To download the PDF and receive early editions of The Scoggins Report, sign up for Jason's mailing list via the form at the bottom of ItsontheGrid.com, a division of TheWrap. You can follow IOTG's Twitter feed here, and the Facebook page is here.
*****
When we wrote at the end of September that 2011’s spec market is the strongest we’ve seen in at least five years, we crossed our fingers and hoped we weren’t jinxing it for the rest of the year. Turns out we needn’t have worried: Buyers are still buying, and October is on track to be the biggest month since March. Here are the highlights from the past couple of weeks:
• Warner Bros. keeps putting its Harry Potter money to excellent use: With the purchase this week of a Matt Damon & John Krasinski-penned spec for Damon to direct, the studio has purchased a baker’s dozen spec scripts in 2011. That’s nearly double the second-place studio buyer (Columbia).
• ICM’s two spec sales in October put the agency’s 2011 tally at 10, firmly in contention among the agencies. WME and CAA stayed in first and second place with 13 and 12 sales, respectively, and UTA is right behind with 11.
• New Wave’s Josh Adler and Mike Goldberg just keep crushing it: They’ve set up four specs since joining New Wave mid-year, and if you count the ones they sold when they were still at ROAR in the spring, their total for 2011 is a staggering seven. They’ve become the manager equivalent of WME’s Mike Esola.
If you’re not on our mailing list, you might have missed the updated Pitch Sales Scorecard we sent out earlier this week. The intro has a bunch of observations that we wouldn’t have noticed if we hadn’t been tallying spec sales and pitch sales simultaneously.
Each of the following production companies has been attached to at least one spec sale so far this year. Companies and items in bold are new since the last scorecard.
1st Degree Productions
21 Laps (2)
Anonymous Content
Aversano Films
After Dark
Appian Way
Alliance Films
Automatik Entertainment
Big Kid Pictures
Benderspink
Berlanti Productions
Chernin Entertainment
Collider Entertainment
Contrafilm
Davis Entertainment
Disruption Entertainment (2)
EMJAG
Escape Artists
IDW
FilmEngine
Furst Films
Genre Films
Hollywood Gang (2)
Ixtlan
Josephson Entertainment
Katsmith Productions (2)
Langley Park (2)
LBI Entertainment (fka Yorn Company)
Leverage Management
Linson Entertainment
Marc Platt Productions (2)
Mandeville Films
Matt Tolmach Productions
Michael De Luca Productions
Montecito (2)
Original Film
Panay Films
Pearl Street
Platinum Dunes
Nick Wechsler Productions
Radar Pictures
Silver Pictures (2)
Stuber Pictures
Temple Hill (2)
Top Cow
Wigram Productions
Valhalla
WideAwake
