Spec Script Deal: “Linda and Monica”

Amazon Studios acquires 2016 Black List script “Linda and Monica” written by Flint Wainess. From Deadline:

…details the budding friendship between D.C. pals Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky that imploded when it led to the revelation of the scandalous relationship between the White House intern and President Bill Clinton.

Interesting how politics has become a ‘thing’ in Hollywood movie and TV development as the Deadline article notes:

This marks just the latest hot button political issue set up for movie or series. Adam McKay had set Christian Bale to play former vice president Dick Cheney, Steve Carell to play Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Amy Adams to play Lynne Cheney in a feature about George W. Bush’s polarizing vice president, at Annapurna with Plan B producing. Michael Moore will turn in his cut of the sequel Fahrenheit 11/9 about the election and presidency of Donald Trump; Oliver Stone on June 12 debuts The Putin Interviews in four hour long broadcasts. McKay is simultaneously developing with Jennifer Lawrence Bad Blood, a film about Elizabeth Holmes, whose Silicon Valley blood-testing Theranos was vastly overvalued and came crashing back to earth when questions arose about the reliability of the service’s pinprick testing method. McKay had a lot to do with starting the current trend because of the sleeper success of The Big Short, which won Best Original Screenplay Oscars for McKay and co-writer Charles Randolph. Showtime just made a deal for a Blumhouse TV-generated series about the rise and fall of the late Fox News chief Roger Ailes over sexual harassment accusations. Randolph is writing a feature version of that for Annapurna.

Wainess is repped by UTA and Kaplan/Perrone.

By my count, this is 33rd spec script deal of 2017.

There were 28 spec script deals year-to-date in 2016.

This represents a 15% increase in deals this year compared to last.