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November 2021 Script Sales

By Script Sales

Here are some of the most notable script sales from November 2021. – TriStar Pictures and Sugar23 have picked up Colin Bannon’s thriller spec Ultra, which follows a marathon runner in a deadly race. – Lionsgate, Genre Films (Simon Kinberg), and Freckle Films (Jessica Chastain) will produce Kinberg’s spec thriller Wayland. Michael Showalter will executive produce and direct. – EOne and Fuller Media have picked up the thriller Tarot from a pitch by writers Jason Pagan and Andrew Deutschman. André Øvredal will direct. – Fangoria Studios and Friel Films will team up for writer/director Anna Chazelle’s untitled horror film based on the myth of Medusa. – Vision Tree Media and Elevated Films are producing the psychological drama Hallow, written by Nadine Crocker and Chris Tardio. Crocker will also direct. – Moonshaker and Newen Distribution will produce writer/director Noé Debré’s dark comedy The Last of the Jews. – 21 Laps and…

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October 2021 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from October 2021. – Twentieth Century Studios, Footprint Features, and A Seed & Wings Productions have picked up Wenonah Wilms and Becca Greene’s spec Darby Harper Wants You To Know, a coming-of-age supernatural dramedy. Silas Howard will direct. – Studio 8 and Wild Bunch are taking on Mind Fall, a sci-fi/thriller written by Graham Moore. Mathieu Kassovitz will direct, and Daisy Ridley will star. – One Community, Gunpowder & Sky, and Mazo Partners have optioned the action/thriller No Way In Hell, written by Chase Millsap and Charley Dane. – Village Roadshow Pictures and Brillstein Entertainment have picked up two scripts from this year’s Blood List: Casey Giltner’s On the First Day of Christmas… and Jose Nateras’s Zero Feet Away. – Robert Archer Lynn’s script Silent Night has found a home with Thunder Road Pictures and Capstone Group. The action/crime/thriller will star…

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Erin Muroski

By Exclusive Interviews

Winner of the 2021 Script Pipeline TV Writing Competition with her half-hour dramedy pilot Munch, Erin Muroski managed to pull off a script that, in the eyes of Script Pipeline staff, sparked a deeply resonant conversation about societal norms and mental health. Erin signed with managers Kate Sharp and Zack Zucker (Bellevue) after an introduction by Pipeline execs.  In the long history of Script Pipeline’s TV Writing Competition, I don’t think we’ve had more staff discussions about a single script than we had about Munch. Polarizing in the best of ways, since it opened up so many windows—not so much about your writing ability (which is obviously stellar) but about the subject matter. How difficult was it to find a balance in getting your underlying commentary across and still present a lead character we wanted to follow? The reason I wanted to tell this story is because I think, as…

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Donald Jolly

By Exclusive Interviews

A runner-up of the 2021 Script Pipeline TV Writing Competition, Donald Jolly impressed Pipeline judges with his beautifully rendered drama Queens of Chocolate City, set against the backdrop of a gentrifying Washington DC neighborhood. Queens of Chocolate City struck me as a masterclass in developing characters. No doubt influenced by your background as a playwright. How did that experience in writing for theater transition to writing for TV? Was it that mindset of having to write for actors? Thank you so much for saying that! First, a couple of confessions: Like many people, before I knew anything about theater, it was TV and the movies that first sparked my interest in performance and entertainment. As I teen, I wanted to be an actor and filmmaker/director. I wrote stories and made videos with a VHS camcorder my grandfather gave me, I interned at a public access station, and CNN. I guess I…

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September 2021 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from September 2021. – Twentieth Century Studios purchased up Shawn Simmons’ untitled action/thriller script about a former teenage getaway driver who is drawn back into the life she left behind. Deadpool and Zombieland’s Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick will produce. – Common’s Stardust Films and Everlast Pictures will produce writer/director Eric Amadio’s sports drama The Faith of Long Beach. Common will also co-star. – Peter Saji will write and direct a film based on Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s hit song “Summertime” from their 1991 album Homebase. Screen Gems, Davis Entertainment, and Smith’s Westbrook Studios will produce. – Almost Never Films is moving forward with The Plus One, written by Austin Highsmith Garces and Brendan Bradley. Ashanti is set to produce and star. – Verdi Productions is moving forward with The Junkyard Dogs, a family comedy written by Jacob Cooney…

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WandaVision – Pilot

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

You may have heard that Marvel Studios’ takeover of Hollywood has official entered a new phase. They’ve now extended their ultra-successful franchise of interconnected films into the television world, and WandaVision made that leap in the most literal way. One part love letter to television comedies, one part character drama, and one part superhero movie, WandaVision imagines what domestic life could be for one of comic’s unlikeliest superhero couples, a powerful sorceress (Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch) and her android husband (Paul Bettany’s The Vision). The pilot episode starts off in an I Love Lucy and Dick Van Dyke-inspired world, complete with a classic sitcom plot and even an off-kilter neighbor (Kathryn Hahn’s pitch perfect Agnes). But this being Marvel, nothing is as it seems, and despite the script’s spot-on homage, showrunner/writer Jac Schaeffer imbues just enough off-kilter creepiness to add to the mystery of why these superheroes…

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August 2021 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from August 2021. – Lionsgate, Lord Miller (Phil Lord and Chris Miller), and 3 Arts have picked up Jordan VanDina’s comedy/biopic spec 48 Hours in Vegas, which follows Dennis Rodman’s 48-hour vacation in the middle of the 1998 NBA Finals. Rodman will executive produce. – Michael Green will script the Jungle Cruise sequel for Disney, Davis Entertainment, Flynn Picture Company, and Seven Bucks Entertainment (Dwayne Johnson). Jaume Collet-Serra will possibly return to direct, and Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson will reprise their roles. Green co-wrote the original film. – Sony, Silver Pictures (Joel Silver), and Nine Dot Entertainment purchased David Rothley’s thriller spec The Dryline. – Paramount and Original Film picked up Witnessville, an action pitch from writer Michael McGrale. – Writer/director Kurt Wimmer’s The Bee Keeper found a home at Miramax. The action/thriller spec will star Jason Statham, who will…

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The Father – Screenplay

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

Many films have explored the drama and tragedy of diseases like dementia, but none have done so as effectively as The Father. Recipient of the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards, The Father was written by Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton from Zeller’s play Le Père (which Hampton had previously translated into English from the original French). Zeller also directed the film. The Father follows Anthony (played by Anthony Hopkins in an Academy Award–winning turn) as he tries to adjust to life with dementia, and his oft-frustrated daughter Anne (Olivia Colman… mostly) who has been forced to deal with her father’s worsening condition and occasional belligerent outbursts. What sets the film apart from others in the genre, though, is the film’s inventive structure. Instead of a straightforward melodrama, the film behaves almost like a thriller at times, placing the viewer in Anthony’s perspective. Scenes and dialogue are repeated, characters…

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July 2021 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from July 2021. – Lionsgate, BuzzFeed, and Cr8tiv Universe have are moving forward with the romantic comedy My Fake Boyfriend written by Luke Albright, Joe Wanjai Ross, and Great Boaldin. Keiynan Lonsdale, Dylan Sprouse, and Sarah Hyland are set to star, and Rose Troche to direct. – Lionsgate, Khalabo Ink Society, and The Syndicate acquired Bill Collage’s heist thriller Black Collar based on a pitch. Kenya Barris will produce. – Code Entertainment picked up Jonathan Stokes’s action spec The Vampire Asset. – Media Rights Capital and Alloy Entertainment have acquired Witness Protection, a comedy written by Rupinder Gill and David West Read. Annie Murphy is set to executive produce and star. – Anthony and Joe Russo’s AGBO has tapped Daniel Casey to script the adaptation for Gatchaman. The Russos may also direct. Tatsuo Yoshida created the original anime series in 1978…

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June 2021 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from June 2021. – Original Film has picked up Macmillan Hedges’ spec Relay, which has been described as a sci-fi tentpole movie. – Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm have tapped Matthew Robinson to script their Star Wars: Rogue Squadron film. Kathleen Kennedy will produce, and Patty Jenkins will direct as previously announced in December 2020. – Polly Pockets are getting a movie! Lena Dunham will write and direct for MGM, Mattel Films, and Good Thing Going. Lily Collins is set to star. – Spyglass Media Group and Good Fear have picked up Paul Haapaniemi’s thriller Deadpoint. Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky will direct. – Josh Cooley will write a Tower of Terror movie for Disney. – Trek Entertainment Group and MegaMinda Media are moving forward with Daryl Spivey’s Greenwood Avenue. Morris Chestnut will produce. – Walter Hill is writing and directing…

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2021 TV Writing Contest Results

By TV Writing Contest Results

2021 Winner Munch Erin Muroski Erin Muroski is a comedy writer and actor who prefers hurricanes to earthquakes (she’s from Orlando, but currently lives in LA). She writes about real, multifaceted women who try really hard to keep it together, but end up screwing it up in some way… just like her! As a performer, she’s appeared on sitcoms, in national commercials, at San Francisco Sketch Fest two years running and was one of the leads in an uber religious romantic comedy that made her Catholic mother very happy called In-Lawfully Yours (available on Amazon & iTunes). She has taught and performed improv for over a decade and has her own podcast about the Bachelor franchise (so she is officially an Angeleno now.) As a writer, won “Best Original Comedy Pilot” for her pilot Level Up at the UCLA Screenwriting Contest and won the PAGE International Screenwriting Award for “Best…

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2021 Screenwriting Contest Results

By Screenwriting Contest Results

2021 Winner Cauliflower Daniel Jackson Daniel Jackson is a screenwriter whose most recent script, Cauliflower, won the Grand Prize in the 2021 Script Pipeline Screenwriting Competition. He’s currently a Senior Staff Writer for Thrillist, where he covers film, television, and music. As a journalist, he’s written for XXL, CMJ, Spin, and Esquire.com. He earned a BFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He lives in Los Angeles. Runner-up Kony 2012 Austin Hall & Zach Visvikis Austin Hall and Zach Visvikis are a Los Angeles-based filmmaking duo whose work has screened at the Bath Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, and Tribeca. Together they directed music videos that received over two million views on YouTube. They both graduated from NYU Tisch in 2019. Austin is currently getting his MFA in Screenwriting at USC, while Zach is getting his MFA in Ass-Kickin’ from the School of Kickin’…

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May 2021 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from May 2021. – Warner Bros. Pictures, Dark Horse Entertainment, and Green Door Pictures (Idris Elba’s production company) have acquired Tyler Marceca’s spec Stay Frosty. Sam Hargrave is attached to direct and produce, and Elba will also star. – Universal Pictures, Lord Miller (Phil Lord and Chris Miller), Picturestart, and Rabbit Hole Pictures picked up Strays, a comedy written by Dan Perrault. Josh Greenbaum will direct. – Lionsgate, Perfection Hunter Productions, and Luber Roklin Entertainment acquired Rod Lurie’s West Point–set drama West Pointer. KJ App will executive produce and star, and Lurie will also direct. – Eric Roth will write a Cher biopic for Universal, Littlestar Productions, and The Playtone Company. Cher will produce! – StudioCanal, Film4 Productions, and Complete Fiction Pictures: Joe Cornish will write, direct, and produce the sequel to his 2011 film Attack the Block. John Boyega will…

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Promising Young Woman – Screenplay

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

Oh, where to start? Well, the opening description in writer/director Emerald Fennell’s screenplay for Promising Young Woman is so great that I might as well quote it verbatim: A super-depressing dancefloor on a Thursday night. 2-for-1 shots and a sticky floor. The kind of last-resort place people end up after work having accidentally nailed ten “just one” drinks. A bored DJ plays the DROELOE remix of “Boys” by Charlie XCX, while the thin and kind of tragic crowd dances. We linger on the men dancing in particular, their bodies, the sweat running down their backs as they grind and thrust. The slow-mo, the lascivious pan-up, the sort of erotic gaze normally reserved for oiled-up music-video hotties. Except we’re looking at regular dudes in chinos with absolutely no dancing ability. Wanna know how to open a script? You could do worse than that. I could dissect all the ways this is perfection—the…

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