The Business of Screenwriting: Everything You Wanted to Know About Specs

Part 6: Rolling out a new writer’s spec script.

“We’d like to have something that works for both the studios and the financiers, a script that could be a big blown-out studio movie as well as something a little more constrained that can work for financiers with smaller budgets. If we have something like that, I want to introduce that writer and their script to everybody in town.”

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.

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.

Part 6: Rolling out a new writer’s spec script

Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn reading scripts on set.

There are multiple ways in which managers and agents take out a spec script, but when it involves a new writer, there can be an additional value in going wide. Check out these observations from Chris Fenton from an interview I did with him when he was a literary manager and producer with H2F Entertainment:

It depends on the script. We’d like to have something that works for both the studios and the financiers, a script that could be a big blown-out studio movie as well as something a little more constrained that can work for financiers with smaller budgets. If we have something like that, I want to introduce that writer and their script to everybody in town. I want to create excitement around a piece of material, make sure the tracking boards are covering the project, and try to get it out to 120 producers, get everybody reading it. Because you never know what can happen with a good piece of material and the right producer. Maybe it doesn’t sell, but it gets that producer thinking about another assignment, creates an opportunity for the writer that way, too. Bottom line the spec market is a fantastic way for getting a new writer to be read.

A lot here. Let’s unpack it:

• First and foremost, everything depends on the script. As Chris said elsewhere in our conversation, “It’s super important for us to be very critical and have a high quality control when it comes to representing writers because every time we sell something, that makes it that much easier to get everybody to read our next writer client and their script, and read them fast to try to make another sale.” This underscores what we discussed in Part 5: No script goes out until it’s ready.
• The desire for writers to craft material that can be sent to both sets of buyers — the major studios and independent financiers — is understandable. As discussed in Part 4, the odds of a deal are much better when dealing with 50–75 buyers than no more than 7 major players. The subtext here is that writers would be wise to don their producer’s hat when conceiving, developing and writing a spec script, one that is cognizant of budgetary issues. If you write a script that can only be produced for $100M or more, you seriously reduce the pool of buyers. If, on the other hand, you create a script that could be made for $20M or less, but if a major studio wants to step in and lay in all sorts of special effects and set pieces, then you have two sets of buyers.
• 120 producers or whatever the number, the goal here is to get a writer and their material maximum exposure. All it takes is one set of eyeballs to get the script, to become its champion. Moreover, as Chris noted, producers are involved in multiple projects. Perhaps they like what you’ve written and have another script in development they can plug you into. And yes, Hollywood players are in a constant state of motion, moving from this gig to that, that gig to this. Exposing a writer to as many producers and studio execs as possible may not translate into anything specific in the present. On the other hand, if a writer can make connections with multiple players, that increases the odds that at some point in the future, the writer’s name will arise in relation to another project.
• “The spec market is a fantastic way for getting a new writer to be read.” The meaning of that is simple and plain, and should encourage each of us — aspiring screenwriters to professional screenwriters. There is nothing quite like a spec script in terms of its potential to introduce a new writer, redefine an established writer, reawaken the career of a floundering writer, and generate enough heat to translate into a writing assignment or an actual sale.

Next week: Attaching producers.

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.

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