“Extant”: Another example of the ‘spirit of the spec’
Amidst the hustle and bustle of the Hollywood development world — movies and TV — nothing shifts the tectonic plates of The Biz more than a spec script that gets people salivating over it. It’s also a time when writers can learn an awful lot about the buying pulse of Hollywood.
Such is the case right now as Hollywood froths over a 56-page spec TV pilot “Extant” written by newcomer Mickey Fisher. Background from TheWrap [emphasis added]:
Mickey Fisher, an unknown and unsigned writer until recently, has film studios drooling over his script “Extant” for weeks. There’s just one twist: it’s not a film script.
Fisher wrote “Extant” as a TV pilot. It’s a one-hour sci-fi drama about John and Molly Watts and their son, a human-like robot named Ethan. Molly, the space-traveling wife, is also pregnant with a baby that is part human and part alien. The family intrigue deepens in subsequent episodes.
Multiple agencies sought to sign the writer after reading the script, and WME won out. WME and manager Brooklyn Weaver, who discovered Fisher, sent the script around to the studios who are hot to trot for a high-concept script mixing sci-fi and familial drama.
“Everyone is freaking out about it,” an agent at a rival firm said. “It’s ‘A.I.’ as a TV series.”
Some analysis:
* “Multiple agencies sought to sign the writer after reading the script”: If you write it — and by “it,” I mean something great — Hollywood will come looking for you.
* “…sent the script around to the studios who are hot to trot for a high-concept script mixing sci-fi and familial drama”: High-concept. Sci-fi. Familial drama. Now you know what they’re “hot to trot” for!
* “It’s ‘A.I.’ as a TV series”: This is how they think in Hollywood, interpreting every new project by way of reference to a preceding one.
There’s more:
Warner Bros. still made an offer to acquire the project and turn it into a movie, according to multiple individuals inside and outside the studio, but now the studio is talking with Fisher about acquiring a different pitch. The studio declined to comment.
WME and Weaver always harbored dreams of turning “Extant” into a TV series with Steven Spielberg producing. They are halfway there: Amblin TV, which produced “ER” and “The Americans,” is developing and packaging it. It remains unclear if Spielberg will take a credit, though his involvement would make it even more attractive to networks.
Here is Mickey Fisher. Apparently he is a Hollywood outsider. He writes a spec TV pilot script. It turns the town on its head. Now he has interest from movie studios. TV networks. Perhaps “acquiring a different pitch.” Steven Freaking Spielberg.
Once again, we see the power of The Spirit of the Spec:
There has never been a better time to a writer trying to break into Hollywood. Yes, the odds against success continue to be astronomical. But there are a lot of buyers out there, dozens of financiers beyond the major studios. There is an increasing number of content platforms [see: Hulu, Netflix, YouTube]. There are more and more lit managers who are open to submission inquiries.
Now more than ever, writers who embrace The Spirit of the Spec are the ones who are poised for success.
For the rest of TheWrap article, go here.
Here’s to Mickey Fisher. You’re in good hands with your reps. Good luck!
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