The Scoggins Report: April 2013 Pitch Market Roundup

The Scoggins Report
by Jason Scoggins & Cindy Kaplan
April 29, 2013

April 2013

Pitch Market Roundup

We’re back to quasi-normal: After a four-month volley, the past week has seen total spec sales pull significantly ahead of total pitch sales for the first time this year. And the good news is that it’s not because of poor pitch sale numbers; as you can see below, even though April’s pitch sales were front-loaded in the first half of the month, the total still reached double digits, with a day left in the month as we write this.

Pitch sales were fairly well distributed among Buyers and Sellers this month, with a handful of notable exceptions:

• Fox and Universal led the Buyers with 2 pitch purchases each in April.

• CAA led the Sellers, with 4 pitch sales. The only other agency with more than one was WME (2), and Management 360 was the only management company with more than one (2).

• Peter Chernin’s Chernin Entertainment and Scott Stuber’s Bluegrass Films both set up 2 pitches last month.

April’s raw numbers through today are below, followed by the usual weekly breakdowns and the details of each sale. Enjoy

Weekly Activity Breakdown

Week of March 25 (Passover/Good Friday)

• No pitch sales announced

Week of April 1

• Untitled Cohen/O’Brien Project (April 1)
• Supermax (April 2)
• Untitled Duane Adler Talent Show Project (April 2)
• The Infinity Principle (April 2)
• Untitled Katie Dippold/Paul Feig Comedy (April 3)

Week of April 8

• Labyrinth (April 9)
• Untitled Gatewood & Tanaka Family Comedy (April 10)
• Untitled EDM Project (April 11)

Week of April 15

• Tag (April 19)

Week of April 22

• Las Madres (April 24)

Pitch Sales (alphabetical by title)

The Infinity Principle

Writer: Arash Amel (“Grace of Monaco”)

Reps: CAA (Matt Rosen)

Buyer: Summit

Genre: Sci-fi

Attachments: Basil Iwanyk will produce under his Thunder Road banner. Summit’s Erik Feig and Geoff Shaevitz will executive produce.

Logline: Centers on a physicist who proves the possibility of time travel and the universe begins to unravel as a result.

Labyrinth

Writer: Larry Brenner (“Angelology”)

Reps: Resolution and Magnet Management (Mitch Solomon)

Buyer: Disney

Genre: Action adventure

Attachments: Jim Whitaker will produce through his eponymous production company.

Notes: Whitaker executives Elizabeth Ingold and Adam Borba helped develop the pitch.

Logline: About the journey of the mythical princess who must enter the complex and dangerous Labyrinth to save her father.

Las Madres

Writer: Lona Williams (“Boy Scouts vs Zombies”)

Reps: CAA (Risa Gertner) and Brillstein Entertainment Partners (Missy Malkin)

Buyer: DreamWorks

Genre: Action comedy

Attachments: Scott Stuber will produce under his Bluegrass Films banner.

Logline: Three recently unemployed friends decide to go after a criminal for the reward money.

Supermax

Writer: Marc Haimes (“Troll Hunter”)

Reps: WME (Jordan Cerf, Jeff Gorin, Roger Green) and Management 360 (Jill McElroy)

Buyer: Paramount

Genre: Action

Attachments: Disruption Entertainment's Mary Parent will produce,

Notes: Luke Ryan and David Whitney will oversee for Disruption.

Logline: Under wraps, but said to be a high concept found footage project.

Tag

Writer: Mark Steilen (“Time Share,” “Born to Rock”)

Reps: ICM (Todd Hoffman) and Mosaic (Paul Nelson

Buyer: New Line

Genre: Comedy

Attachments: Broken Road's Todd Garner will produce with Steilen. Will Ferrell and Jack Black are attached to star.

Logline: Centers on the annual real life game of tag played by a group of ten Spokane, WA former prep school friends, now in their 40's, as recounted in January and March 2013 Wall Street Journal articles.

Untitled Cohen/O’Brien Project

Writers: Andrew Cohen & Brendan O’Brien (“Townies”)

Reps: CAA (Dan Rabinow) and Brian Lutz

Buyer: Fox 2000

Genre: Comedy

Attachments: Jonathan Levine ("Warm Bodies") is attached to direct. Peter Chernin will produce through his eponymous production company.

Logline: Two brothers turn to Craigslist to secure dates for a wedding, but their plus-ones turn out to be bigger messes than they are.

Untitled Duane Adler Talent Show Project

Writer: Duane Adler (“Step Up”)

Reps: Paradigm (David Boxerbaum, Joel Roman, Nick LoPiccolo) and Blain & Associates (Tony Blain)

Buyer: Universal

Genre: Drama

Attachments: George Tillman Jr. is attached to direct. State Street’s Bob Teitel will produce.

Logline: “Pitch Perfect” meets “8 Mile.” A failed songwriter returns home to Chicago to lead a group of at-risk youth in their annual talent show.

Untitled EDM Project

Writers: Adam Weinstock & Andy Jones

Reps: CAA (Bill Zotti) and Underground (Noah Rothman)

Buyer: Fox

Genre: Comedy

Attachments: Underground’s Trevor Engelson will produce, Rothman will executive produce with EDM star Diplo and his business partner, Kevin Kusatsu. Diplo will also appear in the film.

Logline: “8 Mile” meets “Project X.” Three teens try to get into Diplo’s Electronic Dance Music Festival.

Untitled Gatewood & Tanaka Family Comedy

Writers: Brian Gatewood & Alex Tanaka (“The Sitter”)

Reps: UTA (Keya Khayatian) and Management 360 (Eryn Brown)

Buyer: Universal

Genre: Family comedy

Attachments: Scott Stuber will produce under his Bluegrass Films banner with Vince Vaughn through his Wild West Picture Show. Vaughn will star.

Notes: Dan Wilson and Jason Young will oversee for the studio.

Logline: Under wraps.

Untitled Katie Dippold/Paul Feig Comedy

Writer: Katie Dippold (“The Heat”)

Reps: WME (Phil D’Amecourt, Jeff Gorin) and 3 Arts (Greg Walter)

Buyer: Fox

Genre: Action comedy

Attachments: Paul Feig ("Bridesmaids," “The Heat”) is attached to direct and produce with Chernin Entertainment’s Peter Chernin.

Notes: Deadline reported a seven figure price tag.

Logline: Under wraps, but said to be a "mother/daughter action comedy."

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. Caveat emptor.

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