Spec Script Sale: “Arthur & Lancelot”
Warner Bros. drops seven figures (reportedly $2M) in a heated bidding war for the action adventure spec script “Arthur & Lancelot” written by David Dobkin. Per THR, no information on the storyline, but this is interesting:
The more interesting question is what this project may do to the other King Arthur projects Warners has in development. The studio is working on a remake of the 1981 movie Excalibur that Bryan Singer is a producer on while Guy Ritchie is developing King Arthur, based on Thomas Mallory’s novel.
The fact the studio picked Dobkin’s project speaks volumes about its strengths but also casts doubt on the life of the others.
I can hear you thinking: Why would Warners plunk down $2M on this spec when they already have two other King Arthur projects in development?
Good question. I don’t happen to be sitting in an office at 4000 Warner Blvd. in Burbank, but I’ll take a stab at it.
First, as the article notes, the studio may not be head over heels about either of the other pair of their King Arthur projects. Dobkin’s script might have blown the others out of the water.
Also Warner Bros. may see this as an opportunity to cement a relationship with Dobkin, a talented hyphenate who already directed a hit movie for the studio (Fred Claus).
But if I had to guess, I’d say a significant part of this decision is that it’s a defensive buy. Supposedly Universal and Fox were part of the bidding war. If Warners is looking at King Arthur as a franchise property, do they really want a rival studio with a competing project, especially if they feel Dobkin’s script is at least equal to if not superior to their current ones in development? Because if another studio purchased Dobkin’s script and it’s in good shape, they already have a director attached (Dobkin), so they could be charging toward production soon leaving Warner Bros. forced to rush the development of either/both of their current projects, probably spending at least $2M on A-list writers to wrangle something into a serviceable script. And that creates the worst of all situations: Two studios dumping tons of cash into rival projects (this is currently happening with competing Snow White projects). So better to take the script off the market to keep a competing project from emerging, allowing Warner Bros. all the time they need to develop one of the King Arthur projects and get it produced.
And there’s this: While $2M may seem like a lot of money for a script, if the story detailed in the screenplay represents a potential franchise, that is peanuts in comparison to potential revenue for one or more movies.
Dobkin is repped by CAA.
By my count, this is the 40th spec script to sell in 2011.
The 40th spec script didn’t sell in 2010 until September 29th, which means sales are significantly up this year.