Dreamworks buys comedy pitch “Wife vs. Ninja”:

Company has nabbed Michael Besman’s pitch “Wife vs. Ninja,” which centers on a Long Island housewife who discovers that the beautiful young intern who recently stole her scientist husband is actually a bloodthirsty ninja assassin intent on stealing his work.

Besman, who is best known for producing such critic faves as “About Schmidt” and “The Opposite of Sex,” will share story by credit with tyro scribes Michael Zam and Jaffe Cohen, who are penning the high-concept script. Besman will also don his producer hat for “Wife vs. Ninja.”

Now here’s an interesting situation. Note that Zam & Cohen are “tyro scribes,” which is Variety parlance for someone new to the field of writing. So exactly how do two newbies end up with a writing assignment? Here’s a guess: They wrote a spec script (or more) that got the attention of a manager or agent. That script eventually landed in producer Besman’s lap. He read it. Liked it. Got together with the guys. Either Besman had the kernel of the idea for the pitch or Z&C did, but they worked out the pitch together with Z&C attached as writers. Pitch sells. Now Z&C have their first official writing assignment.

Notice the key aspect of that story: They wrote a spec script. Apparently it didn’t sell. But it was good enough to be a strong writing sample.

So remember: A spec script doesn’t have to sell to help you in your writing career.

Congrats to Zam & Cohen.