s been described as high-concept with a female lead. Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures has picked up Crawl, written by Alexandre Aja, Shawn Rasmussen, and Michael Rasmussen. The story follows a young woman trapped in a flooding house with fierce predators during a Category 5 hurricane. Aja will also direct. Other script sales: - Dueling…

Bo Burnham’s spec script Gay Kid and Fat Chick is moving forward at Paramount Players with director Amy York Rubin at the helm. The dramedy script placed on the 2013 Black List and has been in development ever since. Tooley Productions picked up Tony Gayton’s crime-drama spec Thug. The story follows an aging ex-boxer and enforcer for a San Pedro gangster as he tries to fix his past mistakes and reconnect with his estranged children. Tucker Tooley will produce, and Christian Gudegast (London Has Fallen) will direct. New Line Cinema is moving forward with The Long Walk, adapted by James Vanderbilt from the novel by Stephen King (written under his pseudonym Richard Bachman). Vanderbilt had written the script on spec before New Line picked it up. Peter Dinklage to produce, perhaps star in O’Lucky Day for Legendary Pictures. The script, written by Andrew Dodge, follows a con man who poses…

Last month in spec sales, David Koepp sold his feature supernatural thriller You Should Have Left to Blumhouse Productions. The script, which Koepp will also direct, follows a screenwriter and his family for a week in a house they’ve rented, but mysterious things happen as he tries to finish the script for a horror movie sequel. The H Collective and Busted Shark Productions have teamed to produce Aaron W. Sala’s horror script The Beast. After a woman is stranded alone on an island, she has to face her worst fears. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. picked up Madison Turner’s untitled WWII spec about the 761st Regiment, an all black regiment that paved the way for military desegregation. Michael B. Jordan will produce. Millennium Films and Electric Pictures have picked up Adam Alleca’s Michael Zero, a sci-fi action that follows a man who has to hunt down his own clones, who were created…

Michael De Luca Productions picked up two sci-fi specs this month: Infinitum by Marc Guggenheim, which is described as a sci-fi love story similar to Memento, and Varietal by Adam Bloom, which is a psychological sci-fi thriller centered on a married couple. Infinitum landed at Sony while Varietal went to Universal. Legendary Pictures has teamed with LeBron James’ SpringHill Entertainment for Taylor Materne’s sports drama spec Hustle. The story follows a basketball scout who travels to China and brings back a Chinese streetball phenomenon. Annapurna Pictures and Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Gloria Sanchez Productions have picked up Booksmart, a teen comedy written by Katie Silberman. Booksmart follows two friends on the eve of graduation who set out on a night of fun after realizing they spent their entire high school years focused on their educations. Olivia Wilde is set to direct. Finally, Studio 8 and Scoop Productions picked up…

January kicked off 2018 with a slow start. Mental Pictures has picked up Joseph and John Magary’s Charlotte XVI, a romantic drama that follows the love lives of a 16-year-old girl and her mother. Myna Joseph will direct, and Maya Hawke will star. Derek Kolstad’s action/thriller script Nobody found a home at STX Entertainment. Bob Odenkirk is set to star and produce. Amazon picked up Task Force Two, an action pitch from Jennifer Yee McDevitt. The story will follow an elite search-and-rescue team in California. Genesius Pictures has entered pre-production with Mrs Lowery and Son, written by and based on the play by Martyn Hesford. Adrian Noble will direct. Timothy Spall and Vanessa Redgrave will star. Universal picked up My Own Worst Enemy, an action/comedy script by Chad St. John. Kevin Hart to star/produce. Other script sales: - Jon Felson has been tapped to adapt environmentalist Julia Butterfly Hill’s memoir…

Closing out 2017, Hollywood slowed down in December on account of the holiday season. Warner Bros. and Safehouse Pictures picked up Leo Sardarian's sci-fi/action spec The Expansion Project. The script follows a rookie female marine who ends up stranded on a planet. San Andreas's Brad Peyton is attached to direct. Guillermo del Toro's Del Toro Productions is teaming with Fox Searchlight and Phantom Four Films to produce the supernatural horror/thriller Antlers. Written by Nick Antosca and Henry Chaisson, the spec follows a young teacher who discovers a deadly supernatural secret connected to the father of one of her students. Hostiles director Scott Cooper is currently in talks. Rickey Castleberry and Zimran Jacob's college comedy Swag has found a home with Estevan/Sheen Productions. Kevin Pollack to direct. Other script sales: - Rashida Jones to adapt the graphic novel Goldie Vance for Twentieth Century Fox. Jones will also direct. - Mairghread Scott to write the animated feature Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors for Marvel Entertainment. - Guillermo del Toro will write and direct…

Spec scripts made a strong showing in November. Kicking things off, Lakeshore Entertainment picked up Mark Hogan’s spec The New Mrs. Keller, which has been described as a Hitchcockian techno-thriller. Escape Artists snagged Let Her Speak, a true-story spec based on Texas state Senator Wendy Davis’s 11-hour filibuster to stall anti-abortion legislation. Sandra Bullock is attached to star. New Republic Pictures and Will Packer Productions are teaming up for Green Rush. Written by Matt Tente, the crime spec follows an ex-con who schemes with his daughter to steal millions of dollars worth of medical marijuana taxes from city hall. Amy Pascal’s Pascal Pictures picked up Envoy, a sci-fi/thriller spec written by Kat Wood. The script follows a military intelligence specialist who attempts to become the first-ever human representation to alien life. Finally, Sentient Entertainment scooped up Tony Mosher’s drama/thriller spec Sirius about two members of a Danish special forces dog…

This year, script sales slowed down in the month of October. Misher Films picked up Craig Luck and Ivor Powell’s sci-fi spec Bios. Set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, the film will follow a robot tasked with protecting his creator’s dog. Currently, Tom Hanks is attached to star, and Miguel Sapochnik is attached to direct. Meanwhile, Stay Gold Features and Rosa Entertainment have teamed for Heart of the Beast. The drama/thriller spec, written by Cameron Alexander, follows a former Navy SEAL and his combat dog as they try to survive after an accident in the Alaskan wilderness. Moving away from stories about dogs, QC Entertainment and Good Universe have picked up Max Landis’s horror script Decon about a young medical prodigy who is pushed to their breaking point over the course of one night after joining a team that treats the most dangerous and gruesome diseases. Other script sales: - Bob’s…