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April 2021 Script Sales

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Some of the most notable script sales from April 2021. – Twentieth Century Studios and Star Thrower Entertainment have picked up No One Will Save You, a sci-fi/horror spec written by Brian Duffield. Kaitlyn Dever is attached to executive produce and star, and Duffield will also direct. – Universal Pictures—along with Davis Entertainment, 1stAveMachine, and Altogether Entertainment—have picked up Morgan Jurgenson and Alex Ankeles’s untitled family adventure/comedy spec. It is based on an idea by Ross Siegel, who will also produce. – Brickell & Broadbridge International will produce the sci-fi thriller Soul Assassin, written by Jesse Atlas and Aaron Wolfe, based on their short film “Let Them Die Like Losers.” Atlas will also direct, and Bruce Willis to star. – Warner Bros. and MACRO are moving forward with their reboot/remake of the 1973 film Cleopatra Jones. Ihuoma Ofordire will write the script, and Misha Green will produce. The original film…

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March 2021 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from March 2021. – Paramount Players and ‘Twas Entertainment have acquired Quinceanerx from screenwriter Alvaro Garcia Lecuona. Kevin Lima will produce and direct. – Ubisoft Film & Television is moving forward with Replay, a romantic dramedy written by Annabel Seymour. Seymour participated in Ubisoft’s 2020 Women’s Film & TV Fellowship before they acquired her script. – Woodward Original and Red Leaf Entertainment will produce Mike Young’s heist comedy Stealing Jokes. Aside from writing, Young will also direct and produce. – ThunderCats, ho! The animated series and toy line is getting a new film over at Warner Bros. Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard will provide the script, and Wingard will also direct. Ted “Tobin” Wolf created the franchise in 1985. – Over at Rough House Pictures and Spire Animation Studios, Kevin Barnett and Chris Pappas will script Trouble, a family adventure/fantasy based…

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February 2021 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from February 2021. – New Republic Pictures and HungryDuck Productions have picked up Michael Sucsy and Elliott Wheeler’s holiday musical A Lot Like Christmas. Sucsy will also direct. – Sony Pictures Entertainment and Olive Bridge Entertainment (Will Gluck) will produce Keith Bunin’s family fantasy script Constance. Gluck will also direct. – Universal Pictures and Working Title Films are moving forward with the romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise, written by Ted Melfi and based on an idea by Ol Parker and Daniel Pipski. Parker will direct, and George Clooney and Julia Roberts will star. – Tribeca has picked up Elisabeth Seldes Annacone’s drama Places, Please. Meryl Streep is set to star and produce, and Michael Cristofer will direct. – Paramount Players, Broken Road Productions, and Good Fear have acquired Brandon Scott Jones’s comedy Senior Year. Rebel Wilson will produce and star. –…

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Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – Screenplay

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, based on August Wilson’s play, follows the titular blues legend Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) and her band, specifically trumpeter Levee (Chadwick Boseman), over the course of a single afternoon as they record her album. Writer Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who adapted the screenplay, and director George C. Wolfe mostly stuck to Wilson’s work, the most notable changes being an abridged runtime (the original play clocked in at two-and-a-half hours versus the film’s brisk 94-minute runtime) and a thematic gut punch of an ending appended to the story. That new ending (the last shot in the film) accomplishes what every great adaptation does: While it doesn’t appear in the original, it is expands on the play’s themes in a way that feels inevitable and inextricably linked to the narrative. The film and play touch on many themes including racism, violence, religion, and masculinity, most notably by exploring the exploitation…

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January 2021 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from January 2021. – Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot (J. J. Abrams’ production company) have tapped Joe Barton to script another sequel to Cloverfield. – Misha Green will write and direct the next installment in MGM’s rebooted Tomb Raider franchise, with Alicia Vikander reprising the eponymous role. – A24, Scott Rudin Productions, and DNA Films will produce writer/director Alex Garland’s next film Men. Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear will possibly star. – Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman, and Josh Koenigsberg will write Secret Headquarters for Paramount Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films based on an original idea from Christopher Yost. Jost and Schulman will direct. – SF Studios has picked up Maria Karlsson’s historical drama The Stockholm Bloodbath. – Dirty Films (Cate Blanchett) has acquired the romantic drama Fingernails, written by Christos Nikou, Sam Steiner, and Stavros Raptis. Nikou will also produce and…

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Ted Lasso – Pilot

By Essential Reading - Screenplays and Pilots

If you’ve been on Twitter the last few months, you’ve probably heard of Apple TV+’s new sitcom Ted Lasso. It seems almost everyone who’s seen the show has fallen in love. Written by Jason Sudeikis and Bill Lawrence and developed by Sudeikis, Lawrence, Joe Kelly, and Brendan Hunt, the pilot follows American football coach Ted Lasso (Sudeikis) as he takes a new job as the head coach for the London football club AFC Richmond. That is, the other football. Soccer. A sport Ted has absolutely no experience in or knowledge of. The show becomes a fish-out-of-water comedy as Ted tries to make sense of the rules of British football and his new life in London. He also clashes with the club’s owner, Rebecca Welton (an excellent Hannah Waddingham, whom you might remember ringing the shame bell in Game of Thrones), who has ulterior motives. You see—SPOILERS—she’s a recent divorcée who…

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December 2020 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from December 2020. – Pedro Almodovar is set to write and direct his next feature Parallel Mothers. Penelope Cruz will star, and Almodovar will produce with his brother, Agustin, under their production company El Deseo S.A. – Universal Pictures, Hoorae (Issa Rae’s production company), and La La Land Productions will produce Angelica Nwandu’s horror comedy feature Juju. Thembi Banks will direct. – Patty Jenkins will script and direct the third entry in her Wonder Woman franchise for Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Entertainment, and Atlas Entertainment. – MGM and Plan B Entertainment (Brad Pitt) have picked up Lee Isaac Chung’s untitled romantic drama. Chung will also direct. – Keith Lucas, Kenny Lucas, and Alex Rubens will script the Revenge of the Nerds remake for Twentieth Century Studios and Fuzzy Door Productions (Seth MacFarlane). The Lucas Brothers will also star. The original movie…

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9th Annual 2020 First Look Project Results

By First Look Project Results

SCREENPLAY Action/Sci-fi Goodnight Jonathan by Theo Wanderydz – Winner Theo has always been an adventurer and thrill seeker – but grew up in a small town in Sweden where nothing comes about. Instead, he created his own adventures in his backyard – waving sticks around like elven swords or lightsabers. Those stories still exist today, but as he grew older, he learned that the pen was mightier than the sword… (stick). His first introduction to filmmaking came after he was robbed at 12-years-old, and the established filmmaker Ruben Östlund decided that the crime would make a great film. A few years later PLAY (2011) premiered around the world, and Theo got to see one of his real-life stories come alive on screen. However, it would take a few years before he wrote his first feature, but luckily that screenplay earned him a spot at the National Film & Television School…

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November 2020 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from November 2020. – Lionsgate, Point Grey Pictures (Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s production company), and Stampede Ventures have picked up Chris Thomas Devlin’s horror spec Video Nasty. Jonathan Levine is in talks to direct. – Stampede Ventures and Savvy Media Holdings have acquired Mr. Croup, a spec spy thriller written by Ward Parry. – New Line Cinema and Atomic Monster (James Wan) are teaming up to produce Joshua Rollin’s untitled horror spec, set in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. Bishal Dutta will direct. – Curiosa Films will produce writer/director Claire Denis’ next film, Radioscopie. Juliette Binoche will star. – Gran Via Productions and The H Collective will produce the coming-of-age drama The Vineyard written by Tory Kamen. Mark Steven Johnson will direct. – Mark Chappell’s untitled murder mystery script, set in London’s West End in the 1950s, has found a home…

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Crosby Selander

By Exclusive Interviews

A finalist in the 2020 Script Pipeline Screenwriting Competition, Crosby Selander signed with management at Kaplan/Perrone after an introduction by Pipeline execs. A month later, his script Bring Me Back sold to Legendary in a seven-figure deal, marking one the biggest spec sales of all-time from a “new,” unproduced writer. For the next decade, everyone’s going to ask about how this script went from idea to script to sale. We know the broad details of course, but lay it out for us here (hey, instead of telling the story every time, you can just send people this link!). I hope we’re talking about other things a decade from now! But it’s a nice thought. More than anything, Bring Me Back is a love letter to my wife. It started out as a running joke that I had with her for about a month, and then one day I figured out a…

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October 2020 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from October 2020. – Twentieth Century Studios and Original Film have picked up Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton’s action/fantasy spec The Princess, which follows a fierce princess who must fight to save her parents and her kingdom. Joey King will executive produce and star, and the film will be released on Hulu. – New Line Cinema and Five Quarters Entertainment have picked up Katie Wech’s untitled comedy spec, an animation/live-action hybrid described as Sausage Party meets Toy Story. – This month in Rachel Bloom news: Her untitled *NSYNC superfan script is moving forward with TriStar Pictures, Lance Bass Productions, and Cindy Cowan Entertainment. The story is based on an idea by Bass. – BuzzFeed is producing the gaming comedy 1UP, written by Julia Yorks. The story follows a female gamer as she deals with sexism in the eSports world. Kyle Newman…

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September 2020 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from September 2020: – 2020 Script Pipeline Finalist Crosby Selander sold his spec sci-fi script Bring Me Back to Legendary Pictures in a seven-figure deal, making it one of the largest deals for a “new,” unproduced writer in recent years. The sale occurred after Script Pipeline introduced Selander to Kaplan/Perrone, who subsequently signed him a few weeks later. – Eva Longoria’s UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, Stampede Ventures, and Sony Pictures Entertainment have picked up Spa Day, a spec action/comedy written by Christine Pietrosh and Jessica Goldstein. Along with producing, Longoria is set to direct and star. – RVK Studios and Will Packer Productions have picked up Beast, written by Ryan Engle and based on an idea from Jaime Primak-Sullivan, who will executive produce. Baltasar Kormakur is set to produce and direct, and Idris Elba will star. – Universal Pictures and LeBron James’s SpringHill…

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August 2020 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from August 2020: – Lionsgate and 87eleven have picked up Michael Finch and Alex Litvak’s adventure/fantasy spec Arcana. – DUST, Black Label Media, and Davis Entertainment have tapped Derek Kolstad to adapt the Korean short film The Time Agent by Jude Chun. – Village Roadshow optioned the thriller spec The Prize, written by Chris Sparling. Espen Sandberg is attached to direct. – Lionsgate and 21 Laps Entertainment acquired Kevin Couglin and Ryan Grassby’s horror spec Mother Land in a competitive auction. – Scott Beck and Bryan Woods will write and direct the sci-fi/thriller 65 for Raimi Productions. Sam Raimi will produce along with Beck and Woods, and Adam Driver will star. – STX Entertainment, Zero Gravity, and Sculptor Media have tapped Joe Carnahan to rewrite the action/thriller Copshop from Kurt McLeod’s previous draft, based on a story by McLeod and Mark…

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July 2020 Script Sales

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Here are some of the most notable script sales from July 2020: – Screen Gems picked up the thriller spec Sabine written by Gregg Hurwitz and Philip Eisner. The script follows a female detective who hunts down a serial killer and begins to see the world through the killer’s eyes. – Legendary Pictures and Hyperobject Industries have acquired Lauryn Kahn’s drama/thriller spec Fresh. Adam McKay will produce; Mimi Cave will direct. – StudioCanal, The Picture Co., and Billstein Entertainment Partners are teaming for Seth Owen’s thriller spec Role Play, based on an idea by George Heller, who will also exec produce. – Desert Moon Pictures optioned Lee Martin’s thriller script The Devil at Sandy Creek. – Spyglass Media Group and Phantom Four Films have acquired the rights to the short horror film “Mr. Lonely.” The short’s writer Marc Bloom and director David-Jan Bronsgeest will reteam for the feature. – Roy…

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