Spec Script Sale: “Defection”

Twentieth Century Fox acquires spy drama “Defection” adapted from a novel by Ken Nolan. From Deadline:

A mid-level intelligence contractor defects to North Korea and takes a mysterious bag with him. In the immediate aftermath of the bungled Edward Snowden situation, the CIA is determined to avoid a repeat and brings in a somewhat washed-up, albeit highly charismatic case officer trained during the Cold War who is an expert in defections to help them solve a case that soon proves to be more complicated than the modern class of CIA spies are equipped to deal with.

Nolan, who previously turned Littell’s The Company into a limited TNT series, pitched this book to no avail until he was blue in the face, before deciding to work with the producers on a script that moved the venue of the novel from Cold War to contemporary.

Three things:

* The deal is for a reported high-six against seven figures.

* The shift from period to contemporary doubtless made it an easier sale.

* Have to admire Nolan who evidently would not take ‘no’ for answer and wrote the script on spec.

Nolan is repped by CAA and Kaplan/Perrone.

By my count, this is the 54th spec script sale of 2014.

There were 88 spec script sales year-to-date in 2013.