“Thrills? Millions? ‘Spec’ Scripts Bring Big Bids”

Great headline, huh? It’s from the NY Times dated July 8, 1990. That’s right, nearly 20 years ago, probably the apex of the spec script frenzy:

In Hollywood, money talks. What it has been saying recently is revolutionary.

During the last six months, more than a dozen screenplays have been sold for sums that would have paid the salary of a movie star a few years ago. In April, a new record was set when the Geffen Film Company bought ‘’The Last Boy Scout’’ by Shane Black for $1.75 million. That record lasted 67 days. Two weeks ago, Carolco paid $3 million for ‘’Basic Instinct’’ by Joe Eszterhas.

I remember those days. Seemed like not a week went by that some spec script didn’t sell for big bucks: The Last Boy Scout, Basic Instinct, Last Action Hero, Prince of Thieves, Stay Tuned, Radio Flyer. Those all got produced. But check this out:

Larry Gordon, who has produced such disparate movies as ‘’Predator’’ and ‘’Field of Dreams,’’ describes the advantage of spec scripts succinctly. (He is echoed by half a dozen other producers.) ‘’You get to read the entire screenplay,’’ says Mr. Gordon, whose Largo Entertainment is backed by Japanese money. ‘’You can eyeball the script to get an idea of what the budget will be. You don’t have to wonder if the script is going to work and how much the movie will cost.’’ Mr. Gordon paid $1 million for ‘’Texas Lead and Gold,’’ a ‘’48 Hrs.’’ action-adventure set in the wild West with a Texas Ranger and a petty thief as its heroes. He also paid $1 million for ‘’The Ticking Man,’’ in which a humanoid nuclear bomb tries to fulfill its destiny. Bruce Willis has already agreed to play the unruly bomb squad detective who must capture and defuse the bomb.

‘’I could never get a star of Bruce’s magnitude to commit to a book, a treatment or a work in progress,’’ says Mr. Gordon. ‘’But with a finished screenplay, a movie star has nowhere to go except ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Buying ‘The Ticking Man’ took me to a place where I could get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ instead of a ‘maybe.’ ‘’

Neither Texas Lead and Gold or The Ticking Man ever got made. Other million dollar spec scripts from 1990 that never were produced include The Cheese Stands Alone (Kathy McWorter), The Ultimatum (Lawrence Dworet), and Hell Bent… and Back! (Doug Richardson). But those writers still got paid big bucks.

Marty Bauer, whose Bauer-Benedek agency has sold more than a dozen spec scripts for more than $250,000 apiece, ‘’What you do is put studio executives under time pressure to get their competitive juices flowing, so they have to make a decision based on their competitive instincts, not their rational instincts.’’

One of those dozen spec scripts was K-9.

Over the years there have been ebbs and flows to the market, but ever year anywhere between 50 -100 spec scripts sell. It’s still perhaps the best way to break into the movie business. Thought you’d enjoy some historical perspective.

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