The Scoggins Report: July 2011 Roundup
The Scoggins Report is a compilation of spec sales and trends in the industry. Archive editions of The Scoggins Report can be found at The Business of Show Institute and on www.thewrap.com. Details on every person, project, and company covered by the Report can also be found at www.ItsontheGrid.com. The Report is reprinted at Scriptmag.com by permission of the authors.
The Scoggins Report: Spec Market Roundup for July 2011
As we hoped, July ended up extending the streak of strong monthly spec sales numbers that started in February this year. The month’s six sales match April’s and May’s numbers, blowing away July 2010’s tally and even besting July 2009, as you can see from the below grid.
Speaking of streaks, here are three more worth highlighting:
- Warner Bros. continued its buying spree, picking up three specs in July, the most in a single month since it bought four in September 2010. The studio has bought nine specs so far this year, for a total of 16 in the past 12 months. Columbia remains strong in second place with 7 spec buys, well ahead of third place Paramount.
- CAA’s five spec sales in the past two months (3 in June, 2 in July) jumped the agency into a tie for first place with UTA and WME, with 9 sales each.
- Selling one spec per month for two months may not exactly be a streak, but lit managers Josh Adler and Mike Goldberg are in fine form since joining New Wave at the end of May. If you include the projects they set up earlier this year at ROAR, they’re second only to Benderspink in spec sales in 2011.
Here are July’s numbers:
1 This number is a tally of every script that sold in June.
2 Only counts scripts that came out and sold in the month. In July 2010, 2 scripts sold from previous months.
Weekly Activity Breakdown
Week of July 4 (Independence Day):
- 1 script hit the tracking boards but hasn’t sold
Week of July 11:
- 5 scripts hit the boards, none of which sold
- 1 additional sale was reported (“Haunted”)
Week of July 18:
- 7 scripts hit the boards, none of which sold
- 3 additional sales were reported (“A Thousand Words or Less,” “Hellfest” and “Second Sun”)
Week of July 25:
- 1 script hit the tracking boards and hasn’t yet sold
- 2 additional sales were reported (“Rockabye Baby” and “The Outsider”)
Genre Breakdown*
Spec Sales (alphabetical by title)
Writer: Bert Royal
Reps: Paradigm (Trevor Astbury and Valarie Phillips) and R.E.D. Entertainment (Dana Jackson)
Buyer: Fox Searchlight
Genre: Comedy
Attachments: Royal is attached to direct. Michelle Manning will produce through her MM Productions along with R.E.D.’s Jackson.
Writer: Eric Kripke
Reps: WME (Jason Spitz) and Principato-Young
Buyer: Warner Bros.
Genre: Horror
Attachments: Greg Berlanti and Kevin McCormick will produce through their respective Berlanti Productions and Langley Park Pictures banners.
Hellfest
Writer: William Penick & Chris Sey
Reps: APA (David Saunders)
Buyer: CBS Films
Genre: Horror
Attachments: Gale Anne Hurd will produce and Ben Roberts will executive produce through Hurd’s Valhalla Entertainment.
Notes: Mark Ross and Alex Ginno will oversee for CBS Films.
Writer: Andrew Baldwin
Reps: CAA (Jay Baker)
Buyer: Warner Bros.
Genre: Thriller
Attachments: Linson Entertainment’s Art and John Linson will produce.
Notes: Sarah Schechter and Chris Gary will oversee for Warner Bros.
Writer: Christopher Baldi
Reps: CAA (Bill Zotti) and New Wave (Josh Adler, Mike Goldberg)
Buyers: Paramount and The Montecito Picture Company
Genre: Drama (Dramedy)
Attachments: Montecito’s Tom Pollock, Joe Medjuck, and Ivan Reitman are attached to produce.
Writers: Justin Rhodes
Reps: ICM and Kevin Donahue Literary Management (Kevin Donahue)
Buyer: Warner Bros.
Genre: Sci-Fi/Adventure
Attachments: Scott Aversano will produce through his Aversano Films.
Notes: Chris Gary and Sarah Schechter will oversee for Warner Bros.
About The Scoggins Report:
The Scoggins Report is a terribly unscientific analysis of the feature film development business based on information assembled from a variety of public and non-public sources. The numbers in the reports are by no means official statistics. Archive editions of The Scoggins Report can be found at The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) and in their beautiful new home on www.thewrap.com.
Details on every person, project and company covered by the Report can also be found at www.ItsontheGrid.com, the only place mere mortals can find listings of Hollywood’s active open writing and directing assignments, not to mention comprehensive spec market data and active film development information.
The IOTG Blog has a new home on the site: www.ItsontheGrid.com/news It includes daily highlights of recent database updates and individual posts on every spec that hits the market. You’ll find buttons to subscribe to the blog’s feed right where you’d expect them, and you can follow the site’s Twitter feed here: http://twitter.com/itsonthegrid.
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