Been thinking about Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the gamble Disney took at a time when they were struggling. MASSIVE hit that helped change the company's trajectory pre-Alladin, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid & Lion King. If you're Paramount, Sony, etc. right now, this kind of risk makes sense.

OPPENHEIMER or ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER or Scorsese is a bit different. They've earned their epic + obviously have the chops to pull it off. But so many movies have egregious runtimes nowadays. It's killing their movies and possibly the movies altogether. 1 hour 40 minute flicks are easier to catch.

The average length of a Coen Bros feature is right under 100 minutes. If they can tell their epics without going 2 and a half or 3 hours, basically everyone can. 95% of the time there's just no reason for a movie to be over 2 hours give or take.

‘Drop’ Team Reuniting On Netflix Thriller ‘Blink Of An Eye’ 'Blink of an Eye,' a thriller spec from the husband-and-wife writing team of Chris Roach & Jillian Jacobs, has sold to Netflix, Deadline has learned.

Thriller spec sale. Husband/wife team behind DROP. Theory: it's easier to sell spec No. 2, 3, 4, etc. than No. 1 because you've been vetted by the industry. A proven commodity. That takes nothing away from the talent of the writers (congrats!!!). Just kind of a cover-your-ass industry. #scriptsky

New Line Acquires Rom-Com Spec From Writers Sas Goldberg & Ana Nogueira; Jason Orley Eyeing To Direct Sas Goldberg & Ana Nogueira have sold an untitled rom-com spec to New Line, with Jason Orley eyeing to direct on the heels of 'I Want You Back.'

First spec sale in about 3 weeks (that has been announced). Mini-slump is over after a hot streak. Rom-coms are selling like hotcakes. #scriptsky deadline.com/2025/09/sas-...

Screenwriters can be a fatalistic lot, often convinced that good outcomes no longer happen. So IMO it's important to constantly focus on big screenwriter wins. Helps you keep your eyes on the prize and block out the panic.

Milly Alcock Sets Dark Comedy ‘Thumb’ With Akiva Goldsman’s Weed Road Pictures & Bluestone Entertainment House of the Dragon and Supergirl actor Milly Alcock will star in Daina Oniunas-Pusić's dark comedy movie Thumb.

Black List script THUMB gets picked up. Good to see a typically slow month get so much business going. Crossing my fingers that this means a big fall for screenwriters. #scriptsky deadline.com/2025/08/mill...

Kobe Bryant Feature Project ‘With The 8th Pick’ From Alex Sohn & Gavin Johannsen Lands At Warner Bros The spec screenplay With the 8th Pick, about the behind-the-scenes 1996 NBA drafting of Kobe Bryant, has landed at Warner Bros.

4th spec sale of the week — about Kobe Bryant. As someone who's had two Black List scripts wind up in sports rights hell, doing something like this on spec is tricky... but can get you noticed or even sold with some luck. Hollywood loves a good sports story. #scriptsky deadline.com/2025/08/kobe...

Blake Lively To Star In & Produce Lionsgate Action Rom-Com ‘The Survival List’ Based On Tom Melia Spec Blake Lively will star in and produce 'The Survival List,' a new rom-com coming together at Lionsgate, Deadline can confirm.

Another spec sale. 3rd this week. Action romcom. Awesome seeing all this action around original material. #scriptsky deadline.com/2025/08/blak...

Erotic thrillers really seem to sell and are almost always written by women.

New Regency Lands Erotic Thriller Spec ‘Fixation’ From ‘Wednesday’s Erika Vazquez & Siena Butterfield; Made Up Stories Producing New Regency has acquired 'Fixation,' an erotic thriller spec from 'Wednesday' scribes Erika Vazquez and Siena Butterfield.

Second spec sale in 24 hours! Erotic thriller. #scriptsky

Jason Momoa-David Leitch Package ‘The Pirate’ Lands At Amazon MGM Studios Jason Momoa and David Leitch are in talks to produce the action pic 'Pirate'

Hot spec sale. Will Dunn's THE PIRATE. He also wrote the Black List script THE PEASANT, which was kinda like period piece John Wick. Enjoyed that one for sure. Good to see things keep moving. #scriptsky deadline.com/2025/08/jaso...

Love that you get both GODFATHER 1 & 2 in there. Why choose when you can have both? NETWORK also a classic.

Screw Myers-Briggs. The real personality test is your Letterboxd top 4. #scriptsky

There was a romcom spec a little while back. Yeah. And a lot of the less buzzy, smaller deals aren’t reported so who knows. The getting “set up” stuff, options, etc.

Searchlight Wins Bidding War For Psychological Thriller Spec ‘Incidents’ From William Gillies 'Incidents,' a thriller spec from 'Hallow Road's William Gillies, has sold to Searchlight following heated bidding, Deadline has learned.

Third spec sale of the week! This one had 11 freaking offers. I share this shit to keep our spirits up. There are reasons to be hopeful, and the industry will need strong original feature stories to keep audiences showing up at the theater — and even streaming. #scriptsky

Geeking out about HIGHEST 2 LOWEST. Love Spike. Am a Denzel stan. And this is a Kurosawa remake. Been almost 20 years since these two worked together! INSIDE MAN was one of my favorite movies from the aughts.

Sony Buys Shipley Brothers’ Comedy Screenplay ‘This Could Be Our Night’ Wrecked creators Justin and Jordan Shipley's comedy screenplay This Could Be Our Night has sold in a pre-emptive sale to Sony.

Specs are selling again after summer vacay hibernation. This is the second of the day announced. A comedy. The Naked Gun effect??? Anyway, good to see biz happening. #scriptsky deadline.com/2025/08/sony...

What movie taught you how to curse? For me, it was BEVERLY HILLS COP.

Mission Impossible.

Spec script market seems to have cooled off. Probably just because execs/producers are all on vacay this time of year and reps are waiting to send things out to market. We're waiting to send something out right now. Shocking how much of the year is a bad time to send things out. #scriptsky

The biggest grift in entertainment right now is to label your project "anti-woke."

Major reconstructive surgery is tough! But it shows you aren’t settling and will get this plot to the right place.

Impossible bar to clear. I did just kinda wish it was NICE GUYS 2 but also good for that spec writer!

Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell Teaming for Action Comedy ‘Tough Guys’ at Amazon MGM Studios Daniel Gold penned the script as a spec about two henchmen who "break free from the criminal underworld and rewrite the rules as they abandon their ruthless boss and dodge the elite assassin on their ...

Action comedy spec set up at Amazon. 🔥 #scriptsky

Think confidence is the most underrated part of screenwriting. Listen to your favorite rappers and how they express their message — there’s no half-stepping. Being assured and bold convinces readers they’re in safe hands. #scriptsky

💀

Screenwriting is a dense lattice of micro-decisions. Thousands of word choices conveying hundreds of plot choices. And because movies are as much about what you leave out as what you leave in, every decision really counts. #scriptsky

Hell yeah

The peach allergy sequence from PARASITE is so face-melting that it relegates CALL ME BY YOUR NAME to the movie with the second most memorable peach.