The Scoggins Report: February 2013 Pitch Sales Roundup

The Scoggins Report
by Jason Scoggins & Cindy Kaplan
March 25, 2013

February 2013

Pitch Sales Roundup

The see-saw continues: One week buyers are more into spec scripts, the next it’s pitches, and then back to specs again. At least, that’s been the pattern for the past month, and the result is our on-going odd situation in which just as many pitches are selling as specs (by our count, 22 pitches and 23 specs so far in 2013). Usually, specs outsell pitches by roughly 30%.

There’s plenty to like in the list of March pitch sales, below, but for those reading the tea leaves, here’s the key takeaway as far as we’re concerned: With the exception of Universal, the studio buyers still haven’t opened their checkbooks in a real way yet this year. Universal is far and away the big buyer so far in 2013 --it remains the only studio buyer to pick up at least one pitch and one spec (5 pitches and 1 spec to be exact), and its nearest rival is Fox, which has bought three pitches so far this year (2 in March).

With a week left in the month, March’s pitch sales are already on par with March 2012, but it remains to bee seen what impact the combination of Spring Break, the start of Passover and this weekend’s Good Friday/Easter festivities has on the market. This month’s pitch sales numbers through today are below, followed by the usual weekly breakdowns and the details of each sale.

Weekly Activity Breakdown

Week of February 25

No pitch sales announced

Week of March 4

Jesse Holley (March 5)
Untitled Scheier/Ford Project (March 5)
Room 39 (March 8)

Week of March 11

Untitled Josh Friedlander Project (March 11)
Sagittarius A (March 13)

Week of March 18

Untitled Sascha Penn Yakuza vs Mafia Project (March 17)
Family Therapy (March 19)
Untitled Matt Cook Heist Project (March 21)

Pitch Sales (alphabetical by title)

Family Therapy

Writer: Jay Reiss (“The Year of Living Biblically”)

Reps: CAA (Greg McKnight) and Mosaic (Dawn Saltzman, Jimmy Miller, Paul Nelson)

Buyer: Universal Pictures

Genre: Action comedy

Attachments: Aggregate Film's Jason Bateman and Jim Garavente will produce.

Logline: A dysfunctional but loving family hires a therapist to fix their problems on the eve of an impending wedding.

Jesse Holley

Writer: Randy Brown (“Trouble With The Curve”)

Reps: UTA (Charlie Ferraro, Jenny Maryasis)

Buyer: Columbia Pictures

Genre: Drama

Attachments: Dan Lindsay & TJ Martin ("Undefeated") are attached to direct. Neil Moritz will produce through his Original Film. NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin will executive produce with Original's Toby Ascher.

Notes: Elizabeth Buraglio will supervise for Original, DeVon Franklin will oversee for the studio.

Logline: Based on the unlikely rise of Jesse Holley, the NFL wide receiver who won “4th and Long,” a reality TV series, which led to an invitation to the Dallas Cowboys’ training camp and stints playing for the Cowboys and the New England Patriots.

Untitled Josh Friedlander Project

Writer: Josh Friedlander (“One Night Stan”)

Reps: Apostle (George Heller)

Buyer: Universal Pictures

Genre: Action comedy

Attachments: Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg will produce (and may direct) through their eponymous production company.

Logline: Under wraps.

Untitled Matt Cook Heist Project

Writer: Matt Cook

Reps: WME (Cliff Roberts, Rich Cook) and Anonymous Content (Bard Dorros, Keith Redmon)

Buyer: Fox

Genre: Heist thriller

Attachments: Hutch Parker will produce through his eponymous production company.

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

Logline: Under wraps.

Room 39

Writer: Michael Bronner

Reps: Anonymous Content (Jeff Okin, Rosalie Swedlin)

Buyer: Fox

Genre: Thriller

Attachments: New Regency will co-finance. Invention's Nicky Weinstock will produce.

Notes: New Regency's Michael Ireland, Alexandra Milchan and Ryan Horrigan will oversee. Jon Gonda will supervise for Invention.

Logline: Centers on a secret organization within the North Korean government, reporting directly to the Supreme Leader, which is involved with North Korea's alleged billion-dollar counterfeiting operation.

Untitled Sascha Penn Yakuza vs. Mafia Project

Writer: Sascha Penn

Reps: CAA (John Garvey, Andrew Miller) and Madhouse (Adam Kolbrenner)

Buyer: Good Universe

Genre: Action

Attachments: David Lonner and Ben Rowe will produce for Oasis Media Group with Good Universe’s Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane.

Notes: Nicole Brown will oversee for Good Universe.

Logline: Under wraps.

Sagittarius A

Writer: Steven Karczynski

Reps: Gersh (Eric Garfinkel) and Digital Conspiracy (Michael Shlain)

Buyer: Universal Pictures