Typically, January serves as that buffering month following the busy holiday season where everyone slowly emerges from the depths, picks up steam at work, and gets back into the rhythm of things.
Verve & Romark are shopping VIRAGO by Liz Storm. Described as in the vein of ROMANCING THE STONE meets INDIANA JONES.
Screen Gems bought DELILAH by Harrison Query & Tommy Wallach. A young woman assumes the identity of a family’s long-lost daughter
Verve & CAA is out with UNTITLED GUGGENHEIM / KINBERG ACTION SPEC by David Guggenheim. Described as a massive female-led franchise.
Verve and Housefire are out with CAULDRON by Marc Bloom. A woman’s life is suddenly shattered when three witches arrive on the doorstep.
New Line picked UNTITLED WECH COMEDY PROJECT by Katie Wech. Story details are being kept under wraps.
Verve & Writ Large are out with A HOUSE IN THE DESERT by Alex McAulay. Revolves around infidelity.
Hero and Villains is out with BELLA by Jason Markarian. A cop’s daughter goes on a rampage to unearth her father’s assassin
Verve is out with SPELLCASTER by Edward Robles. A control-freak filmmaker attempts to resurrect his career by documenting a heist.
Verve is out with DARLINGS by Aaron Sala. A woman estranged from her wealthy family returns to their estate to say goodbye to her dying mother.
Writ Large is out with UNITY by Anna Klassen. When her missing sister suddenly reappears after fifteen years, a teenager seeks to uncover the horrific truth.
March 2020 came in like a lion and left us with only 16 specs tracked: only 7 with attachments, 5 with a production company, and 1 with a studio. Take a breath, and let’s dive in.
Verve, Good Fear, and Romark are out with FEAR AT HOME by John Wikstrom. A contained Horror that follows a group of people trapped in a Home Depot during a hurricane who quickly find out the storm is the least of their problems…
Verve out with SINCERELY SAMANTHA SMITH by Joe Ballarini. The incredible, inspiring true story of a 10 year-old girl who prevented World War 3.
In 1982, at the peak of the Nuclear Arms hysteria between the US and Soviets, shy, quiet 10 year-old Samantha Smith shot to world-wide fame when she became pen pals with the Soviet leader who invited her and her family to Russia to discuss peace talks between the super powers.
Read about the 24 specs tracked in February 2020: 7 with a studio or production company attached; 12 with producers; 7 with directors; & 5 with talent attached.
Story details are being kept under wraps but described as a four-quadrant family adventure in the vein of JUMANJI, using the vintage Atari 2600 to set off an alien invasion.
New spec STAY BEHIND by David Guggenheim is out from Verve, and already starting to heat up.
Verve is heating up this cold November week with a new short story THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN from sisters…
Logline: The story follows a girl on the run after escaping a mysterious captivity, leaving us questioning anyone she comes in contact with.
Logline: Music pioneer Robert Johnson invents the Delta Blues style.
The temperature may be coming down as Fall rolls in, but that’s not stopping Bellevue Productions and Verve from burning up the market with Shawn Dwyer’s latest spec TEN YEARS GONE, as it heads into multiple territories all over town.
Logline: Story details are being kept under wraps but described as a female-driven thriller in the vein of PRISONERS.
Logline: In order to pay off a powerful crime boss whose brother she accidentally killed, young Ruby Bentley sets off on a perilous quest to sell an original pair of ruby slippers that her late grandfather stole from the set of THE WIZARD OF OZ.
“In this situation, when the president of a studio is calling you, you’re pretty confident that you’re not going to oversell yourself”
In the spirit of all things horror this October, David Boxerbaum of Verve joins us this week to break down the Horror/Thriller box-office hit THE SHALLOWS from writer Anthony Jaswinski. The script gained mass appeal when it hit the market, landing Jaswinski on the Black List, Blood List, and Hit List that year.
After a mission to destroy a black hole that endangers mankind goes wrong, an astronaut awakens in her escape pod to find that decades have passed in seemingly a moment. Now, with an aging body and fragile mind, she battles against the elements of space and time to complete her mission.
David Boxerbaum of Verve joins us for this week’s Anatomy of a Sale. He explores what it’s like taking a small, intimate story and generating massive buzz around town, deciding which buyer to go with in the heat of a bidding war, and how one Friday afternoon changed two writer’s lives forever.
Logline: Story details are being kept under wraps but it’s described as BLACK MIRROR meets STRANGER THINGS.
Logline: Story details are being kept under wraps, but centers on a waitress who receives a $10,000 tip from a stranger where events turning dangerous
A woman with a troubled past takes in her moody teenage niece to live in the family’s isolated farm house, but the two are soon tempted and tormented by a sinister creature that can take their pain away for a price.
A disgraced ex-cop runs up against some old enemies when he searches for his missing daughter and his own soul in the seedy underground club circuit of Los Angeles. A diverse version of TAKEN meets TRAINING DAY.