If you’re lacking motivation to write today, pay a visit to this Wikipedia site and check out the biggest pay-dates in spec script history:
$4 million:
- The Long Kiss Goodnight by Shane Black
$3 million:
- Basic Instinct by Joe Eszterhas
- Medicine Man by Tom Schulman
- The Ugly Americans (Eurotrip) by Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer
- Bad Dog (unproduced) by Dale Launer
- Married in the Morning (unproduced) by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan
- Panic Room by David Koepp. $2 million against $3 million.
$2.75 million:
- Mozart and the Whale (The Newports) by Ronald Bass. $2 million against $2,750,000.
- Vito (In Production) by Zie Rad.
$2.5 million:
- The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan
- Twister by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Crichton
- Jade by Joe Eszterhas
- A Knight’s Tale by Brian Helgeland
- Untitled Will Davies Romantic Comedy (unproduced) by Will Davies
- Jackson (unproduced) by Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson
- The Superconducting Supercollider of Sparkle Creek, Wisconsin (unproduced) by David Koepp and John Kamps. ‘$2.5 million against $3.25 million with an additional deferred bonus of $1.5 million for Koepp.
- Deja Vu by Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilii. (screenplay sold for $5 million)[1]
$2.25 million:
- Untitled Disney Family Comedy (unproduced) by Kevin Bisch
- They Came From Upstairs (unproduced) by Mark Burton
- You, Me and Dupree by Mike LeSieur
- The Break-Up by Vince Vaughn, Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender
$2 million:
- The Arrangement (unproduced) by Kevin Bisch
- Stalker: A Love Story (unproduced) by Michael Carnes and Josh Gilbert
- The Worst Man (unproduced) by Michael Carnes and Josh Gilbert
- Manhattan Ghost Story (unproduced) by Ronald Bass, based on the novel by T.M. Wright.
- Radio Flyer by David M. Evans
- Forever Young by Jeffrey Abrams
- Showgirls by Joe Eszterhas
- Sacred Cows (unproduced) by Joe Eszterhas
- Reliable Sources (unproduced) by Joe Eszterhas
- Courage Under Fire by Patrick Sheane Duncan
- Tennessee (Pearl Harbor) by Randall Wallace
- River Road (unproduced) by Andrew Niccol
- The Mark (unproduced) by Rob Liefield
- Untitled Tim Herlihy Comedy (unproduced) by Tim Herlihy
- The Game by John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris
- Untitled Firestein-Pesce Action Project (unproduced) by Les Firestein and PJ Pesce
- Executive Search (unproduced) by Gerald Di Pego
- Going West (Switchback) by Jeb Stuart
- Untitled Michael McCullers Buddy Comedy (unproduced) by Michael McCullers
- Alpha (unproduced) by David Benioff
- Ghost Town by David Koepp and John Kamps
- Male Pattern Baldness (unproduced) by Joe Eszterhas. $2 million against 4.5 million.
$1.8 million:
- RPM (unproduced) by J.H. Wyman
- Stay by David Benioff
$1.5 million:
- Evan Almighty by Bobby Florsheim and Josh Stolberg. $1.5 million against 2.5 million.
- The Sweetest Thing by Nancy Pimental
$1.3 million:
- Monster-In-Law by Anya Kochoff. $1.3 against $2.3 million.
$1.25 million:
- 99 Problems (unproduced) by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. $1.25 against $2 million.
$1.1 million:
- Milk Money by John Mattson, bought outright by Paramount in 1992.
$1 million:
- Foreplay (unproduced) by Joe Eszterhas. $1 million against $3.5 million.
- The Cheese Stands Alone (unproduced) by Kathy McWorter.
$750,000:
- Steinbeck’s Point of View (unproduced) by Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson. $750,000 against $3,750,000 with an additional potential $2 million bonus cast contingent.
- Man-Witch by Bobby Florsheim and Josh Stolberg. $750,000 against $1.5 million.
Amazing how many of these projects never got produced. Some of them understandable: “Sacred Cows” by Joe Eszterhas is about a President who is found having sex with a cow; although Eszterhas made claims in the past that several name directors had been attached to make the movie, I assume somebody at MGM actually took the time to stop a development meeting and say, “Hel-lo! A President. Having sex with a cooooooowwwwww.”
What are your reactions to the list?
How the hell did Joe Ezterhaus sell that many high priced specs? lol.
His combined script sales are almost more than his total lifetime box office. lol.
I’d like to see something like this against an all time top pay rate for screenwriters. Didn’t Akiva Goldsman get 4 mil for DA VINCI CODE?
And I’d imagine, Ted Eliot and Terry Rossio probably have the single biggest payout, with the backend on PIRATES of THE CARIBEAN included.
Great post, Scott. Would LOVE to see my name up there someday…
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
“Unproduced”. Now that has to hurt. I wonder if the big ch-ching eased their pain.
And as for ‘Sacred Cows’ – somebody find us a copy of that script. LOL.
I have a copy of Sacred Cows if you want to read it
akiva didn’t write da vinci on spec, hence his exclusion from the list.
Hey there, moviequill. If it’s emailable … boinggg@hotmail.com If it’s just hardcopy then never mind and thanks for the offer.
Cheers.
KiwiChick, I popped off an email to you with the script attached. Again, thanks to Todd.
Thanks!
It’s hilarious. Only Ben Stiller could nail that gig. Perhaps when he’s ready for a swift end to his career …
How does an agent start a bidding war? Are all of the studions contacted by the agent? Or is it generated by word-of-mouth? Is it set up by an entertainment atttorney? What exactly happens?
My reaction isn't about how many are unproduced, but how many turned out terribly. It actually seems like good management for a studio to not produce a script, no matter how much they spent on it, if they ultimately don't think they can make a winner out of it. A couple million bucks down the toilet is peanuts compared to what it would cost to make, market, and distribute one of these things.
I don’t get why “Deja Vu” is listed at the $3M range when it sold for $5M.
This article attached below says it was the highest of all time and notes that Rossio/Marsilli have also broken the bank on “Lightspeed” (low 7 figures against $3.5M) which I don’t see listed above.
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/disney-bruckheimer-take-lead-lightspeed-17744
nevermind – this post is from 2008. I followed GITS’s tweeted link, thought it was new.
Why tweet a 2 year old post?
I tagged it GITS vaults. It’s something I do on Twitter to go through the 7500 posts I’ve written since 2008.
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