Spec Scripts Are Selling Again -- What You Need To Know

Eight spec scripts have sold so far in August 2025. That's a fantastic achievement that should energize every writer out there. It looks like audiences are eager for movies that keep them guessing, which means fresh, original stories that can still surprise and delight. Sandy reports on this genuine optimism for screenwriters in an industry that has recently been taken over by existing IP.

The PAGE International Screenwriting Awards sponsors the WRITERS HANGOUT.
Executive Producer Kristin Overn
Creator/Executive Producer Sandy Adomaitis
Producer Terry Sampson
Music by Ethan Stoller

Transcript

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Hello, my name is Sandy Adamidis, the social media director for the Page International Screenwriting Awards and your host for the Writers Hangout, a podcast that celebrates the many From inspiration to the first draft, revising, getting the project made, and everything in between. We'll talk to the best and the brightest in the entertainment industry, and create a space where you can hang out, learn from the pros, and have fun. Hey, writers and friends, it's Sandy coming to you on a hot day in August from the San Fernando Valley with another heat advisory on the horizon. So I was sitting outside the other day reading. Because I don't wanna brag, but I love to read and I smelled smoke. I didn't hear any sirens or see any helicopters circling above. So I continued to read for a few minutes. Then I went inside. I immediately turned on the air conditioner, which I don't know about you guys, but I have a love hate relationship with my air conditioner. I love it, but it's too loud. Someday I will have central Air. Okay, so a few minutes later I saw an online emergency post stating that five or nine, I can't really remember, fire engines were responding to a fire in a closet in the condo next door. So when people ask me, Sandy, what is going on with writers in Hollywood? Trust. I always know what's up and nothing gets by me. This all leads to something we thought was dead in Hollywood but has come alive just in time for Halloween. The spec script, I know right. That is a shock. Let's step back and quickly define what a SPECT script is. A SPECT script or speculative screenplay. Alexa, stop. is a story written without a contract or prior request from a studio or producer. with the hope of selling it for a profit or using it as a sample to get paid writing work. Now, here's what the dailies has to say. if you don't know about the dailies, It's a newsletter and it says it keeps film slash TV professionals in the loop. And also says, our readers work at Warner Brothers Universal Disney, Netflix, Amazon, C-A-A-W-M-E and more. You can get that newsletter@newsletter.read the dailies, N-E-W-S-L-E-T-T-E-R dot R-E-A-D-T-H-E-D-A-I-L-I-S dot CO m.com. Okay, this is what the article says. I Shall Begin. Hollywood Studios are finally opening their wallets for original scripts again, and writers who've been collecting passes and sustaining on Ramen. Might want to sit down for this one. Eight spec deals have closed in August 20, 25 alone. That's the highest monthly total since March. Wanna guess? Wanna guess? 2017. To put this in perspective, the spec market hit rock bottom with just 11 deals in all of 2023. Industry Vet Scott Myers. whose tracked specs since 1991. Notes that during the nineties Golden Era Hollywood averaged 12 to 13 deals per month. In recent years, we've seen an average of just one to two per month. But 2025 is already looking stronger with 19 total deals so far. Surpassing 2020 fours, year to date numbers some of the deals, making waves this month. With the eighth pick, so this is a script called with the eighth pick a spec script. It went to Warner Brothers. The script was written by Alex Soen and Gavin Johansen pineapple Now. The two names Alex and Gavin are separated by the word, and, I'm sure you all have noticed that writer's names are separated not only by the word and, but also with an ampersand. An ampersand to me looks like a happy anchor. And ampersand between two writers and names indicates a writing team who collaborated on the script. The word and A and d shows that the writers worked on the script independently of each other. So maybe one writer wrote a couple of drafts, the studio. Uh, was unhappy for a reason and they brought on another writer or the studio decided to go in another direction and had to bring in another writer. When we, talk about these scripts, let's play a game and come up with the plot of the movie based on the title. Then I'll look up the real summary of the movie with the eighth pick. Okay. That's what we were just talking about that went to Warner Brothers with the eighth pick. I like the eighth pick better with. I'm not sure why with is there Plus it just, let's go see the movie with the eighth pick. I don't know. It's kind of clumsy to say, but I'm gonna go with, this is a country movie. About a loner who travels the country. Yes. I use country twice in a sentence. He, uh, he or she, travels the country picking guitars at night and safes even later. gotta work on that part Until this picker meets the one lock that won't open the daughter they left behind. Okay. That's what I think it's about. Let's look it up. Where do you think it was writers? Okay. The Hollywood Reporter says. Warner Brothers acquired the spec script about the behind the scenes, 1996 NBA drafting of Kobe Bryant's. Okay. I am guessing the basketball fans are just laughing at me so hard and they knew immediately what the title meant, but I did not, and I could not be more wrong about. What with the eighth pick is about? How'd you guys do Okay. Back to the article. Next up Bald Eagles from Brandon Cohen. Landed at Paramount for seven figures in a preemptive deal. Wow. Um, also preemptive deal, meaning they bought it before other studios could bid. They just showed up at this writer. Brandon's, I don't know, condo house in the hills. Uh, Griffith Park. View of the Hollywood sign abode and backed up the money truck. Okay. what do you think Bald Eagles is about? I am gonna go with older ex. Eagles players, football players, older ex eagle players, sabotage a terrorist attack at the Super Bowl. I don't know this might be set in the future. That is just so corny. I know. Um, Taylor Swift to Star as the musical guest at the halftime show, Abby, and it's Travis Kelsey makes his acting debut. Okay, let's look it up This is from the Hollywood Reporter. Paramount has aggressively picked up bald Eagles, a comedy speck by rising scribe, Brandon Cohen. Details on the deal and script are being kept in the aria, but eagles is described as a R-rated high concept workplace comedy. Okay, well, I didn't say the ex-football players worked at the Super Bowl, but in my head they did work at the Super Bowl, I'm going with the win on that one. Now back to the article. The pirate sold to Amazon MGM with Jason Momoa attached to. Produce and potentially star, well, first off, Amazon. MGMI don't think that's ever gonna catch on. Um, Amazon. Uh, Amazon, that's what we should call it. Amazon, MGM, you are the classic, you are the icon. Unfortunately, Amazon is in the bloodstream of Americans. what do you think the plot is for the pirate Now? I'm thinking Jason Momoa being a actual, I, I matey kind of pirate is too on the nose. Hmm. You know, movies on the water are so expensive to shoot. But if you have a Jason Momoa, why not lean into his strengths? Okay. The pirate is about a famous pirate he's trying to retire, but the daughter he never knew. He had shows up at the bar he once hung out at, but now owns the original owner died. I'm not laughing because that's particularly witty or funny. I'm laughing at how corny I'm gonna make this next line. The original owner dies and he walked behind the bar and took over. The daughter has a treasure map and tries and convince Jason to take her through troubled deadly waters, filled with pirates. A ay Okay. Let's look it up. You guys ready? What did you come up with? This is what deadline says. Plot details are vague other than it being described as the raid, set on a pirate ship. Yep. Okay. That's cool. I've never seen the raid, which looks really good, but too intense for me. It's about in a Indonesian, tactical police tactical squad that is sent to raid a drug lord's apartment. I don't know if it's just like a big apartment or the whole block, but it's in the slums of Jakarta, they are surrounded by all the bad guys and they have to fight their way out of the complex. That movie reminds me of a movie I did see Precinct 13. It's a 1976 movie written, directed, scored, and edited. By John Carpenter. It takes place in Detroit where a precinct Precinct 13 comes under attack by a messy, violent street gang. It's a really good movie. Um, I think when I watched it, I thought they were in New York, um, the Bronx or something like that. Okay, back to the article, the next one up. Incidents. That's the name of the script, sparked an 11 studio bidding war before Searchlight one. Oh my, I didn't even realize there were 11 studios left to bid. Nevermind. Being a war. This psychological thriller comes from William Gilles, who wrote the Acclaimed Hall Road. Okay. All right. Let's think it's a psychological thriller. Like when I talk slow, because I'm thinking, okay, I'm gonna say bad things begin to happen to a therapist right after they let. A high, uh, strong, I'm gonna say difficult client go. And then suddenly these, there, there's these series of Satanic murders, and the therapists becomes the number one suspect. Why? Because all the killings are former. Patients of hers and the tagline is next. Okay, let's look it up. this is from Going to the Story, which Scott Myers, that's his website, we mentioned him earlier. The story centers on a woman who escapes an abduction and then sets out to find her attacker and understands the motive behind the attack. much better than what I said. Yep. Okay. Back to the article, the Survival list went to Lionsgate with Blake Lively attached. Hmm. Have to do another Blake Lively update soon. what do you think the plot will be? I'm thinking. Blake Lively. Heads up a tactical team. Yes. You heard that. I'm literally stealing from the pirate, which stole from the raid. You hire to go to hotspots and pull out hostages. Okay, let's look it up. Couldn't be more wrong. An action. Romantic comedy. What did you think writers, did you even get the genre right? Survival List tells of a highbrow reality TV producer named Annie, who against her wishes, is a sign to a new show. Hosted by a famous survival expert. Okay. No, not too far off Chopper Lane. Okay. Back to being very far off Chopper lane. Hmm. What an a, however, when a shipwreck strands them on a desert island. Annie discovers chopper is a fraud and knows nothing about survival, Leaving her in charge of figuring out how to keep them alive, forced to work together, they begin to discover an unlikely chemistry. Aw, sounds cute. Now the article goes on to report several signs suggest this could be more than just a lucky month. Original films like Sinners and Weapons came outta nowhere to become genuine hits. Meanwhile, the TV pilot market has dried up, so managers are generally pushing their writers towards features as a cleaner path to breaking in. after years of throwing money at everything, studios are getting more selective, which makes complete ready to shoot scripts suddenly look more attractive than vague concepts that need years of development. we'll see whether this momentum continues through the rest of 2025. But for screenwriters who've been hearing IP only for years, intellectual properties, uh, that's what they mean a book a treatment based on some of something else. August's numbers offer some real optimism. Well. That really is good news. Just keep writing. Like we say, the world needs your stories. Now I have a challenge from you. You can be a writer, you can be a friend. Anyone can do this. I came across a post from Lad Bible. It shows the arrest photo of, uh, a guy with the caption prisoner who died and comes back to life argued he technically served his life sentence. You know, it made me pause and think about it for a moment. Now I challenge you guys to write one scene from that movie and send it to me. Send it to me at the writers hangout podcast.com We're talking a half a page or longer. Write the first thing that comes to mind and just go with it. Uh, I showed you come up with those plot lines, just right from that, come up with a title. and just write one scene based on the prisoner who died, comes back to life and argues he technically served his life sentences. I'll read some of them on the podcast. If you don't want it read, let me know. Just say, please don't read this on the podcast, but otherwise. Send it. I'll read it. I think that'll be really fun. Come on you guys. You know you wanna do it. Take a chance and have fun. And that's a wrap for the Writer's Hangout. Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your positive feedback will help us keep the show going so we can continue bringing you more future episodes. Remember, keep writing. The world needs your stories. The Writers Hangout is sponsored by the Page International Screenwriting Awards, with executive producer Kristen Overn, producer Sandy Adamides, and myself, Terry Sampson. And our music is composed by Ethan Stoller.