spec market for ages. Universal is also in play
-- and who knows what will happen once the
GE/Comcast buyout is done, meaning that
uncertainty could keep Universal on the side-
lines, too. "And Sony has basically let it be
known that they have spent all of their de-
velopment money for 2010 already," Scoggins
says. "So they will not be buying new specs
unless it's a worthy exception to the rule --
stuff that's coming in packaged up and ready
to go." Yes, you read that right: 2010 devel-
opment money is all gone already.
stract Entertainment says the picture is not
quite as gloomy as the Scorecard makes it out to
be. "A lot of specs went out recently," he says.
"There has been some movement. A lot of
things have been selling that are either based
on intellectual property or have an attachment.
There have been a few naked things that have
sold, but it's still definitely in the minority."
Goldberg acknowledges that "naked" specs --
ones with no attachments or source material
-- are increasingly difficult to shop nowadays.
"I just had a conversation with an agent yes-
terday about taking out a spec together in the
next week. And the agent expressed a concern
to me, like, `Listen, this is naked. I don't know
if we're going to be able to sell it.' I'm like, `I
know, man. I don't know what else to do.'
Things are definitely better than fall, but
they're not all we're hoping for quite yet."
Gladstone. "Buyers are taking advantage of a
buyer's market. But there are still writing as-
signments out there; there's still a writing
business out there and they're still making
movies out there. There are still lots of oppor-
and they're more specific than they used to
be." The key is being realistic about what the
buyers will pony up for. This isn't the 1970s;
the corporate media behemoths who own the
movie studios are no longer taking flyers. "If
you have an event movie, you're still going to
sell it for a lot of money," Gladstone says." If
you have a genre movie, you're going to sell it
for scale. But a big comedy with a huge idea,
you're going to sell it for a bunch of money."
writers and their reps. "We do that daily,"
Goldberg says. "We go back and forth knock-
ing down ideas until we both can agree on an
idea that they're passionate about and [one]
that we have a strong feeling that we can sell,"
he says. "We've had some clients who have
taken months until we hit the [right] idea."
Which is better than being this guy: "We've
had other clients who just wanted to write
what they wanted to write, and then they
turn in the script, and we're like, `It's great, but
we can't do anything with it.'"
transitional period with [concern over] deliv-
ery systems and how we finance movies and
what the pipeline is actually able to handle,
we'll find stability -- and that stability will
allow us to find some comfort." But until then,
it's going to be tough out there for feature writ-
ers and reps alike. "The truth is," Thuan con-
tinues, "people are very concerned about the
DVD market, the Internet [as a distribution
medium] and the changing value of syndi-
cated television. Everything we've relied on for
many, many years [is in flux.] On the one
hand, it's terrifying. On the other hand, it's in-
credibly exciting that there could potentially
entertainment. Content will still have its place,
but people will have to figure out ways to
monetize the distribution platforms so that we
can get back to being in strong positions to ne-
gotiate to be appropriately compensated."
Goldberg says it may be 2015 or 2016 before
the economy -- and the entertainment indus-
try -- finally rebounds. "Keep in mind we've
had this gloom that DVD sales are dwindling,
followed by this new, exciting song of `3-D is
here, 3-D is here!' Variety [reported that] the
ticket prices are going up on 3-D, which is off-
setting the loss of the DVD revenue. So Holly-
wood continues to find new ways to bring in
those revenue streams. It's going to eventually
have to trickle back down. The gloom song is
only going to last for so long before agents and
managers tell the studios, `Well, then go F
yourself, you can't have this script.'"
toy," Gladstone says. "A brand is everywhere.
Look at Roland Emmerich. How'd he brand
Independence Day or 2012? Those posters said,
`Look up 2012.' They didn't have a picture
and an actor. They didn't have a screen shot.
Brands are everywhere. Pay attention to
them. Date Night is a brand. Sure, what they
did with it is specific to a narrative and a
writer, but everyone knows what a date night
is." He concludes, `Don't be disgruntled, writ-
ers, thinking that you have to go secure the
rights to [a property] to survive in Hollywood.
Think about the brands that are left in the
zeitgeist and craft great stories around them.
Think like a studio."