Spec Market Recap - Week of 10/5/2009

Spec Market Recap - Week of 10/5/2009
By Jason Scoggins
October 20, 2009

Busy week, two weeks ago.


10/7/2009

THE PARROT SALESMAN
Writers: Melvin Kling Jr. & Mark Saunders
Reps: The Muraviov Company (Kathy Muraviov)
Genre: Comedy
Log: When a spoiled parrot is inherited by a couple struggling to make ends meet, he starts a web business on the sly, hoping to become rich again and leave his new family behind.

SOUL SUCKERS
Writer: Shane Morris
Reps: Paradigm (Scott Henderson)

BANZAI BOY
Writers: Curt & Scott Burdick
Reps: Barry Perelman Enterprises (Barry Perelman)
Genre: Dramedy Romance
Log: Teen romance, sports comedy/drama. A troubled teen finds true love, a real home, and athletic success in a foreign land.

THE DESTINY OF DEAN MCQUEEN
Writer: Randy Leon
Reps: ICM (Harley Copen)
Genre: Horror Comedy

SONS OF CAMELOT
Writers: Chad Rouch & Dale Lucas
Reps: House of Scribes (Seth El)
Log: Twenty years after SIr Lancelot betrays King Arthur through his affair with Guinevere, a quest for the Holy Grail unites the sons of the two knights against the evil legion of Arthur's illegitimate son who returns with bloodlust to claim the Grail and throne.

THE OTHER KINGDOM
Writer: Phil Eisner
Reps: The Callamaro Literary Agency (Lisa Callamaro) and Untitled Entertainment (Jennifer Levine)
Genre: Horror
Log: Patients at a hospital battle for survival as an epidemic turns people into savage flesh hungry killers.
Notes: Eisner attached to direct.

UNDER YOUR BED
Writer: Jeff Walton
Reps: UTA (Charlie Ferraro) and H2F (Chris Fenton)
Log: Over the course of one night in NYC, a young boy teams up with the boogeyman under his bed to protect his bedroom, the city and the world from something far worse.
Notes: Heard...di Bonaventura into Paramount, ContraFilm into New Line and Summit, Gran Via into Walden, plus someone into Fox. [Also, according to a commenter on trackingb.com, one of the Fox studios was making an offer, but the poster wasn't sure which one, nor for whom.]


10/6/2009

IN THE BASEMENT
Writer: Tom Hanada
Reps: Ken Park (producer)
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Log: In the vein of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE meets SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. TrackingB.com has a logline.
Notes: Ken Park to produce.

REHAB
Writer: Sam Laybourne
Reps: UTA
Genre: Comedy
Log: A man fakes going to rehab to reconnect with a former high school sweetheart, now a rock star in rehab for her excesses.
Notes: Sold to Fox for Chernin Entertainment and Will Gluck to producer; Gluck may direct. Debbie Liebling to supervise for the studio.

THE BETRAYED
Writer: David Benullo
Reps: Quattro media (Jim Strader)
Log: A contemporary COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
Notes: TrackingB.com has who's taking it in where (it's a pretty extensive list of buyers).

THE PINKERTONS
Writers: Kevin Abrams & Adam Moore
Reps: WME (Craig Kestel) and Energy Entertainment (Jake Wagner)
Log: Origin story of the first detective agency, the Pinkertons; based on true events. Tone is SHERLOCK HOLMES meets THE UNTOUCHABLES.
Notes: TrackingB.com has who's taking it in where.

BLANK SLATE
Writers: Doug Cook & David Weisberg
Reps: CAA (Martin Spencer) and Benderspink (J.C. Spink, Jill McElroy and Brian Spink)
Genre: Thriller
Log: FRANKENSTEIN twist on BOURNE IDENTITY. When a CIA agent goes off the radar and then turns up dead, her superiors have her memories surgically transferred to another person so they can find out what happened. The "volunteer" they select is a female life-sentence prisoner, effectively putting a highly trained agent in the body of a psychotic killer. The prisoner, who has hitherto been an emotional and cognitive “blank slate” due to a brain trauma, also takes on the agent’s smarts and manages to escape. She struggles to survive, experiencing emotions for the first time and making use of details in memory flashbacks (i.e. expensive jewelry hidden in the house, mad money, etc), ultimately uncovering the mystery of the agent’s death.
Notes:
- Beyonce was at first rumored to be attached to star, then not, but Katherine Heigl was (unconfirmed as of this writing).
- Hearing Atlas into Sony, Relativity and Warner Bros.; Original into Universal and Summit; Thunder Road into Lionsgate; Escape Artists into CBS Films; Dark Horse into Spyglass; Appian Way into New Regency; Barry Josephson into Fox and Fox 2000; Roth into Paramount.
- Hearing 6 of the above buyers had passed as of the week of October 12.
- TrackingB.com hears there's an offer in from someone.

MOTOR CITY TAKEDOWN
Writer: Marc Schwartz
Reps: APA
Genre: Action Comedy
Log: An aspiring teen game designer becomes a human guinea pig in his idol’s twisted quest to create the perfect game. Crazy adventure/comedy in the tone of Pineapple Express.

THE TO DO LIST
Writers: Matthew Kaplan & Jason Leinwand
Reps: Kaplan/Perrone (Bryan Miller)
Log: Feeling that he'll be trapped in adulthood if he accepts a promotion at work, Joe Saucerman decides to use his two week vacation to complete an old list of childhood goals that he never accomplished, including streaking at Fenway Park, frolicking with the penguins at the aquarium, kissing the girl of his dreams and punching Rusty Shavers in the face. THE BUCKET LIST for a younger generation.
Notes: Recently came out of option from Warren Zide. TrackingB.com has many additional details; script was originally a semi-finalist in the site's 2nd annual screenplay contest.

FIRE WITH FIRE
Writer: Tom O'Connor
Reps: UTA and Industry Entertainment (Andrew Deane)
Genre: Thriller
Notes: Hearing Stuber, Thunder Road, Mad Chance, ContraFilm and Original are taking territories.


10/5/2009

GHOST LIGHTS
Writer: Michael Canales
Reps: Oceanside Entertainment (Christopher Ryan)
Genre: Horror Thriller (paranormal)

JUST SAY YES
Writer: Jeff Lowell
Reps: UTA (David Kramer, Jon Huddle, Doug Johnson) and Management 360 (Daniel Rappaport)
Log: The story of a relationship told over a series of failed wedding proposals.
Notes: TrackingB.com hears there may be an offer in (click through to see who).