Script Sales

A ton of remakes are in the works, including The Thin Man with Johnny Depp, Dirty Dancing, Wargames, Flatliners, The Wild Bunch. . . . There's more, but you get the idea: the industry needs more great, original ideas. A handful of mostly romantic comedies and dramas fill out the remainder of September. Although the one bright (and pretty cool) spot comes from 11/22/63, where a man travels back in time to try and stop the JFK assassination. Based on an upcoming Stephen King novel. King's epic tale The Stand is also getting a re-boot in feature form. Other script sales include: - Legendary director Ridley Scott takes on a new and seemingly less legendary-like challenge: a film based on the board game Monopoly. - Abigail Breslin will star in the teen comedy A Virgin Mary, signaliing her official entrance into the PG-13 teen/sex/comedy crowd. - A sequel to the…

First month in a while where the majority of script sales (and there were a ton) are comprised of some pretty "well-tread" plots. But all is not lost, as screenplays based on the true stories of Bonnie and Clyde and the trapped Chilean miners of 2010 are in the works. Steve Carrell, Nicholas Cage, and Jack Black will star in a comedy--who cares what it's about? Has to be funny with that line-up. What's not so funny? A movie adaptation of Entourage. Somewhere, a real talent manager is cringing. Other script sales include: - Captain Planet gets the live-action treatment. No word on who will play the main villain: a plastic circly thing that goes around soda cans. - Gore Verbinski will direct a new adaptation of Clue. Details are being kept under wraps. . . how fitting. - George Orwell's Animal Farm. The Geico duck rumored to star. -…

Can't decide between going to a movie or playing Angry Birds? Well, relax cowboy: the game by Rovio will have an animated (obviously) film adaptation. No word yet on whether there will be a Angry Birds Rio movie, which would make it the first movie based on a game based on a movie. On another animation note, Spy vs. Spy gets the royal treatment with Ron Howard to direct. A remake of War Games is also in the works. And the Nicholas Sparks story The Best of Me, about a guy and girl who used to be in love, and then they weren't, but then it'll all work out in the end to ultimately make women cry (well, that'll probably be the gist, anyway). Other script sales include: - Swear to God starring everyone's favorite slightly-furry comedian Will Ferrell, who plays a hedge fund manager that sees God. - Diablo…

May was a fantastic month for spec sales. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa sold his remake of the 1976 horor "Carrie." Yogi and Boo Boo are back in Yogi Bear 2, written by Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia. In what sounds reminiscent of Terminator 2, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant penned the film "The Machine," about a humaniod robot discovered and befriended by a young boy. Vin Diesel to produce and star. Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are teaming up again for the film "Turkey Day," another Adam McKay project, pitched by Robert Carlock and Scott Silverie. And "Responsible Adults," a romantic comedy about a 30-year-old woman falling for a 22-year-old guy, only to find out that she used to be his babysitter 15 years earlier, sold this month. Script is written by Alex Schemmer, with Katie Holmes to star. Other script sales include: -The Girlfriend Equation, written by Tim Rasmussen and…

Multiple bio-pics were set up this month. Dreamworks to make a Martin Luther King Jr. film, penned by Kario Salem and produced by the King family. Ponzie's Scheme, based on the life of Charles Ponzi and written by Christopher Weekes, to be produced through Starry Night Entertainment. "Groundhog Day" for kids: Goosebumps author R.L. Stine's yet to be published book, It’s the First Day of School…Forever! to be produced consecutively with the release of the book. Timely for the royal wedding, Scott Neustadter and (500) Days of Summer writer Michael Webber sold a romantic comedy for seven figures about a midwestern girl going to the UK and marrying a prince. Ian Edelman sold his street basketball script to Paramount - Mark Wahlberg to produce and star, along with Justin Bieber in the cast. And a week before the release of the fifth installment of "The Fast and the Furious," the…

A second busy month in a row, with over a hundred new projects, March wrapped up with the sale of the latest script for the Iron Man, with Drew Pearce's Iron Man III. Three movies, with three different writers for the francise. With Jon Favreau opting to direct Magic Kingdom instead, Shane Black, writer of the Lethal Weapon series, will direct. Based on the loveable penguin characters from the movie "Madagascar," Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, the screenwriters for Megamind, sold the script for an untilted project to Dreamworks. Perhaps connected to the success of Katy Perry's last music video, Universal picked up Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger's Candyland, based on the bord game by Hasbro. Kevin Lima (Enchanted) is attached to direct. Other notable script sales this month include: - The latest reboot of Les Miserables, penned by Bill Nicholson, picked up by Universal - SNL writer Bryan…

February is usually one of the busiest months of the year in the screen trade, and with over 100 script sales this month, 2011 was no different. The month included two sales based on Houdini, "The Secret Life of Houdini," by Noah Oppenheim, which will be produced by Summit Entertainment, and "Voices from the Dead," by J. Michael Straczynski, to be produced by DreamWorks. The latest adaptation of Pinocchio, written by Matthew Robbins, and based on a story by himself and Guillermo del Toro, will be produced by The Jim Henson Company, and will be shot in stop-motion 3D. Moving in a new direction away from movies like "Donnie Darko" and "Southland Tales," Darko Entertaiment greenlit Richard Kelly's latest script, "Corpus Christi," a more dramatic look at a mentally unstable war vetran. Other notable sales include: - Susannah Grant sold a bio-pic to Disney based on the life of Lynn…

January was a great month for script sales. Hat's off to Adam Lorenzo's for his script sale of "Lidsville" to Dreamworks Animation. Based on the 70's t.v. show, this children's fantasy is about personified talking hats and headgear; Conrad Vernon is set to direct. Warner Brothers picked up Steven King's "The Stand," a story about a worldwide flu epidimic; although made into a mini series in the nineties, producer Roy Lee will be bringing this Horor/Sci-Fi to the big screen. Dan Fogelman sold his script "My Mother's Curse" to Paramount, with SNL's Lorne Michaels along with John Goldwyn to helm the project. Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand to act/produce in this road comedy. Other sales include: -"Cobu 3D," written by Duane Adler, a dance/music project set up at Lionsgate -"Age of Rage," written by Mark Heyman, a sci-fi at Fox Searchlight, Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) to direct. -"Men…

A relatively busy month of script sales to close out 2010. Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code) will see his next film adaptation, The Lost Symbol, in the works. Judd Apatow to produce and direct a spinoff of Knocked Up, and James Franco to write/direct the drama As I Lay Dying and Blood Meridian. And Disney's now making movies about rides that never even opened with The Museum of the World. But most importantly, Script Pipeline "Recommend" writer Micah Barnett sold The Rabbit to Warner Bros. for the mid-six figures. Dan Lin producing. Other sales include: --The Three Stooges. The movie. 'Nuff said. --Ridley Scott will direct The Color of Lightning. --The biopic of Louis Zamperini, war hero and Olympic track star, Unbroken. --George Clooney to star in The Monster of Florence, a mystery based on a true story. --The world of valets: the last occupation not represented on film. Adam…

Plenty of action/thrillers in a fairly slow month for sales. Leonardo DiCaprio will produce and star in Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination, which exposes a fresh perspective and potentially real secret behind the JFK assasination. Men in Black will see its third installment--Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reprise their roles, alongside Alec Baldwin and Emma Thompson. An updated version of the Hitchcock classic The 39 Steps, a crime/comedy starring Brad Pitt, and yet another new Steve Carrell project, Imagine, round out the major sales. Other sales include: --The action/thriller spec Game Theory, to be co-produced by Summit Entertainment and Anonymous Content. --Remake of the 1992 hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And what with the vampire craze. . . well, this one's a no-brainer. --Paranormal Activity 3. 'Nuff said. To be released October 2011. --A biopic on Sam Kinison, entitled Brother Sam. --The Lions of…

Comedy is in the air for the fall. October brought us a few major sales, including Dan Goor’s El Presidente, acquired by Warner Brothers and focusing on an “overly-committed Secret Service agent who is assigned to guard the country's worst former president, a bumbling sleaze” after someone threatens to kill the ex-president. In non-comedy sales, writer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi sold his sci-fi spec Dark Moon to Warner Brothers in the high six figures. Also looks like a sequel to Top Gun is in the works, as well as a remake of Hellraiser and an adaptation of The Twilight Zone. Other sales include: --Take My Wife: a guy tries to get out of paying alimony to his ex-wife by finding her a new husband, which backfires once he falls back in love with her. Written by Greg Coolidge & Kirk Ward. Tyler Perry and Dwayne Johnson attached to star. --Finally an adaptation…

A mix of genres (more so than in recent months, anyway) dot the landscape. Plenty of specs, some random 3D projects, and fewer overall adaptations this month. Leonardo DiCaprio will produce, and potentially star, in Portofino, a thriller so secret even the plot is thoroughly ambiguous. A biopic on former president Ronald Reagan is in the works, as is one on John DeLorean. The jury's out on which one will be more awesome. . . . And watch out Stephen King fans: arguably the most epic of his novels finally gets a shot at the big screen, The Dark Tower series is set to begin. Other notable sales include: --Guillermo Del Toro will helm DreamWorks Animation's Trollhunters, what's sure to be a visually-packed script. --Rob Zombie returns to the director's chair with The Lords of Salem, about a group of witches in modern-day Salem. --Little America: a teenage prostitute on…

Riding his train of popularity, Steve Carrell hops on board another comedy, a remake of an Argentine film, A Boyfriend for My Wife. Kind of self-explanatory. . . . The immensely popular comic series (well, sort of--at least for the seventies) Iron Fist is getting a film version, and Angelina Jolie dips her feet in the romance/war drama genre again in an as-of-yet untitled Serbian/Bosnian love story. And if that doesn't get you crying, don't weep too hard fans of the 1980s (all 12 of you): the Jaden Smith version of Karate Kid will see a sequel. Other notable sales include: --Morgan Creek will take on the Tupac story. Antoine Fuqua is set to direct. --A 3-D film chronicling the Battle of Midway during WWII. --Piranha 3-D = sequel. No word yet on what dimension it'll be in. . . . -- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are returning to…

A flood of comic book and graphic novel adaptations continue to move into development, including The Untamed, A Contract with God, Astro City, The Strange Case of Hyde, and the likely much-anticipated Xerxes, the prequel to Frank Miller's bloody and epic masterpiece, 300. A vampire twist on the biblical story of Cain, a handful of novel adaptations, such as a live-action story of the orignal Little Mermaid tale, and yet another version of South Pacific (not that there's anything wrong with that. . . .) fill out the rest of the month. Other selected sales include: --Guillermo del Toro will helm the Disney-inspired pic The Haunted Mansion. --Also from Disney, Tink, focusing on. . . well, who do you think? Tinkerbell. Elizabeth Banks will star in the live-action film. --The Grimm tale Hansel and Gretel will have a 3D re-telling. --Nia Vardalos to pen Happy Mother's Day, a road comedy…

Crime/drams, thrillers, and some fairly unusual adaptations in June. . . . Fresh off his role as Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe will star in a remake of the classic All Quiet on the Western Front. A sequel to Men in Black, The Bourne Identity, Clash of the Titans, and Ghost Rider are in the works as well. On the prequel side of things, Carrie Bradshaw's character will give teenage fans a thrill in The Carrie Diaries. And (finally) a live-action version of the extraordinary children's book The Wind in the Willows. Other selected sales include: --A live action/animation film adaptation of Legos, appropriately titled Lego. --The spec script Step Dawg, a comedy about a man whose mother is set to marry his former best friend. To be produced by Morgan Creek. --The Marvel character Dr. Strange will see a film version. --Remake of the 1980s "classic" (well, sort of anyway)…