Life On The Bubble

ScriptShadow: What's a tracking board and why should you join one?

I promote It's On The Grid with a healthy helping of jealousy because one of my goals with Scriptshadow was to develop an online screenplay database which allowed you to search through screenplays and writers so that if you, say, liked a script by Ben Ripley (writer of Source Code), you could find all the other scripts written by Ben Ripley. Well, Jason Scoggins at “It’s On The Grid” beat me to it, damn him. The site is similar to IMDB except IMDB doesn’t cover scripts that haven’t gone into official development. A writer may have 3 scripts on the Black List and worked on 5 assignments, yet none of those scripts are listed because they’re not in development. The Grid is the only database on the net that tracks that info. So again, if you're a hardcore reader or an aspiring manager/agent/producer, this site is pretty much invaluable.

via scriptshadow.blogspot.com

Big ups to Carson Reeves for pimping the Tracking-Board/ItsOnTheGrid annual subscription promotion (and our sites in general). The promo had been scheduled to end as of June 1, but we've extended it through the end of June now as a courtesy to ScriptShadow readers.

Click through for Carson's endorsement.

Sweet new cross-promotion deal: IOTG + Tracking-Board.com for one low price

Here's a little IOTG-related news.  We've been toying with the idea of offering an annual subscription to www.itsonthegrid.com for the last couple of months. Last week we came up with what we think is a pretty great way to debut this option:  A two-for-one cross-promotion with tracking-board.com at a crazy low price point.  Between now and the end of May, $199 gets you unlimited access to IOTG (the Professional membership) for one full year, PLUS a year's subscription to tracking-board.com.  That's less than half the normal, combined subscription fees for the two sites.  And believe me, this price will NOT be extended beyond May 31.

If you haven't checked out tracking-board.com lately, you should.  The site has been been one of the top spec tracking sites sites for a while now, with "up to the minute updates on specs going into the market, selling, partnering, gaining heat…or disappearing into the valley known as Sampleville," as their "What's Inside" page puts it.  We're really proud to be partnering with them for this promotion, and we chose them because their attitude toward applying web technology to industry information matches our own (think: "disruption").  Tracking-Board's posts are now available not just on the web but also via RSS and Twitter feeds; they've expanded beyond spec script tracking to include updates from the trades, private tracking boards and a number of other industry-focused websites; and most impressively, as of May 1 their entire 11,000+ script library has become available to their members.  For more info, read this post first and then surf around and see what all's available in the main site, Forums, Library and File Exchange.  

If you're already a fan of the two sites and want to jump in with both feet, go ahead and subscribe via PayPal by clicking that big PayPal "Subscribe" button near the top of the right hand column of this page.  If you want to know more about what you get for your $199, check out this post over on their site about the promotion.  There's a big ol' PayPal button over there as well.  And if you have any questions, feel free to email me directly here:  jscoggins at itsonthegrid dot com.

P.S.  If you're already a subscriber to either IOTG or Tracking-Board and want to take advantage of this promotion, go ahead and use the PayPal button above.  Tracking-Board will extend your subscription as appropriate, and we at IOTG will suspend your recurring charge and start the clock on your year's subscription at the end of your current month.

FilmNewsBriefs: Itsonthegrid.com is a Website To Watch

Every now and again, one of our readers drops us a line to ask us to check out their site, and possibly feature it on ours. We love it when stuff like this happens because it allows us to discover such gems as this fascinating site

via filmnewsbriefs.com

Big thanks to FilmNewBriefs.com for featuring itsonthegrid.com in their "Websites To Watch" section. If you don't already subscribe to FNB's daily email newsletter, you should -- it's a great roundup of film industry news. We use it on a daily basis at IOTG.

OWA Scorecard Update

For last week's BOSI newsletter, I updated the OWA Scorecard Overview Grids to show the activity between the beginning of December and the beginning of February.  The article is below.  FYI, this is the last OWA Scorecard article I plan to write for the public until this summer, since I'll be focusing on the spec market between now and then.  As always, though, we keep up with OWA developments on a daily basis at www.itsonthegrid.com -- you haven't already, you should consider subscribing.  All the cool kids are doing it...

***** 

The Scoggins Report
By Jason Scoggins
February 24, 2010


If you’ve been keeping an eye on the www.itsonthegrid.com blog lately, you know there’s been quite a bit of positive activity in the spec market already this month, including several sales.  While it’s far too early to tell how this buying season will compare to the first half of 2009, I’m optimistic, and I’m looking forward to writing my first Spec Market Roundup of 2010 next week.

In the meantime, I thought it would be instructive to update the OWA Scorecard summary grids from my last article in this space.  The below grids are a comparison of that same big agency’s OWA Grid from early December 2009 to early February 2010.  If you’re interested in my methodology, read the introduction to the first installment of the 2009 OWA Scorecard here.

This will be the last OWA-oriented article in this space until mid-year when the Spec Market goes on hiatus for the summer.  The full 2009 OWA Scorecard will remain available for another few weeks to anyone who signs up to receive it at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.


OWA Scorecard Overview – December 2009 vs February 2010

As you review the below numbers, keep in mind they are based solely on snapshots of one big agency’s OWA grid.  As with the full 2009 OWA Scorecard, what’s most interesting here (to me, at least) is the scale of the numbers and the comparison between the companies, as opposed to the raw numbers themselves.

MAJOR STUDIOS	On in Dec	Added	Closed	On in Feb
Columbia	24	5	5	24
Disney	15	1	5	11
Fox	17	3	9	11
Paramount	38	9	17	30
Universal	63	14	8	69
Warner Bros.	91	17	11	97
TOTALS	248	49	55	242

MINI-MAJORS & STUDIOS’ LABELS	On in Dec	Added	Closed	On in Feb
CBS Films	6	1	1	6
Dimension	7	2	0	9
DreamWorks	5	3	1	7
DreamWorks Animation	5	1	2	4
Focus Features	10	3	4	9
Fox 2000	5	5	2	8
Fox Animation	4	2	0	6
Fox Searchlight	8	0	2	6
Lionsgate	6	3	2	7
Mandate Pictures	1	1	0	2
MGM	5	x	x	n/a
Miramax	1	1	0	2
New Line	6	5	1	10
New Regency	10	1	6	5
Screen Gems	2	1	1	2
Sony Pictures – Stage 6	2	0	1	1
Sony Pictures Animation	4	1	1	4
Summit	3	0	2	1
The Weinstein Co.	7	2	0	9
TOTALS	97	32	26	98

Obviously, the above totals don’t add up because MGM fell off the grid between December and February, which I think says a lot about what the community thinks of that studio’s fate.  Interestingly, Miramax is not in the same category despite being on the block at Disney.  The agency even added a project to the grid by February (The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency).

OTHER BUYERS	On in Dec	Added	Closed	On in Feb
Cartoon Network Movies	2	1	2	1
Film Dept.	4	1	1	4
Gold Circle Films	3	1	1	3
Illumination Entertainment	2	1	1	2
Millennium Films/Nu Image	2	2	0	4
Overture	2	0	0	2
Participant	6	1	3	4
Relativity	2	2	0	4
Spitfire	4	0	0	4
Spyglass	2	3	1	4
Walden Media	3	0	1	2
TOTALS	30	12	10	34

Millennium Films/Nu Image didn’t have any OWA activity on the grids in 2009 until very late in the year (Bangkok 8 and the remake of Conan the Barbarian popped up in October), which is why the company didn’t appear previously on the 2009 OWA Scorecard Overview.  The addition of their numbers and the subtraction of MGM’s accounts for the discrepancy in the totals, below.

TOTALS	On in Dec	Added	Closed	On in Feb
Major Studios	248	49	55	242
Mini-Majors and Studios’ Labels	97	32	26	98
Other Buyers	30	12	10	34
TOTALS	375	93	91	374

About The Scoggins Reports:
The Scoggins Reports are terribly unscientific analyses of the feature film development business (in particular, spec script and open writing assignment activity) based on information assembled from a variety of public and non-public sources.  The numbers in the reports are by no means official statistics and should not be relied upon as such.  Past editions of The Scoggins Reports can be found in the archives of The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) as well as on Jason Scoggins’ website:  http://www.lifeonthebubble.com.

Details on each person, project and company in the Reports can also be found at www.itsonthegrid.com, a database of feature film development information [subscription required] including active open writing and directing assignments in Hollywood.  Click here to explore the IOTG blog, which includes daily posts of new and updated spec script, OWA, ODA and other film development information.

About Scoggins:
Jason Scoggins is a partner at Protocol, a literary management and production company.  He manages writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld and John Ufland.  Follow him here:  http://twitter.com/itsonthegrid.

2009 OWA Scorecard - Overview Grids

Below is my article for this week's Business of Show Institute newsletter.  It's basically the overview grids from the full 2009 OWA Scorecard I released this week (if you haven't gotten your own copy of the PDF yet, it's available over at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com), with opening remarks targeted at aspiring entertainment professionals.  

*****

On “Getting It”
By Jason Scoggins
February 10, 2010


Below are the summary grids I put together for my 2009 OWA Scorecard project.  They’re in the same vein as the 2009 Spec Market Scorecard, in that they show the overall numbers of the various buyers’ open writing assignment activity throughout last year.  These grids are part of the full 2009 OWA Scorecard that is available to anyone who signs up to receive it at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.  Before I get to the numbers, though, I wanted to take a minute to talk about why this kind of information is as important to aspiring entertainment industry professionals as it is to people already working in the business.

One of the things I love most about the entertainment business is how remarkably different its rhythms and processes and customs are from other industries.  It’s difficult to understand just how peculiar this business really is, to “get it,” unless you take the time to study how the business works.  For most of us, our period of study took the form of entry-level positions as assistants to writers and filmmakers and reps and executives.  By the time we start to ascend the ladder, the business has been baked into us (think industrial forges and “trials by fire”); we get it, and we can tell within a few minutes of talking to someone new whether they get it or not as well.  And one of the things that make the industry so hard to break into is the sad but true fact that many people inside the business have the attitude that if you don’t get it, you’re a waste of their time, even if you’re a writer, and even if you’re just starting out.

So getting it is unequivocally important; it can make the difference between being dismissed out of hand and landing your first paying gig.  And that’s where companies like The Business of Show Institute and services like http://www.itsonthegrid.com come in.  The more information you know about the business (how it works, who’s where and what they’re working on), the more you will come across as a potential peer – someone worth working with, or (knock wood) hiring.

With that in mind, take a look at the below grids.  They were eye opening for me, someone who’s been in and around the business for going on 15 years, and they’re going to be just as instructional for you. 


2009 OWA Scorecard – Overview Grids

As you review the below numbers, remember they are based solely on one big agency’s OWA grids, with snapshots taken at six different points throughout 2009.  (For a refresher on my methodology, take a look at my first article on this topic here.)  Obviously, there are a number of projects that did not appear on those grids for one reason or another, and therefore the actual number of projects in active development last year is some percentage higher.  What’s most interesting here (to me, at least) is the scale of the numbers and the comparison between the companies, as opposed to the raw numbers themselves.

MAJOR STUDIOS	On in April	Added	Closed	On in Dec	Total	On all year
Columbia	36	29	41	24	65	9
Disney	15	14	14	15	29	6
Fox	14	24	21	17	37*	2
Paramount	38	47	47	38	85	7
Universal	55	60	52	63	115	23
Warner Bros.	71	79	59	91	150	31
TOTALS	229	253	234	248	481	78

The big reason to separate the above six companies from their subsidiaries and the mini-majors is to make it easier to rank the majors by last year’s OWA activity, as well as to see just how big the differences were between them.  I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about the efficacy of having 85 or more (much more, in the case of Warner Bros. and Universal) projects in active development at a time.  Interestingly, the above rankings generally followed the rankings from the 2009 Spec Market Scorecard:  Universal and Warner Bros. bought the most specs last year (6 each), followed by Columbia and Paramount (5 each), with Disney and Fox bringing up the rear (2 and 3, respectively).

MINI-MAJORS & STUDIOS’ LABELS	On in April	Added	Closed	On in Dec	Total	On all year
CBS Films	3	7	4	6	10	1
Dimension	8	4	5	7	12	4
DreamWorks	4	12	11	5	16	0
DreamWorks Animation	5	9	9	5	14	0
Focus Features	4	8	2	10	12	3
Fox 2000	8	8	11	5	16	1
Fox Animation	2	5	3	4	6*	0
Fox Searchlight	6	5	3	8	11	2
Lionsgate	6	11	11	6	14*	0
Mandate Pictures	3	1	3	1	4	1
MGM	2	4	1	5	6	1
Miramax	4	1	4	1	5	1
New Line	10	8	12	6	18	0
New Regency	7	13	10	10	20	0
Screen Gems	3	6	7	2	9	0
Sony Pictures – Stage 6	0	4	2	2	4	0
Sony Pictures Animation	1	4	1	4	5	0
Summit	5	5	7	3	10	0
The Weinstein Co.	12	1	6	7	13	6
TOTALS	93	116	112	97	205	20

With a couple of notable exceptions, the hallmark of the above group is their efficiency in terms of filling their open writing assignments.  If you remove those 3 outliers, just 10% of these companies’ OWAs were on the grid for the entire year (7 out of 69 projects). 

OTHER BUYERS	On in April	Added	Closed	On in Dec	Total	On all year
Cartoon Network Movies	3	2	3	2	5	0
Film Dept.	1	3	0	4	4	1
Gold Circle Films	6	1	4	3	7	2
Illumination Entertainment	2	3	3	2	5	0
Overture	1	2	1	2	3	0
Participant	1	8	3	6	9	0
Relativity	0	4	2	2	4	0
Spitfire	2	3	1	4	5	1
Spyglass	1	4	3	2	5	1
Walden Media	3	6	6	3	9	0
TOTALS	20	36	26	30	56	5

TOTALS	On in April	Added	Closed	On in Dec	Total	On all year
Major Studios	229	253	234	248	481	78
Mini-Majors and Studios’ Labels	93	116	112	97	205	20
Other Buyers	20	36	26	30	56	5
TOTALS	342	405	372	375	742	104

While it’s tempting to think in “glass half empty” terms (a pretty small group of professional writers got writing assignments in Hollywood last year compared to, say, the active WGA membership as a whole), the above numbers are pretty encouraging when you consider how few films these companies have been producing annually for the past several years.  In my spec market reports last year, I took a number of potshots at the studios for not buying more original material.  I still believe bringing original material and new voices into the system is vitally important to the health of the business as a whole, but now that I’ve seen the above numbers, the subdued pace of 2009’s spec purchases makes more sense.

Perhaps the thing to focus on going forward is the percentage of projects at each company that were on the grid throughout 2009.  Here’s the breakdown, the alphabetical order:  Columbia – 25%; Disney – 40%; Fox – 14%; Paramount – 18%; Universal – 42%; Warner Bros. – 44%. 

Food for thought.


About The Scoggins Reports:
The Scoggins Reports (Jason Scoggins’ Spec Market Roundup, Spec Market Scorecard and now this OWA Scorecard) are terribly unscientific analyses of the feature film development business based on information culled from a variety of public and non-public sources.  These are by no means official statistics, merely a fairly complete summary.  Past editions can be found in the archives of The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) as well as on Scoggins’ website:  http://www.lifeonthebubble.com. Past editions of the OWA Scorecards can be found at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

Details on each person, project and company in the Reports can also be found at http://www.itsonthegrid.com, a subscription-supported, web-based database of feature film development information recently launched by Scoggins and several other literary managers.  For daily posts of new and updated spec script, OWA and ODA information, check out the IOTG blog here:  http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

About Scoggins:
Jason Scoggins is a partner at Protocol, a literary management and production company.  He manages writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld and John Ufland.  Click here to follow him on Twitter.

IOTG: Full 2009 OWA Scorecard Now Available

As promised, the full 2009 OWA Scorecard is now available in PDF form.  To receive it, fill out the form at the top of the right hand column at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.  You'll be glad you did...

via blog.itsonthegrid.com

IOTG: 2009 OWA Scorecard is complete

Sundance and laptop-related adversity kept me from completing and posting the last couple of installments of my 2009 OWA Scorecard series over at blog.itsonthegrid.com as planned, but I finally reconstructed and wrapped it all up yesterday.  Below are the links to the two final posts.  If you only look at one, look at Part 7.  It includes two major studios -- Walt Disney Pictures and Warner Bros. -- and you're not going to believe the difference between the two.  WB's numbers are staggering.

I'm pulling the series together into a complete PDF that will include an overview grid that makes it easy to compare the studios' and other buyers' OWA activity.  If you want a copy you can sign up to receive it using the form at the top of the page.  

Enjoy, and I look forward to your thoughts.

2009 OWA Scorecard:  Part 6 - Sony Animation through Universal

2009 OWA Scarecard:  Part 7 - Walden Media through The Weinstein Co.

IOTG: 2009 OWA Scorecard Parts 4 and 5

As before, here are the links to the latest installments of my 2009 OWA Scorecard series over at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com for those of you who don't live and die by my every written word.  Part 4 covers Gold Circle through New Regency (and includes an interesting tidbit about Miramax's future), and Part 5 covers Overture through Screen Gems, including Paramount (which had a staggering number of projects on the grid last year -- click through for the details).

IOTG: 2009 OWA Scorecard Part 3

2009 OWA Scorecard Part 3:  Fox
by Jason Scoggins
January 12, 2010

Here’s part 3 of my look back at the studios’ 2009 open writing assignment activity.  I explained how and why I’m doing this exercise in Part 1, but here’s what you need to know...

via blog.itsonthegrid.com

Again, in case you're not already a devotee of both www.lifeonthebubble.com and blog.itsonthegrid.com, here's the link to the latest installment of my 2009 OWA Scorecard series.

Back to School Special: IOTG's Introductory Pricing Extended to Feb 1 - blog.itsonthegrid.com

 Just a quick note before you scroll down to check out the 2009 OWA Scorecard posts we'll be putting up between now and the start of Sundance:  We're planning to raise our monthly fees to $14.99 and $29.99 as of February 1, but before we do we wanted to extend our introductory pricing offer for an extra month so those of you who didn't feel like subscribing over the holidays can take advantage of them.

via blog.itsonthegrid.com

Just a quick reminder for those of you who don't religiously check both lifeonthebubble.com and blog.itsonthegrid.com. Click through to get the details on the extended introductory pricing offer from www.itsonthegrid.com.

LifeOnTheBubble 101

Write-Through 12/17/2009:  There may be another spike in traffic in the next day or two thanks to the year-end Spec Market Scorecard, so here's a quick orientation post for all you new visitors.

www.lifeonthebubble.com - LOTB is one of the "Five Websites Every Screenwriter Should Know" and the home of my monthly Spec Market Roundups and Spec Market Scorecards (collectively known, in some places, as The Scoggins Report).  It also includes links to articles about the business side of the entertainment business that I find interesting and/or that I think add to one's overall sense of what's going on in the industry.  It's mostly been focused on film so far, but as we get into TV pilot season, I'll include more TV business-related links as well.  

blog.itsonthegrid.com - The IOTG blog is where we post teaser information on new and updated information on the film development business, particularly new and updated spec scripts, open writing assignments and open directing assignments.  You can keep an eye on the ebb and flow of the development business via the blog, but we make no bones about the fact it's set up to encourage visitors to sign up for our subscription site, which is...

www.itsonthegrid.com - IOTG is an online database of film development information, much of which (such as the open writing and directing assignment information) is available nowhere else.  The site is designed as a tool for entertainment industry professionals that is just as useful to people looking to break into the business or who are simply passionate about the movie business.  We expand the database every day, and as of this writing we've got nearly 1300 projects, over 3800 people and over 800 companies in the system.  Everything on the grid is searchable and sortable, and each record is linked so you can easily drill into the details about who's working on what project, from writers and directors to agents and managers to studio executives and producers.  For more information, check out our "What's on the grid?" and "Frequently Asked Questions" pages.  There's a 3-day free trial period, too, so if you're into this kind of information there's no reason not to sign up.

Facebook pages:

• LifeOnTheBubble:  http://facebook.com/lifeonthebubble
• www.itsonthegrid.com:  http://facebook.com/itsonthegrid

Twitter feeds:

• LifeOnTheBubble:  http://twitter.com/lifeonthebubble
• www.itsonthegrid.com:  http://twitter.com/itsonthegrid

Thanks for visiting LifeOnTheBubble.  If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to post one here or email me at the below.

- Jason Scoggins   (jscoggins at itsonthegrid dot com)

LOTB clears the 10,000 unique visitor mark

I don't know if this is champagne-worthy (or even interesting to anyone but me), but LOTB got its 10,000th unique visitor on Thanksgiving day last week.  Pretty cool, and what's even cooler (again, maybe just to me) is that the percentage of visitors who've returned to the site 10 or more times has stayed consistent month-to-month (at about 35%), even as the number of new monthly visitors has grown month-to-month (now about 33% per month).

So...thanks for supporting LOTB, everyone.  And for supporting my other sites, for that matter.  www.itsonthegrid.com has had over 25,000 subscriber pageviews since we launched on November 1, and the IOTG Blog has had much higher growth in its first month than the first month of LOTB.  Feels like we're on the right track.

Check out http://blog.itsonthegrid.com

When you're done reading the most recent Spec Market Scorecard post (which includes a PDF of the document for your downloading pleasure) cruising through the Thanksgiving weekend box office numbers, scroll back up here and click through to check out blog.itsonthegrid.com.  You'll get a flavor of the kind of info we've been adding to the grid since we launched a few days ago.  In addition to all the spec market updates, we've been adding a dozen or so new development projects to the grid every day since we launched, and starting next week we'll be posting links to new and updated OWA and ODA info on the blog as well.

Or...just click through and check out www.itsonthegrid.com directly. 

Spec Update: Man At Arms, by Jeremy Lott

UPDATE 11/12:  This is in everywhere -- Original, Stuber, Sean Daniel, Mark Gordon and Temple Hill have 18 territories between them.  Use the trackingb.com link below to see the breakdown.  We'll include the data on the grid if/when it gets set up.

The project and rep info is on the grid, but check out TrackingB.com's post for the tone and log (we don't plagiarize at IOTG).  We'll let you know if/when they post updated tracking info, and will update IOTG's records if/when it gets set up.

via blog.itsonthegrid.com

If you haven't subscribed to the blog.itsonthegrid.com feeds, this is the kind of info that's going to get posted there on a daily basis.

In case this got lost in the shuffle...

...we've started a free section of www.itsonthegrid.com where we're posting updates on a daily basis about new and updated specs, OWAs, ODAs and other film projects in development.  Click through to blog.itsonthegrid.com to check it out, and sign up for the RSS feed or daily email updates to hear about stuff that's getting added to the grid.

Shameless plug: Check out www.itsonthegrid.com

I just posted the Spec Market Roundup for October, and since that always means a bump in traffic here, I wanted to post a reminder to check out www.itsonthegrid.com, the new feature film development website that launched last week.

Problem solved: www.itsonthegrid.com is live. Again.

Got the search thing worked out, and www.itsonthegrid.com is back online.  It sucked to be down all day when I was hoping to promote it within an inch of its life, but whatever.  And the search feature is, in fact, improved:  When you search for a project with an apostrophe, it now does what you expect it to do.

By the way, here's my plan vis-a-vis posts on LifeOnTheBubble vs blog.itsonthegrid.com:  The IOTG blog will be focused more or less exclusively on the development business:  Projects newly set up, new and updated specs, new and updated OWAs and ODAs, and updates to existing projects in development, and so on.  LOTB will be more about the business side of the business, plus my usual spec market articles and other bits on the industry that I think are interesting.  I also plan to ramp up coverage of the business side of the TV business here on LOTB, whereas IOTG will be exclusively film oriented for the foreseeable future. 

Expect to see more IOTG-related posts as we get rolling this week and next, but they'll diminish soon.

If you haven't already, go check out the site.  Make me proud.   www.itsonthegrid.com

Whoops -- wait a beat to check out itsonthegrid.com

We made an "enhancement" to the search feature on www.itsonthegrid.com last night, which ended up breaking it altogether.  So if you haven't checked out the site yet, sit tight -- we're fixing the bug as fast as we can and will have it back up as soon as possible.  I'll let you know when we're back up and running (hopefully by mid-afternoon).

Feel free to snicker and point behind our backs now.

[insert irritating hold music here]

Big Announcement: www.itsonthegrid.com is live

So...you're in the entertainment business, or want to be, right?  You scan the online versions Variety and the Reporter most days, you have a pirated login for The Studio System, a dog-eared, year-old copy of the Creative Directory is on the floor next to your desk, and you live for Nikki's next derisive post about NBC/Universal and WME.  Think you're well-informed about the development side of the movie business?

Right -- you're scratching the surface, but you're not plugged in to what's happening on a day-to-day (sometimes hour-to-hour) basis inside the studios and agencies and production companies and management companies.  No one person is, truthfully, but some of us have access to more information than others.  Plus, it'd be great to have all that stuff in one place online so you can access it and do your thing whenever you want -- search, sort, research, track, and so on.

That's been the impetus behind www.itsonthegrid.com.  It's an online database of all things feature film development.  We took our collective 2009 spec grid, expanded it to include our current OWA/ODA grids and then connected each project with every person and company involved (including writers, directors, agents, managers, producers and executives).  Now that the site is live (Oh, did I mention it's live, as of this morning?  Check it out at www.itsonthegrid.com), we'll be updating it on a daily basis.  By the time you read this it will have become the holy grail of the entertainment industry.

In addition to the main site (where the searchable, sortable data lives, and where you can keep your own private notes on every person, project and company in the database), we've also set up a free section at blog.itsonthegrid.com, where we'll be teasing you with inside information as well as linking to articles from the trades and other sources about the development business.  Like LifeOnTheBubble, you can subscribe to the blog's RSS feed or receive daily emails with the previous days' posts.

If you're serious about the film business, you should get on the grid right away.  We've got very low introductory pricing through the end of the year, and if you sign up before January 1, 2010, we'll lock you in at those low rates for as long as you stay subscribed.  If you leave the business and don't need access to the grid anymore, no sweat -- just shoot us an email and we'll cancel your subscription at the end of that month.

Try it risk free:  Sign up now, spend the day on the grid and we'll charge you tomorrow.  If you don't like what you see, just shoot us an email and we'll deactivate your account.  

In Hollywood, information is power.  And it's all on the grid.  www.itsonthegrid.com

Joe Flint: No sequel for 'Monsters vs. Aliens'

I've been heads down this week working on itsonthegrid.com (I've got a single, low-key introductory post up on the site's blog here and will build it out a bit more in the next several days as we finish user testing; expect a Big Announcement on this site no later than Monday), so I missed this article in the LA Times on Tuesday.  I say it's a sad state of affairs for the movie business when a something that earns $380 million at the worldwide box office doesn't warrant a sequel, especially given the last couple of years' buying trends. We'll be ecstatic if "Escape From Planet Earth" does half of that when it comes out in 2011.  (Of course, our production costs will have been less than a fourth of theirs...)

Katzenberg also disclosed that the studio did not plan to produce a sequel to "Monsters vs. Aliens," which generated $380 million at the box office but did not fare well in some key international markets. Asked why, he said: "I'd like to tell you there's a perfectly rational, clear and easy answer as to why not, but there isn't."

“There was enough of a consensus from our distribution and marketing folks in certain parts of the world that we would be pushing a boulder up a hill,” Katzenberg said of the decision not to pursue a sequel, which has been DreamWorks strategy with its other movies.

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

Pushing a boulder up a hill?  Really?  They can't figure out how to turn that picture into a franchise?  Maybe they're just jaded from the Shreks; DreamWorks Animation's marketing department won't get out of bed unless they can expect to push their films over the $400m mark.  Jeez.