The Scoggins Report: February 2013 Spec Market Roundup

The Scoggins Report
by Jason Scoggins & Cindy Kaplan
March 5, 2013

February 2013
Spec Market Roundup

Take even a glance at the below grid for February and you’ll notice something remarkable: Just 15 specs scripts hit the market last month, a ridiculously low number this time of year. (We’ve seen that few or fewer only a handful of times in the past five years, and always during the off-season, either in August or December.) The situation only got sillier in the second half of the month, too: Nine specs went out in the first two weeks of February, and only six in the second.

The only thing we think can completely explain the crazy market is the serious upheaval happening on the sell side: Jeff Berg’s high profile hiring spree at Resolution since the end of January is the biggest factor, but Paradigm is making moves as well and the decks are still being shuffled. If you’re an MP Lit agent with a client list and material to sell, it probably makes sense to hit the pause button until Musical Chairs is over.

Skeptical? Pop over to SpecScout.com and scan the agents’ names on the projects in the “New on the Spec Market” folder (it’s on the public site, visible to everyone). Maybe it’s just us, but that’s as good a list as any of people unlikely to leave their current agencies. And there aren’t all that many on it in the first place.

Feels like it’s about to get pretty interesting. For now, enjoy the February Roundup

Year-Over-Year Breakdown

1 Total sales in February 2 Sales percentage of scripts that came out and sold in February

Weekly Activity Breakdown

Week of February 4:

• 3 specs hits the market

• 1 additional spec sales was announced

• Endangered (2/5)

Week of February 11:

• 3 specs hit the tracking boards

• 3 additional spec sale was announced:

• Dunkirk (2/13)

• Fury (2/13)

• Spinback (2/11)

Week of February 18:

• 3 specs hit the tracking boards, none of which have yet sold

Week of February 25:

• 2 specs hit the tracking boards

• 1 additional spec sales was announced:

• Mecha (2/26)

Genre Breakdown

Spec Sales (alphabetical by title)

Dunkirk

Writer: Gavin Scott

Reps: Original Artists (Matt Leipzig) and Linda Seifert

Buyer: Working Title

Genre: Drama

Attachments: Oliver Parker ("Johnny English Reborn") is attached to direct. WT's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner will produce.

Logline: In the battle of Dunkirk during WWII, British civilians risk their lives in the English Channel to rescue hundreds of thousands of British and French soldiers from the Nazi’s.

Endangered

Writers: Ryan Belenzon & Jeffrey Gelber

Reps: Paradigm (Ida Ziniti) and Zero Gravity (Jeff Belkin)

Buyer: Lionsgate

Genre: Action Adventure

Attachments: Alli Shearmur will produce through her eponymous company.

Notes: Hit the market in November 2012

Logline: When a drug company discovers a primate over 200 years old, a team descends on the perilous jungle of southeast Asia in search of the Fountain of Youth, only to find there are ancient reasons it has stayed forever hidden.

Fury

Writer: David Ayer (“End of Watch”)

Reps: CAA (Todd Feldman)

Buyer: QED

Genre: Action

Attachments: Ayer will direct and produce through his Crave Films with his "End of Watch" producer John Lesher of Le Grisbi Productions and QED's Bill Block.

Notes: Deadline reported a sale price of $1 million.

Logline: Under wraps. Set during World War II.

Mecha

Writer: Ben Magid

Reps: WME (Mike Esola) and Energy (Brooklyn Weaver)

Buyer: Sierra/Affinity

Genre: Contained sci-fi thriller

Attachments: Platinum Dunes’ Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller will produce.

Logline: Centers on a young survivor of a robot uprising as she searches for a way to avoid detection.

Spinback

Writer: John Swetnam (“Black Sky”)

Reps: Paradigm (David Boxerbaum) and Benderspink (Jake Wagner)