Update: Spec Script Sale (2010): “Goliath”
After posting this 2010 Spec Script Sales list earlier today, I received a nice email from Patrick McKay (“love the site”) giving me a heads-up that I had missed the sale of “Goliath,” a spec he and his writing partner JD Payne sold to Relativity Media back in July. Some details from TrackingB and ItsOnTheGrid.
As it happens, there is some great news recently for Patrick and JD as director Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) is attached to the project. Per THR:
Director Scott Derrickson is getting his slingshot ready for Goliath, a new take on the David vs. Goliath Biblical tale from Relativity Media.
Ryan Kavanaugh of Relativity as well as Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen of Temple Hill are producing what will be a period action movie made with contemporary sensibilities.
Relativity and the producers plan on taking the script, written by John D. Payne and Patrick McKay, and give it a modern vibe that harkens to the spirit of films such as 300 and The Bourne Identity.
The story is set in motion when the fierce warrior Goliath is sent to track down a foretold king of the Israelites. A young shepherd David is thrust into an epic chase and adventure fighting for his own life, the lives of his loved ones and eventually the lives of his people. The story climaxes in a battle of literal Biblical proportions between the young man and the giant sent to destroy him.
How many of us sat in some religious education setting as children and heard the Biblical story of David and Goliath over and over and over? Patrick and JD had the inspiration to give it a creative spin and turn it into a screenplay — and it paid off.
I’ve amended my OP of the Spec Script Sales list and the number of sales for 2010 now officially stands at 52.
By the way, Patrick and JD are first-timers, proving once again it is possible to break into the business by writing and selling a spec script.
Congratulations, Patrick and JD!
UPDATE: I asked Patrick if he and JD would be willing to do a Q&A, and they agreed. Look for that in the next couple of weeks. That will be three exclusive interviews with writers who broke into the screenwriting trade by selling a spec script in 2010.