The Business of Screenwriting: Everything You Wanted to Know About Specs
Part 11: Slipping a script.
“Most often when a script gets slipped to someone, it is an intentional move on the part of that writer’s reps. But sometimes a spec script can take on a life of its own. And the Hollywood script acquisition and development community is so small, it doesn’t take much for a script to end up in front of the right set of eyeballs.”
I’m guessing that perhaps 90% of the people who follow this blog at some point in their lives will write a spec script. And the other 10% are involved in buying and selling them. In light of that fact, last year I interviewed a top manager and some Hollywood screenwriters about the ins and outs of what is involved in bringing a spec script to market. I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to do something with that inside information, so a few years back when Vanity Fair came out with this article — When the Spec Script was King — a decent piece, but pretty surface level, I figured it was a good time to dig into the subject in a comprehensive fashion.
Note: Original posts updated to reflect current market.
In Part 1, we looked at the genesis of the spec script in Hollywood from 1900–1942.
In Part 2, we covered the emergence of the spec script market from 1942–1990.
In Part 3: Boom, Bust, Back Again, But Now…?[1990–2019]
In Part 4, we surveyed the buyers, both major studios and financiers.
In Part 5, we examined the screenwriter-rep relationship in terms of developing a spec script.
In Part 6, we explored rolling out a new writer’s spec script.
In Part 7, we delved into the subject of attaching producers.
In Part 8, we considered the value of attaching talent.
In Part 9, we learned about reps wanting to “own all the tickets.”
In Part 10, we dug into how reps generate buzz for a spec script.
Part 11: Slipping a script.
Now we come to the nitty gritty: How to take the script out to the town. There are multiple ways to go about doing this and we will explore some of them over the next few weeks.
One approach is to slip the script to a buyer. There are a lot of reasons reps may choose to make this play as opposed to going wide. Perhaps they know a studio or financier is looking for a specific type of script at that moment and the spec fits the bill. Or maybe the reps want to get an unofficial read on a script to test the waters. Sometimes it can be in part about servicing a relationship with a buyer, giving them first crack.
Here’s one real-life example from an interview I did with screenwriter Justin Rhodes in September 2011 in which we discussed his spec script “Second Sun”:
Okay, now the fun part. You finally finish the script. Could you describe what the process was where it went from you typing FADE OUT to Warner Bros. stepping in to buy your script?
Once I finished the draft, my team went about trying to package the script with a director, maybe a bit of cast. The conventional wisdom is that you can’t sell a naked spec these days. But before anyone really got a chance to implement our plan someone from Warner Bros called my agent and said they were looking for a script with some big ideas. My agent gave them SECOND SUN, and the studio expressed their desire to buy it within a couple of days.
What were the precise details of where you were when you heard that Warner Bros. wanted to acquire your script?
I was working at my desk when my agent’s assistant asked if I would be available to meet with someone at Warner Bros. I asked her which company, because I thought we were talking about some development executive for a producer with an office on the lot. But she told me, no, someone at Warner-Bros-the-Studio wanted to meet me. Today if possible. As in, can you go get in your car? My agent came on the line and told me what was going on, and that’s when I finally knew enough to get excited. It was a fun call, because as far as I knew the script hadn’t even gone out yet.
Suffice to say, as much as reps strategize and makes plans, attempting to create a circumstance in which they “own all the tickets,” sometimes the way a deal goes down is a combination of nothing more than timing and luck… and it should go without saying a great script.
Most often when a script gets slipped to someone, it is an intentional move on the part of that writer’s reps. But sometimes a spec script can take on a life of its own. And the Hollywood script acquisition and development community is so small, it doesn’t take much for a script to end up in front of the right set of eyeballs. We will discuss that next week with another example of a spec script sale.
The Business of Screenwriting is a weekly series of Go Into The Story posts based upon my experiences as a complete Hollywood outsider who sold a spec script for a lot of money, parlayed that into a screenwriting career during which time I’ve made some good choices, some okay decisions, and some really stupid ones. Hopefully you’ll be the wiser for what you learn here.
For more articles in The Business of Screenwriting series, go here.
