The Scoggins Report: July 2012 Pitch Sales 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
July 30, 2012

July 2012

Pitch Sales Roundup

In case you’ve been vacationing this month, here’s a quick recap of what you missed:

• June was good month for pitches (8) and a monster month for specs (16);

• We both left FilmFunds -- Cindy’s got a great new gig at Kids At Play Media, and Jason’s putting business plans together for a couple of new ventures; and

• We changed the name of this newsletter back to The Scoggins Report. Archive editions are available on the web here, the sign-up page for the mailing list is here , and please click through and like our new Facebook page here.

As you’ll see from the below, July was another perfectly respectable month for pitch sales, despite the holiday at the beginning and Comic-Con in the middle. If we weren’t comparing year-over-year to 2011’s oddly high numbers, we’d be oohing and aahing.

Here are July’s raw numbers, followed by the usual breakdowns and project details, including loglines. Enjoy.

Weekly Activity Breakdown

Week of July 1 (Independence Day):

• No pitch sales were announced

Week of July 8:

• 1 pitch sale was announced (“The Rising”)

Week of July 15:

• 3 pitch sales were announced (“The Canucks Fan Who Drove 1,000 Miles for a Game, Partied with the Owner, Drank with Beautiful Women, Nearly Died, and Got Comped for Game 5,” “Untitled Drumm Project” and “Gunslingers”)

Week of July 22:

• 2 pitch sales were announced (“De-Friended” and “The Gauntlet”)

Pitch Sales (alphabetical by title)

The Canucks Fan Who Drove 1,000 Miles for a Game, Partied with the Owner, Drank with Beautiful Women, Nearly Died, and Got Comped for Game 5

Writers: Peter Hoare & Chris Lilli

Reps: Kailey Marsh Management (Kailey Marsh)

Buyers: State Street and BroBible/Five All in the Fifth Entertainment

Genre: Comedy

Notes: Based on the 2011 Deadspin article.

Logline: Centers around the true story of four best friends from Vancouver who travel to San Jose to watch their beloved Canucks play in the NHL Western Conference Finals. What ensues during that 24-hour period becomes fodder for one of the greatest bar stories ever told.

De-Friended

Writers: Fax Bahr & Harry Dunn

Reps: CAA (Bill Zotti, Steve Smooke, Martin Lesak, Jason Heyman, Greg Cavic) and Circle of Confusion (Brad Mendelsohn)

Buyer: Columbia

Genre: Comedy

Attachments: Steve Tisch, Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal producing through their Escape Artists.

Logline: A lonely woman in her late 30s seeks revenge against a popular girl from high school who de-friends her on Facebook.

Untitled Drumm Project

Writer: John Drumm

Reps: The Safran Company (Tom Drumm)

Buyer: Davis Entertainment

Genre: Thriller

Attachments: John Daviswill produce.

Logline: Under wraps.

The Gauntlet

Writer: Dana Fox (pitch)

Reps: WME (Cliff Roberts, Cori Wellins) and Anonymous Content (Joy Gorman)

Buyer: Universal

Genre: Romantic comedy

Attachments: Scott Stuber will produce through his Bluegrass Films.

Notes: Kristen Lowe to oversee for Universal. Based on an idea by Stuber and Fox. Fox will not be writing the script.

Logline: Centers on a woman fresh off a relationship with a liar and an all-around bad person. When she meets a new guy who is actually a good catch, he must endure the overprotective nature of her friends and family.

Gunslingers

Writer: Randall Wallace

Reps: WME (Kimberly Bialik, Blake Fronstin, Ari Greenburg, David Wirtschafter)

Buyer: New Regency

Genre: Action/adventure

Attachments: Vince Vaughn to star and produce through his Wild West Picture Show.

Notes: Price was reportedly mid-six figures.

Logline: Set in modern day Los Angeles, where heroic and iconic characters from the past collide with contemporary urban reality.

The Rising

Writer: Soo Hugh

Reps: WME (David Karp) and Circle of Confusion (Britton Rizzio)

Buyer: Paramount

Genre: Thriller

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

Logline: Under wraps

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.