Spec Script Sale: “Columbus”

Per Deadline, Virgin Produced (Richard Branson) buys “Columbus” from writer T.S. Nowlin:

McG [is] attached to [produce] a 300-style film about Christopher Columbus and his discovery of America.

Per SlashFilm, this reminder about the recent mondo-failures of Columbus movies:

However, the last time Hollywood tried to dramatize Christopher Columbus’s story, the films were both massive financial failures. Ridley Scott’s 1992 film 1492: Conquest of Paradise made only $7 million against a $47 million budget while John Glen’s star studded 1992 Christopher Columbus: The Discovery fared a little better with $8 million against a $40 million budget, both according to Box Office Mojo. For the price Branson is sure to pay for the script and the budget McG will need to make it, Columbus will obviously need to do a tad better than those films to turn a profit.

Those were dueling Christopher Columbus projects, both failing horribly at the box office. Happy for writer Nowlin, but if there was one story I would have thought would have been dead in the water, it would have been another Columbus project. Presumably Nowlin came up with a unique and entertaining slant.

BTW, here is a report about when Branson launched his new prod co.

By my count, this is the 40th spec script sale of 2010.

How about you? Think the world is ready for another Columbus movie?

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