Pitch sale:

Warner Bros. plops down seven figures to win bidding war for “Samson” from writer Scott Silver:

“Samson” gives a futuristic twist to the story of the biblical strongman who was invincible until he was betrayed by Delilah, to whom he entrusted the secret that his strength came from his long hair.

“Futuristic twist.” Guess we should ad time-bending to genre-bending (e.g., take an action concept and make it into a comedy), gender-bending (e.g., take the male lead from a familiar story and turn them into a female, and race-bending (e.g., make the white lead and African-American). But here’s the most interesting comment:

WB prevailed in a three-studio bidding battle. The seven-figure deal comes despite a sluggish year so far for deals on material. Aside from a strong writer and director, the project sparked bidding because it had a big idea that can be shaped into a tentpole project in which the concept is the star [emphasis added].

A couple of things. First, if the concept is the star, then that reduces the need to get an A list actor, thereby saving those gross profit participation dollars and salary. Second, once again, this confirms how important high concepts are in Hwood. So much of a movie’s success is the marketing and marketing is generally driven by the story’s core concept.