Script Sales

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…

Echo Lake Productions and Royal Viking Entertainment have picked up Sean Sorensen’s spec We Interrupt This Program, based on the true story of Orson Welles’ famous radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds and the ensuing panic. Disney has picked up Tarell Alvin McCraney’s musical romance script Cyrano the Moor, which will combine elements from Cyrano de Bergerac and Othello. David Oyelowo and Jessica Oyelowo are set to produce. Phoenix Pictures is moving forward with A Country of Strangers, Sean Armstrong’s 2012 Black List script. The story follows the true story of a 40-year investigation into the disappearance of three young children in Australia. Murray Miller’s untitled buddy cop comedy has found a home at Universal. John Cena and Kumail Nanjiani will star, Ruben Fleischer will direct. Finally, Lisa Jones is set adapt Danielle McGuire’s non-fiction book At the Dark End of the Street for Invisible Pictures. Julie Dash to direct….

Hyde Park Entertainment has picked up Lee Batchler and Janet Scott Batchler’s drama spec Jack and Dick. The story will follow John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon’s careers as friends and political rivals leading up to their presidential debate. Ashok Amritraj and Alan Gasmer are set to produce. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. is moving forward with Josh L. Gordon’s untitled sci-fi/thriller. Set in a near-future world where advances in artificial intelligence are threatening the human race, Gordon’s spec follows a young engineer who finds herself involved in a billionaire’s plan to alter the fate of humanity. Next up: Tyler MacIntyre and Chris Hill’s horror/thriller spec Nightlight has found a home at Columbia Pictures. Nightlight follows a 10-year-old boy who fends off invaders when he’s left home alone. Tyler MacIntyre is set to direct as well. Finally, Screen Gems and Royal Viking Entertainment are teaming for Peter A. Dowling’s Exposure. His action/thriller spec centers on an African…

Screenwriters made a strong showing in July, with many projects finding homes over the course of the month. Voltage Pictures snagged Brian Edward Hill’s untitled horror/thriller spec. The script has been described as a supernatural take on Se7en but with a female lead. Miramax picked up Jason Markarian and John Mirabella’s spec The Armstrongs. The action/comedy follows a divorced couple in witness protection who have to team up when their son is kidnapped. Eli Roth is set to produce Casey La Scala’s 1974, a thriller spec inspired by true events about a man convicted of murdering his parents and siblings. La Scala is set to direct as well. New Line Cinema purchased Super-Intelligence, an action/comedy spec written by Steve Mallory. Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone are also set to produce. Finally, Lionsgate acquired Shay Hatten’s action spec Ballerina, which follows a female assassin out for revenge. The script might become…

June was a lighter month for script sales. 20th Century Fox picked up Courage, a sci-fi spec written by Karl Gajdusek. The movie is described as in the same vein as Inception and Edge of Tomorrow. Amazon Studios meanwhile has picked up Flint Wainess’s 2016 Black List script Linda and Monica about the relationship between Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinski. Zodiac Features is teaming with Bankside Films and Head Gear Films to produce Devon Graye’s horror/thriller I See You. Helen Hunt is set to star. Other script sales: – Universal Studios picked up Sarah Rothschild’s workplace comedy pitch 24/7. Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington are set to star in and produce the film. – Material Pictures is moving forward with Patrick Ness’s Home, based on George Saunders’s New Yorker short story. – Lauren Graham to write and produce an adaptation of Jennifer E. Smith’s YA novel Windfall. – Margie Claus found a home at…

May was a slower month for spec sales. Adam D’Alba’s horror spec The Infinity Reel has found a home at Paramount, with 21 Laps Entertainment and Bullitt Entertainment producing. The movie, based on D’Alba’s pilot, will follow a paranormal investigator who investigates a strange phenomenon in small town and along the way finds an eerie connection to his own past. Amazon Studios has picked up another spec, This Is Jane by Daniel Loflin. The drama is based on Laura Kaplan’s non-fiction book The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service, set in the years just before Roe v. Wade. Other script sales: – Andy Bellin will adapt Brett Velicovich and Christopher S. Stewart’s Drone Warrior into a script for Paramount. – Peter Ackerman to write the Angry Birds sequel for Columbia. – Greg Russo to write the Resident Evil reboot for Screen Gems. James Wan to produce. –…

April was a strong month for writers. Voltage Productions and Chris Morgan Productions are teaming to produce Luke Paradise’s action/mystery spec The Prodigal. The feature follows a soldier who returns home to investigate his estranged brother’s death. Universal has picked up Todd Rosenberg’s drama spec All My Life. The script follows the true story of Solomon Chau and Jennifer Carter, an engaged couple who raise money to fund the wedding of their dreams after Chau is diagnosed with liver cancer. Melissa Stack’s untitled comedy spec, about an older woman who goes on vacation with her much-younger boyfriend’s family, has found a home at Twentieth Century Fox. Stack will also direct. Sony and Immersive Pictures are moving forward with Noah Griffith and Daniel Stewart’s Fragment. The sci-fi/thriller, based on Griffith and Stewart’s 2015 short, follows a crashed Air Force pilot who follows a mysterious radio beacon to discover something not of…

It was a strong month for spec scripts. Things kicked off with Bluegrass Pictures and DreamWorks Studios picking up Bad Cop, Bad Cop, an action buddy comedy written by Fortune Feimster, Brian Jarvis, and Jim Freeman. Feimster is also attached to star. Sony is moving forward with Marian. The action/drama spec follows Maid Marian donning Robin Hood’s mantle after his death, and the film is set to star Margot Robbie. Cristal Pictures and The Donners’ Company will produce Ingrid Eskeland-Adetuyi’s action/comedy spec Twin Blades, which centers on a tech entrepreneur relocated to China and her local female bodyguard. Finally, Ian Shorr’s sci-fi spec Infinite, which follows a schizophrenic who discovers that his hallucinations are memories of his past lives, has found a home with Di Bonaventura Pictures and Paramount. Other script sales: – 20th Century Fox has picked up Drew Goddard’s (The Martian) thriller Bad Times at the El Royale. Everything…

STX Entertainment has optioned The New Neighbors, a spec written by Leslie Headland and David Schickler. The psychological drama follows a couple who move into an affluent area and uncover dirty secrets within. Headland is also attached to direct. Amblin acquired John Swetnam’s action/thriller spec Ruthless in an auction. The script follows a retired assassin who sets out on one final job after she’s diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Brad Peyton to direct. Black Bear Pictures acquired The Impossible War, a drama spec written by Robert Specland, based on the true story of Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin’s search for the polio cure. Sony picked up Teddy Tenenbaum and Minsun Park’s supernatural thriller spec /Reddoor, which follows a journalist as he reviews a new app game that kills its players. Finally, Amazon Studios and RatPac Entertainment are teaming for Melissa London Hilfers’s script Unfit, based on Adam Cohen’s nonfiction book…

It was a slower month to start the year. Twentieth Century Fox and Sunswept Entertainment have picked up Skyward, Joe Ballarini’s drama spec based on two families that build a hot-air balloon to escape over the Berlin Wall. Based on a true story. Another true story spec: Samuel Franco and Evan Kilgore’s drama spec Keeper of the Diary found a home with Fox Searchlight and Weimaraner Republic Pictures. The script follows Anne Frank’s father who struggles to find a publisher for his daughter’s diary after World War II. Universal Pictures won out in a bidding war for Rowan Athale’s spec Little America, which takes place after America has become so bankrupt that China begins calling all the shots. Michael Bay to produce, Athale to also direct. Finally, Prime Universe Productions and Marlowe Pictures are teaming for Slayer, an action/fantasy spec written by Joel Dorland. The story follows a fisherman who…

Hollywood winded down in December for the holidays and the new year, which meant the last month of 2016 ended up a slow one for script sales. But it wasn’t completely silent. Amazon Studios picked up Jack Thorne’s action/adventure spec The Aeronauts, based on the true story of balloon pilot Amelia Wren and scientist James Glaisher and their hot-air balloon adventure. Twentieth Century Fox acquired The State, written by Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani. The action/thriller spec follows a father in a desperate race to rescue his son. Anthony Jaswinski’s action/thriller spec Highway One, which follows an Afghanistan veteran with PTSD who resorts to extreme measures after her daughter is kidnapped, found a home at DreamWorks. Working Title Films is set to produce Luke Garrett’s The Englishman, a drama/thriller spec about East Germany’s Ministry for State Security. Paul Dano in talks to star, Edward Berger (Deutschland 83) attached to direct….

November was a great month for spec sales. Centropolis Entertainment acquired Scarletville, a thriller spec by Jason Young about a diner owner who delays a deadly criminal with twisted stories until the police arrive. Electric Entertainment will produce Steven Altiere’s sci-fi/fantasy spec Countdown. Dean Devlin (Stargate, Independence Day) will direct and produce. Greg Berlanti (Supergirl, The Flash) to produce Free Guy. The action/comedy spec, written by Matt Lieberman, follows a bank teller who realizes he’s just a background character in a realistic video game and is the only one who can save the world. Amazon Studios is moving forward with Holland, Michigan, a dark comedy spec written by Andrew Sodroski. Finally, Bridesmaid and Spy director Paul Feig will produce Charlie Kesslering’s sci-fi/comedy spec Turned On. More script sales: – Adam McKay (The Big Short) to write/direct a biopic based on former Vice President Dick Cheney. – The Wedding Crashers sequel…

October had a strong showing for spec material. Connor Martin’s road comedy Federal Offense found a home at Boundless Pictures. The spec pits three best friends and a foul-mouthed grandfather against a drug kingpin, gangsters, bounty hunters, and the law. Chevy Chase to star. LD Entertainment is moving forward with Ben Bolea’s buddy comedy spec The Miserable Adventures of Burt Squire about a family man in a midlife crisis and an unhinged sea captain who end up shipwrecked in the Atlantic Ocean. Participant Media and Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Productions will produce The Price of Liberty, Michael Russell Gunn’s spec thriller about a diplomat trying to prevent potential terrorist attack after the fall of the Soviet Union. Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller will produce Alex R. Johnson’s drama/thriller spec Northeast Kingdom for Paramount and Bay’s company, Platinum Dunes. The plot follows a young woman who enlists the help of…

First up, a Pipeline success story! Script Pipeline “Recommend” writer Matt J. O’Neill has sold his currently untitled sports drama to NBC. LeBron James to produce under his company SpringHill Entertainment (Survivor’s Remorse). Green-Light International and Imprint Entertainment have acquired Zika Agiashvili’s spec The Silver Arrow, a heist thriller about thieves searching for a legendary pre–World War II racecar, the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow. Oscar-nominated cinematographer Phedon Papamichael to direct. Madhouse has acquired the spec biopic American Rebel. Written by Christopher Cosmos, the story follows Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man to fight in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Amy Pascal to produce. Other script sales: – Marty Katz to produce Ray Gideon and Bruce Evans’s Roy Orbison biopic, The Big O. – Scott Rudin Productions has acquired Mindy Kaling’s untitled talk show screenplay. Kaling and Emma Thompson attached to star. – Terence Winter to write Andy…