Spec Script Deal: “Untitled Gary Deal” aka “Sarah”

Lionsgate announces it has acquired an untitled science fiction thriller spec script (aka “Sarah”) written by John Gary. From Deadline:

Lionsgate’s Summit Entertaintment label just acquired an untitled spec script from screenwriter John Gary, described as a “grounded” sci-fi thriller which is a character-driven property in the vein of Luc Besson’s box office smash Lucy. The original script was called Sarah. Another strong female leading a pic? No argument here.

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Gary wrote the script based on an original idea from Robinson apparently. Execs at Lionsgate — Gillian Bohrer and James Myers — loved it and picked it up.

Gary is repped by ICM Partner and The Gotham Group.

By my count, this is the 42nd spec script deal in 2015.

There were 40 spec script deals year-to-date in 2014.

Okay, now that all those details are taken care of, I thought I would use this announcement as an opportunity to discuss the nature of reporting spec script activity. As I have always acknowledged since tracking deals on the blog since I launched it in 2008, this is an inexact science.

Start with the basics: What exactly is a spec script? In the purest terms, it’s simply this: A script which a writer has written without any compensation in the hopes they can sell it. Spec as in speculative.

But would we consider a script written by an established pro writer like Cameron Crowe or Diablo Cody to be a spec script if they wrote it without any upfront compensation, but there was an implied deal in place with a studio or production company?

What about scripts which takes months, even years to get set up? I have had people email me about a reported deal suggesting that because the script is years old, it doesn’t qualify as a spec script because — basically — a spec script is (to their mind) something someone writes, it immediately goes to market, and voila — sold. Obviously that does happen, but increasingly we see scripts which come out, don’t get bought, and, for example, land on the Black List, then several months or years later, they end up landing somewhere.

Look, the days of the Go Go Spec Script Crazy Days of the 80s and early 90s are gone. So this notion of a hot spec script being hand delivered around town, execs forced to read it in a sealed room, then make their offers within the hour… that’s from a different era. The buyers play things much closer to the vest in the acquisition market, so yes, some spec scripts take a long time to get set up.

Speaking of a long time, let’s take a look at the Lionsgate deal for John Gary’s script as described above. Here is a series of tweets John authored yesterday:

On the face of it, isn’t it a little odd that Deadline is reporting the Lionsgate deal yesterday while on the exact same day, I featured an interview with John in which he discussed the very same script?

This raises another issue in tracking spec script deals: Sometimes the studios or financiers do not want the information of a deal made public. Sometimes they wait for months to make an announcement. I mean, John’s deal technically happened in 2014, however I’m going to include it in my 2015 report because that’s when it was announced.

Again inexact science.

But here is the biggest single issue: When online outfits report deals as sales when they are not actually sales. A sale is an outright acquisition of a property. That is different than an option. An option gives a producer exclusive rights over a property for a set period of time in order to develop the material, seek financing to make the movie, attach talent, and so forth. They do not acquire the script with an option. Only the rights to the material for a specified period of time.

There is a big difference between a sale and an option, not the least of which is the money. Whereas the former can result in six figure compensation, an option is often no more than $10K or even less. Sometimes there are free options.

Here’s why this matters to the screenwriting community. In today’s interview with John, he talks about The Hope Machine, the cottage industry which has sprung up over the last two decades feeding off the growth in interest in screenwriting. The so-called screenwriting ‘gurus’. Dozens of outfits offering script consultations. The myriad contests and competitions. All of them charge money, in some cases a lot of it.

In order for them to lure as many customers as possible and maximize their profits, it behooves them to sustain the illusion of a hot spec script market.

And so you will see a conflation of an option as a sale. Even a free option. I’ve seen instances where someone dubs a writer signing with a manager as a sale. Why would they do that other than to inflate the number of ‘sales’ as part of their marketing strategy?

Here’s a relevant thread of tweets from my Twitter feed yesterday:

While what I do at GITS may be inexact for reasons described above, it’s my policy to only post about deals when they can be confirmed as actual transactions. And when I can find out if a deal is an option, I designate it as such.

So when I come out with my annual spec script report in January and you compare my numbers to some of the other outfits out there, my totals always lag behind theirs. None of us may know exact sales figures, but you can be assured of this: I am not inflating numbers to hype The Hope Machine. I want to try to get as accurate an overview of the spec market as possible, so we have credible information.

Remember: When it comes to consultants, contests, and ‘gurus,’ buyer beware. And don’t forget, you can learn the craft of screenwriting by doing this: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages.

Here endeth my sermon and with that, I extend my congrats to John Gary on his Lionsgate deal.

And if any of you have questions about spec scripts, feel free to post them in comments.

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