The Scoggins Report: July 2012 Spec Market Roundup

The Scoggins Report is a compilation of sales and trends in the industry. The Report is reprinted at ScriptMag.com by permission of the authors.

The Scoggins Report
by Jason Scoggins & Cindy Kaplan
August 6, 2012

July 2012

Spec Market Roundup

Between Independence Day and Comic-Con, most of Hollywood is out of town for half the month of July every year, so it’s surprising that any business gets done at all during that period. July 2012’s spec numbers were exactly in line with expectations for summer script sales, and the below grid underscores why last year’s July spec numbers were so extraordinary.

As you can see, last month’s numbers are on par with July 2010’s and 2009’s monthly tallies, and in case you’re wondering, August 2011 was in this range, too, with 5 spec sales.

Here are July’s overall numbers with year-over-year comparisons to July’s past, followed by the usual breakdowns and project details, including loglines.. Enjoy.

1 Total Sales in July

2 Sales percentage of scripts that came out and sold in July

Weekly Activity Breakdown

Week of July 2 (Independence Day)

• No scripts hit the boards

Week of July 9 (Comic-Con)

• 1 script hit the boards and has not sold

• 2 additional sales were reported (“The Adversary” and “Divorce Party”)

Week of July 16

• 8 scripts hit the boards, one of which has sold (“Viral”)

Week of July 23

• 4 scripts hit the boards, none of which has sold

• No additional sales were reported

Week of July 30

• 5 scripts hit the boards (3 in August), none of which have sold

• 2 additional sales were reported – 1 in July (“Untitled Cameron Crowe Love Story”) and 1 in August (“Chewie,” which was one the 2011 Black List’s top ten scripts)

Genre Breakdown

One of July’s sales, “Divorce Party,” came out in May.

Spec Sales (alphabetical by title)

The Adversary

Writer: Faisal A. Qureshi

Buyer: Bazelevs Production

Genre: Action

Attachments: Timur Bekmambetov to produce.

Notes: Won the pitching prize at the third Astana International Film Festival in Kazakhstan.

Logline: Centers on a stranger recruited to defend a Jewish settlement from rampaging Cossacks.

Untitled Cameron Crowe Love Story

Writer: Cameron Crowe

Reps: CAA (Richard Lovett & Robert Bookman)

Buyer: Columbia

Genre: Drama

Attachments: Crowe to direct; Emma Stone is attached to star.

Logline: Under wraps, but said to be tonally similar to Crowe’s “Almost Famous” and “Jerry Maguire.”

Divorce Party

Writers: Mukilan Thangamani (script) and Ali Asgar Millwala (story)

Buyer: Enderby Entertainment

Genre: Comedy

Attachments: Rick Dugdale, Rob Skinner, Ean Thorley and Daniel Petrie Jr. will produce.

Notes: Script was surfaced by Tracking-Board.com as part of its “TB Recommends” feature.

Logline: “Bridesmaids” meets “Love Actually.” Chronicles the intersecting arcs and misadventures of a group of friends attending a divorce party.

Viral

Writer: Dustin T. Benson

Reps: UTA (Ramses Ishak, Michael Sheresky) and Energy (Brooklyn Weaver)

Buyer: Unnamed Ian Bryce Company

Genre: Sci-fi

Attachments: Ian Bryce to produce with Prime Universe’s Adrian Askarieh.

Logline: A first person point of view dystopian action-thriller, centering on a scientist who must help a crew of workers through the “infected” area of Manhattan while also trying to find her missing daughter.

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. Mol??n labé.