I’VE SOLD FOUR SPEC SCREENPLAYS — HERE’S WHAT I LEARNED
IF YOU WANT TO SELL YOUR SPEC, PUT ON YOUR PRODUCER’S HAT
Roughly 50,000 screenplays are registered with the Writer’s Guild of America each year. In his insightful Medium blog, “Go Into The Story,” Scott Myers reports that of those 50,000 scripts, just 11 spec scripts sold in 2023. In the first 3 months of 2024, only one spec script sold. Those odds make playing in the NBA look downright reasonable.
A spec script is a script you write on your own without being paid upfront, like a home builder who builds a home on spec. Worst case scenario, a spec script allows you to practice your craft and can help obtain an agent or literary manager. Best case scenario, your script sells and launches your screenwriting career.
I’ve sold four spec screenplays in my career and optioned two others. Three of those specs were made into movies by Disney and Warner Bros. I’ve also written more than a dozen spec scripts that never sold, and I learned important lessons from those scripts.
Why do some spec scripts sell while others don’t? Obviously, writing a great script is paramount, but some of my favorite screenplays I’ve written didn’t sell. Beyond the quality of the script, luck, timing, marketability, and the connections to get your script into the right hands play crucial roles in determining whether a spec script sells.
To bolster your chances of selling your screenplay, you need to put on your producer’s hat. What are buyers looking for when they read a script? What types of movies are doing well? Are there stars who can open the spec script I plan to write?
Drawing from my successes and failures, I compiled a list of six tips to increase your chances of selling your script. Here they are:
WRITE IN A COMMERCIAL GENRE
If you want to increase your chances of selling your script, write a story in a genre that sells.
According to Parrot Analytics, six of the top ten, and eleven of the top 20 films released in 2023 list “action” as their primary genre. Overall, the most in demand genres were adventure, followed by action, horror, comedy, and drama. Most of those films were cross genres. Scott Myers notes that, in 2022, there were 16 spec script sales. Twelve of those scripts list “action” or “thriller” as their primary genre.
You may have a great idea about seven-year-old siblings set in Victorian England. It may be a fantastic story that pulls at the heartstrings. If that script is a passion project you must write, by all means write it.
But don’t be surprised if it doesn’t sell. There are no seven-year-old stars that can open a movie, and the market for Victorian era sibling dramas is small to say the least. If you have a great concept for an action-adventure story, you may want to write that spec script first.
Horror is always an attractive genre for buyers. Horror movies are inexpensive, don’t require a star to open it, and the potential payoff can be astronomical. The budget for the first Saw movie was $1.2 million. It earned nearly $104 million at the box office. The Saw franchise has n0w produced ten movies that have generated over a billion dollars in box office. It’s easy to see why buyers would be attracted to the genre.
If you write a great horror script with a unique concept that can be shot for cheap and has the potential to become a franchise, you will improve your chances of selling your spec script. After you rake in millions from your horror franchise, you can self-finance your Victorian era sibling drama.
Other popular genres include sci-fi, biopics, blended genre comedies… To boost your chances of selling your script, study the market to see which genres are in demand.
WRITE WHERE THE STARS ARE
Having a star attached to your spec script is helpful, if not essential, in the current market. Ask any producer. If they are shopping a script to a studio or streaming service, they want the producer to come to them with the entire movie packaged. It’s not enough to have a great script. They want a star and director attached. The bigger the budget, the bigger the star.
I was once attached to direct a film for Touchstone Pictures. The studio hoped Chris Farley, whom I had worked with on a previous project, would be the star. While I was rewriting the script, Chris tragically passed away. Touchstone still wanted to make the film, but after an exhaustive casting process, we found that the lead role required a big guy. There were no stars who fit that description after Chris’ passing, and the project was scrapped.
Writing a script that has multiple stars who could play the lead enhances your odds of attaching a star. If the actor you ideally want passes, there will still be other stars who can get the movie made. Once you have a bankable star attached, your chances of attaching an in-demand director increase.
Before deciding which story you want to write on spec, ask yourself: Who are the stars that can open movies right now? Could the lead character be played numerous stars that will get buyers excited? Or is the project dead if Peter Dinklage passes?
If you can think of five or six bankable stars who can play the lead role, you better your chances of selling your script.
WRITE A SCRIPT THAT IS UNIQUELY GENERIC
Hollywood hates risk. Producers and studio executives like concepts they feel confident they can sell to their bosses and an audience. That’s why script loglines often combine two movies that have been hits in the past. “It’s Die Hard meets Bridesmaids.”
Buyers are attracted to unique takes on familiar concepts that have worked in the past. For instance, buddy cop movies. How many incarnations of the buddy cop concept have been hits? From the “Lethal Weapon” franchise to “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Bad Boys,” “Rush Hour,” “Turner and Hooch,” “21 Jump Street”… the list goes on.
The teacher who makes a difference under challenging circumstances. Aliens visiting Earth. A hero who must extract a client/family member from kidnappers. The ticking clock thriller. The band/heist crew/team that reunites for one last adventure… have all proven to be winning concepts.
If you have a fresh take on a familiar concept that is unique in its plot and characters, your chances of selling your spec script rise.
GET THE RIGHTS TO AN EXISTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
In his book “Adventures in the Screen Trade,” William Goldman famously said, “Nobody knows anything” in Hollywood. No one knows what will or won’t be a hit. If they did, all movies would be hits. Their only certainty is intellectual property (aka IP) that has worked in the past.
Again, Hollywood hates risk. Buyers are more inclined to buy a script that is based on existing intellectual property with a built-in audience. It’s the reason there are so many remakes, sequels, film versions of comic books, video games, books, children’s toys, or live action versions of animated films that were hits. Existing IP helps assuage Hollywood’s risk aversion.
How do you get the rights to existing IP? One way is to find IP in the public domain. You don’t have to purchase the rights to public domain properties. For instance, Moby Dick is in the public domain. Have a fresh take on Moby Dick? Write a great script that puts a new spin on the well-known title, and you increase your chances of selling your script. The key here is you need to write a great script. The familiar title only helps market the film.
Another way to get existing IP is to contact the author of a book you love and ask to buy the rights. Frank Darabont asked Stephen King to buy the rights to “The Shawshank Redemption.” King was impressed with Darabont’s passion for the story and sold the rights for $5,000. King later said he never cashed the check. It wasn’t about the money. It was about Darabont’s passion for the material.
You may also write an adaptation of your favorite book on spec, then send it to the author. It may or may not work, but what do you have to lose? At worst, you may get an audience with your favorite author and get the rights. If not, you’ll have a writing sample that you can use to attain a literary agent or manager, or get a meeting with a producer.
Another way to get an IP is to buy the rights to a real-life story. “Based on a true story” is a proven genre. If you read a story that you believe would make a compelling film, reach out to its author, or the person who was the subject of the story. The Hulu limited series, “Pam and Tommy” was based on an article in Rolling Stone. The producer secured the rights and packaged the series. Podcasts are another place to find real-life stories. If you hear a true crime story, or a true story of any kind on a podcast, contact the podcaster to see if they will sell you the rights to the story.
You can also create your own IP. Self-publish your story as a novel, graphic novel or comic book first, then sell the screen rights. That’s how the film “The Martian” was sold. Creating a podcast and telling your story in that format is another way to create your own IP. In addition to potentially giving your story a pre-existing audience and awareness, it will also give a potential buyer a preview of your screenplay in another form.
MAKE SURE YOUR SCRIPT CAN BE EXPLAINED IN A LOGLINE
Steven Spielberg once said, “If a person can tell me the idea in 25 words or less, it’s going to make a pretty good movie.” It makes sense. Ask a friend if they want to see a movie and they’ll ask what it’s about. If you can’t tell them, there’s less of a chance they’ll want to see it. Being able to condense your script’s premise into a concise logline is a vital marketing tool.
In a social media post, Literary manager John Zaozirny said that he receives around 150 query emails a week from writers looking for representation. Of those, he requests two or three scripts. He said, “The only thing I ever look for in the initial query is a logline that intrigues me. The logline gets me to request the script, and everything flows from there.”
If you can summarize your story into an intriguing logline, you greatly improve your chances of enticing a creative executive to read your script. If you can’t, it’s going to be a hard sell. Are there exceptions to the rule? Of course. Christopher Nolan’s films are often hard to condense into a logline. If you’re Christopher Nolan, you don’t need a logline. The rest of us do.
BE AWARE OF THE MARKET AND WORLD EVENTS
I sold a spec script to Warner Bros. in 2008. It was a high-concept multiverse comedy involving avatars coming to life. Part of the appeal to Warner’s was its similarity “Scott Pilgrim Saves the World.” Scott Pilgrim hadn’t been released yet, but the studio believed it was going to be a hit. When Scott Pilgrim underperformed at the box office, my project was put into turnaround.
Being aware of what is currently hot at the box office is essential. If there was a movie that recently came out and tanked and you have a similar script that you are writing, you may want to shelve it until Hollywood forgets about the movie that bombed. Conversely, if you have a script that is similar but different to a film that was recently a hit, get it out as quickly as you can.
Paying attention to world events is also important. In 2020, I wrote a thriller whose antagonist was a sadistic nihilist who had racist overtones. I found a producer who liked the script and was developing it with them. Then the George Floyd murder happened. Although the character was a reprehensible villain with little to no redeeming qualities, buyers had no interest in a character with racist overtones, villain or not.
I want to re-emphasize that the most important factor in selling your spec script is writing a great script. But often that’s not enough. Buyers are afraid of making a bad decision, having a movie bomb, and getting fired.
Producers and studio executives want to buy scripts that decrease the risk of losing money and won’t cost them their job. A great script that can be explained in a logline, in a genre that consistently scores at the box office, that is a unique take on a concept or existing IP that has succeeded in the past that they believe will attract a bankable star or in-demand director, lowers that risk and increases your odds of finding a buyer for your script.
If you write a great script that checks those boxes, you better your chances of defying those seemingly insurmountable odds. As a producer once told me, “Producing new material will never hurt you.” So, keep writing and, when you are deciding which story concept you should write on spec next, think like a producer.
