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2009 OWA Scorecard - Overview Grids

As promised, below is the introduction to the full 2009 OWA Scorecard I sent out this week along with the overview grids.  If you want a copy of the PDF document, sign up using the form at the top right column of this page.

*****

2009 Open Writing Assignment Scorecard
by Jason Scoggins
February 10, 2010


So here it is, the full 2009 Open Writing Assignment Scorecard.  Like the 2009 Spec Market Scorecard, compiling this document over the past month was as useful to me as I hope it is for you.  Previously, I’d had a general sense of the number of projects in active development around town, but seeing how that activity broke down at each company throughout the year was eye-opening.

In case you didn’t follow the series of seven blog posts that constitutes the bulk of this report, here’s what you need to know to understand the below.

·       I took copies of one big talent agency’s OWA grid from six points throughout 2009 and compared them side-by-side.  I summarized each document, listing every project at every studio that was added or dropped off the list from grid to grid, and then totaled up the numbers for each grid and summarized the entire dataset.

 

·       To keep the grids concise and consistent, I didn’t differentiate between projects that fell off the grid because the assignment was filled or for some other reason (e.g., the project became inactive, moved to another studio, etc.), which is why I labeled those projects “Closed” rather than “Filled.”

I kept the studio names and alphabetical order of the individual companies’ breakdowns below consistent with the blog posts (which stuck to the order of the agency’s grid), but I made adjustments to both for the purposes of the below overview grids.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept of OWAs and OWA Grids in the first place, I talked about what they are and why they’re important in the first blog post in the series, which is available here. 

Details on each of the projects listed in the below breakdowns are available to subscribers of www.itsonthegrid.com.  As always, the site provides a three day free trial period, so if you’re not already a subscriber, sign up now, risk-free.


OVERVIEW

As you review the below numbers, keep in mind they are based solely on that one big agency’s OWA grids.  Obviously, there are a number of projects that did not appear on those grids for one reason or another, and therefore the actual number of projects in active development last year is some percentage higher.  What’s most interesting here (to me, at least) is the scale of the numbers and the comparison between the companies, as opposed to the raw numbers themselves. 

MAJOR STUDIOS	On in April	Added	Closed	On in Dec	Total	On all year
Columbia	36	29	41	24	65	9
Disney	15	14	14	15	29	6
Fox	14	24	21	17	37*	2
Paramount	38	47	47	38	85	7
Universal	55	60	52	63	115	23
Warner Bros.	71	79	59	91	150	31
TOTALS	229	253	234	248	481	78

The big reason to separate the above six companies from their subsidiaries and the mini-majors is to make it easier to rank the majors by last year’s OWA activity, as well as to see just how big the differences were between them.  I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about the efficacy of having 85 or more (much more, in the case of Warner Bros. and Universal) projects in active development at a time.  Interestingly, the above rankings generally followed the rankings from the 2009 Spec Market Scorecard:  Universal and Warner Bros. bought the most specs last year (6 each), followed by Columbia and Paramount (5 each), with Disney and Fox bringing up the rear (2 and 3, respectively).

MINI-MAJORS & STUDIOS’ LABELS	On in April	Added	Closed	On in Dec	Total	On all year
CBS Films	3	7	4	6	10	1
Dimension	8	4	5	7	12	4
DreamWorks	4	12	11	5	16	0
DreamWorks Animation	5	9	9	5	14	0
Focus Features	4	8	2	10	12	3
Fox 2000	8	8	11	5	16	1
Fox Animation	2	5	3	4	6*	0
Fox Searchlight	6	5	3	8	11	2
Lionsgate	6	11	11	6	14*	0
Mandate Pictures	3	1	3	1	4	1
MGM	2	4	1	5	6	1
Miramax	4	1	4	1	5	1
New Line	10	8	12	6	18	0
New Regency	7	13	10	10	20	0
Screen Gems	3	6	7	2	9	0
Sony Pictures – Stage 6	0	4	2	2	4	0
Sony Pictures Animation	1	4	1	4	5	0
Summit	5	5	7	3	10	0
The Weinstein Co.	12	1	6	7	13	6
TOTALS	93	116	112	97	205	20

With a couple of notable exceptions, the hallmark of the above group is their efficiency in terms of filling their open writing assignments.  If you remove those 3 outliers, just 10% of these companies’ OWAs were on the grid for the entire year (7 out of 69 projects).  

OTHER BUYERS	On in April	Added	Closed	On in Dec	Total	On all year
Cartoon Network Movies	3	2	3	2	5	0
Film Dept.	1	3	0	4	4	1
Gold Circle Films	6	1	4	3	7	2
Illumination Entertainment	2	3	3	2	5	0
Overture	1	2	1	2	3	0
Participant	1	8	3	6	9	0
Relativity	0	4	2	2	4	0
Spitfire	2	3	1	4	5	1
Spyglass	1	4	3	2	5	1
Walden Media	3	6	6	3	9	0
TOTALS	20	36	26	30	56	5

TOTALS	On in April	Added	Closed	On in Dec	Total	On all year
Major Studios	229	253	234	248	481	78
Mini-Majors and Studios’ Labels	93	116	112	97	205	20
Other Buyers	20	36	26	30	56	5
TOTALS	342	405	372	375	742	104

While it’s tempting to think in “glass half empty” terms (a pretty small group of professional writers got writing assignments in Hollywood last year compared to, say, the active WGA membership as a whole), the above numbers are pretty encouraging when you consider how few films these companies have been producing annually for the past several years.  In my spec market reports last year, I took a number of potshots at the studios for not buying more original material.  I still believe bringing original material and new voices into the system is vitally important to the health of the business as a whole, but now that I’ve seen the above numbers, the subdued pace of 2009’s spec purchases makes more sense.

Perhaps the thing to focus on going forward is the percentage of projects at each company that were on the grid throughout 2009.  Here’s the breakdown, the alphabetical order:  Columbia – 25%; Disney – 40%; Fox – 14%; Paramount – 18%; Universal – 42%; Warner Bros. – 44%.  

Food for thought.


About The Scoggins Reports:
The Scoggins Reports (Jason Scoggins’ Spec Market Roundup, Spec Market Scorecard and now this OWA Scorecard) are terribly unscientific analyses of the feature film development business based on information culled from a variety of public and non-public sources.  These are by no means official statistics, merely a fairly complete summary.  Past editions can be found in the archives of The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) as well as on Scoggins’ website:  http://www.lifeonthebubble.com.  Past editions of the OWA Scorecards can be found at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

Details on each person, project and company in the Reports can also be found at http://www.itsonthegrid.com, a subscription-supported, web-based database of feature film development information recently launched by Scoggins and several other literary managers.  For daily posts of new and updated spec script, OWA and ODA information, check out the IOTG blog here: http://blog.itsonthegrid.com. 

About Scoggins:
Jason Scoggins is a partner at Protocol, a literary management and production company.  He manages writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld and John Ufland.  Click here to follow him on Twitter.

Full 2009 OWA Scorecard Now Available

As promised, the full 2009 OWA Scorecard is now available in PDF form.  To receive it, fill out the form at the top of the right hand column at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.  You'll be glad you did...

UPDATE: Complete 2009 OWA Scorecard available Wednesday

Believe me, no one is happier at the prospect of my 2009 OWA Scorecard being done than me.  My laptop is restored, the lost documents have been reconstructed, the individual grids are all in one document, the summary grids are done, and now I'm just wrapping up my pithy comments.  The summary grids will be published either this Friday or Monday next week, depending on when this week's Business of Show Institute newsletter goes out.  At that point, you'll be able to print all 8 posts and have have the full Scorecard at your fingertips.

But come on.  We both know that's not the best way to look at the numbers.  What you really want is to have the whole thing in one document, right?  And that's exactly what'll be available starting Wednesday this week.  All you have to do to get your very own copy is sign up via the form at the top of the right column of this page. 

As always, this is a worry-free situation:  We won't sell, share or otherwise distribute your information to anyone outside of IOTG, ever, using the same privacy and other policies we've explicitly put in place over on the subscription site.  From time to time we'll send you a promotional piece about new itsonthegrid-related offers, but that's it, and if you find those irritating or tiresome you can easily unsubscribe from the mailing list.

So if you haven't already, sign up now.  Almost 300 of the cool kids have already done it (seriously, you wouldn't believe the names on the list already).  And you want to be cool, too, don't you?

2009 OWA Scorecard: Part 7 - Walden Media through The Weinstein Co.

2009 OWA Scorecard:  Walden Media through The Weinstein Co.
by Jason Scoggins
February 4, 2010


Here’s the seventh and final installment of my look back at the studios’ 2009 open writing assignment activity, covering Walden Media through The Weinstein Co.  Sorry for the delay in posting this -- I lost a bunch of work when my laptop was stolen at Sundance last week and it's taken me some time to reconstruct it.   

The full 2009 OWA Scorecard will be available via PDF starting next week, and the only way to get a copy of it will be to fill out the form at the top of the right-hand column of this blog.  The grids are even easier to read in that format, and the document will include a summary grid with all the top-level numbers and a quickie analysis.  So if you haven't already, sign up now.  And don't worry, we won't sell or rent out your information to anyone, we'll just shoot you a promo email about www.itsonthegrid.com every once in a while.  (That's a fair trade, don't you think?)

I explained how and why I’m doing this exercise in Part 1, but here’s what you need to know in order to understand the below grids:  

·       I’m taking copies of one big talent agency’s OWA Grid from six points throughout 2009 and comparing them side-by-side to see the number of OWAs at each company, as well as which projects were particularly active last year. 

 

·       To keep the below grids concise and consistent, I’m not differentiating between projects that came off the grid because the assignment was filled or for some other reason (e.g., the project becoming inactive, moving to another studio, etc.), which is why I’ve labeled any project that fell off the grid “Closed” rather than “Filled.”

Part 1 of this series covered CBS Films and Columbia Pictures and is available here.  Part 2 covered Dimension, DreamWorks, Focus and a few others and is available here.  Part 3 covered the Fox labels and is available here.  Part 4 covered Gold Circle through New Regency and is available here.  Part 5 covered Overture through Screen Gems and is available here.  Part 6 covered Sony Animation through Universal and is available here.
 
 

WALDEN MEDIA

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	3
May	3	2: Cabin Pressure Tough Cookies	2: Familymoon The Neverending Story
July	3	0	0
August	4	0	1: Berenstein Bears
October	4	2: Familymoon Journey to the Center of the Earth 2	2: Housebroken Inner Child
December	3	2: Housebroken The Neverending Story	1: Houdini

Recap:  9 projects on the grid in 2009, 6 of which closed.  All three from April were closed by December.


 

WALT DISNEY PICTURES

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	15
May	16	5: Airman Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 Nick Ratchet Opposite Day Unique	6: Alumni Football Comedy Beaches Nine Lives Science Fair Soulmates Stoneheart
July	16	2: A Wrinkle In Time Monday Monday	2: Shattered Union Wings
August	16	2: Nine Lives Unt. Rich Moore Action/Adventure Ensemble Comedy	2: Ghostopolis Pete’s Dragon
October	15	3: Apaches Science Fair Wings	2: Bedlam Farms The Staircase
December	15	2: Bedlam Farms Shattered Union	2: Animal Kingdom aka Untitled Disneyland Ride Project Enchanted 2

Recap:  29 projects on the grid in 2009, 14 of which closed.  6 of the 15 projects on the grid in April were still open as of December.

As you will see on the summary I’m preparing, Disney had by far the fewest number of OWA’s amongst the major studios.  The studio with next fewest was Fox, with 37 (not counting Fox 2000’s and Fox Searchlight’s projects). 


 

WARNER BROS.

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	71
May	76	14: Addicted to Danger Be With You Blessing In Disguise Brothers In Arms Dead Men Get Smart 2 Outland Robin Hood RoboTech The Cowboys The Divide The Great Escape aka Escape From Tehran Wheeled Warriors Yogi Bear	19: 40 Summers Ago Bullitt Cats & Dogs United aka Cats & Dogs 2 Cleopatra Jones Dramarama Due Date Fort Knox Judge Dee Oz:  Return to Emerald City Primeval Rodney on the Roq aka Mayor of the Sunset Strip Say Uncle Tarzan The Abstinence Teacher The Giver The Man Hunters The Mortdecai Moustache Mystery The Treehouse Gang Wingmen aka Jonny Quest
July	78	10: Cats & Dogs United aka Cats & Dogs 2 Cleopatra Jones Due Date Future of War aka Vegas Avengers King Arthur Mortal Instruments:  City of Bones Staycation Superman:  The Man of Steel aka Superman Returns Sequel Tom Strong Waterproof	12: 10 (remake) Boyfriend For My Wife Brotherhood of the Rose Cecilia For Richer or Poorer Moses fka Exodus Shadow 19 Sonny Boy Spy Hunter The Ditch The Gun, The Son and a Father’s Love Mortal Kombat fka Unforgettable aka Species X aka Project X
August	87	13: Adam Strange Back to Africa Captain Marvel aka Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam aka Shazam! Cecilia Entering Hades Ghosthunters Last Summer of You and Me Midnight Mass Skulduggery Pleasant Spy Hunter The Last of Sheila The Man Hunters The Nye Incidents	22: A Star Is Born Bite Me Boss Go Home Challengers of the Unknown DMZ Excalibur Fratboy Gears of War Godzilla Hiding In Time Invisible Woman Marriage On The Rocks Portofino Red Bull Air Racing Sex and the Single Girl Sixth Column The Future is Wild The Last Mission Three Musketeers Untitled 300 Sequel Vision Quest Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego
October	92	10: 10 (remake) 21 Down A Star Is Born American Spy:  My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate and Beyond aka E. Howard Hunt Project Brotherhood of the Rose Bullitt Gears of War Tarzan Three Musketeers Vision Quest	15: Amulet Art’s Ark Dancing With Myself Geronimo Green Lantern Lonely Dog Northlander RoboTech Sgt. Rock aka Sergeant Rock Supermax Swamp Thing The Chaser The Gamekeeper The Hunger The Ivy Chronicles
December	91	12: Bite Me Crazy For The Storm Honor Among Thieves aka Honor Septimus Heap Sgt. Rock aka Sergeant Rock Swamp Thing The Highwaymen The Neverending Story The Sparrow The Treehouse Gang Tomb Raider Wingmen aka Jonny Quest	11: 1906 Alien Zoo Blended Meerkat Manor The 761 The Belated Education of Adam & Eve The Girl With The Red Riding Hood The Handyman Untitled Golf Project Welcome To The Sticks West With The Night

Recap:  150 projects on the grid in 2009, 59 of which were closed by December.  31 of the 71 projects on the grid in April were still open as of December.

Now THOSE are some staggering numbers.  Warner Bros. had by far the most OWA activity in 2009 (Universal was #2, with 115).  It’s probably no surprise, given how stable their executive team has been over the past few years.


 

THE WEINSTEIN CO.

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	12
May	12	1: Audrey’s Door	1: The Silence of Six
July	9	3: Mulan Rising Son The Alchemist	0
August	9	0	0
October	7	2: Fireworkmaker’s Daughter The Bartimaeus Trilogy	0
December	7	0	0

Recap:  13 projects on the grid in 2009, 6 of which closed.  6 of the 12 projects on the grid were still open as of December.

 
 

About The Scoggins Reports:
The Scoggins Reports (Jason Scoggins’ Spec Market Roundup, Spec Market Scorecard and now this OWA Scorecard) are terribly unscientific analyses of the feature film development business based on information culled from a variety of public and non-public sources. These are by no means official statistics, merely a fairly complete summary.  Past editions of The Scoggins Reports can be found in the archives of The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) as well as on Scoggins’ website: http://www.lifeonthebubble.com.  Past editions of the OWA Scorecards can be found at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

Details on each person, project and company in the Reports are also available at http://www.itsonthegrid.com, a subscription-supported, web-based database of feature film development information launched in late 2009 by Scoggins and several other literary managers.  For daily posts of new and updated spec script, OWA and ODA information, check out the IOTG blog here:  http://blog.itsonthegrid.com. 

About Scoggins:
Jason Scoggins is a partner at Protocol, a literary management and production company.  He manages writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld and John Ufland.  Follow him here:  http://twitter.com/itsonthegrid. 

2009 OWA Scorecard: Part 6 - Sony Animation through Universal

2009 OWA Scorecard:  Sony Animation through Universal
by Jason Scoggins
February 4, 2010


Here’s the sixth installment of my look back at the studios’ 2009 open writing assignment activity, covering Sony Animation through Universal (and Universal/Illumination Entertainment).  I meant to post this while I was at Sundance, but I lost a bunch of work when my laptop was stolen there last week and I had to reconstruct it this week.  I'll have the final post, covering Walden Media through The Weinstein Co., up later today as well.

The full 2009 OWA Scorecard will be available via PDF starting next week, and the only way to get a copy of it will be to fill out the form at the top of the right-hand column of this blog.  The grids are even easier to read in that format, and the document will include a summary grid with all the top-level numbers and a quickie analysis.  So if you haven't already, sign up now.  And don't worry, we won't sell or rent out your information to anyone, we'll just shoot you a promo email about www.itsonthegrid.com every once in a while.  (That's a fair trade, don't you think?)

I explained how and why I’m doing this exercise in Part 1, but here’s what you need to know in order to understand the below grids:  

·       I’m taking copies of one big talent agency’s OWA Grid from six points throughout 2009 and comparing them side-by-side to see the number of OWAs at each company, as well as which projects were particularly active last year. 

 

·       To keep the below grids concise and consistent, I’m not differentiating between projects that came off the grid because the assignment was filled or for some other reason (e.g., the project becoming inactive, moving to another studio, etc.), which is why I’ve labeled any project that fell off the grid “Closed” rather than “Filled.”

Part 1 of this series covered CBS Films and Columbia Pictures and is available here.  Part 2 covered Dimension, DreamWorks, Focus and a few others and is available here.  Part 3 covered the Fox labels and is available here.  Part 4 covered Gold Circle through New Regency and is available here.  Part 5 covered Overture through Screen Gems and is available here.
 

SONY PICTURES ANIMATION

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	1
May	1	1: How To Live Forever	1: Dog Overboard aka Untitled Sophie Tucker Project
July	3	0	2: Fixed Futureopolis
August	3	0	0
October	4	0	1: Duck And Quail
December	4	0	0

Recap:  5 projects on the grid in 2009, 1 of which was closed (the one on the grid in April, How To Live Forever).


 

SONY PICTURES – STAGE 6 FILMS

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	0
May	3	0	3: Lakeview Terrace 2 The Eyes of Laura Mars Quarantine 2
July	4	0	1: Obsessed 2
August	3	1: The Eyes of Laura Mars	0
October	2	1: Quarantine 2	0
December	2	0	0

Recap:  4 projects on the grid in 2009, 2 of which were closed.


 

SPITFIRE PICTURES

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	2
May	2	1: Shanghai aka Ace In The Hole	1: Keith Moon aka Moon
July	2	0	0
August	2	0	0
October	3	0	1: Sliding Doors (remake)
December	4	0	1: The Farm

Recap:  4 projects on the grid in 2009, 1 of which was closed.


 

SPYGLASS

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	1
May	2	0	1: The Food of Love
July	2	1: The Food of Love	1: Family Reunion
August	3	0	1: Dance Revolution
October	3	0	0
December	2	2: Dance Revolution Family Reunion	1: The Game

Recap:  5 projects on the grid in 2009, 3 of which were closed.  The project on the grid in April (On A Short Leash) was still open in December.

 
  

SUMMIT

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	5
May	4	3: Home Before Daylight:  A Grateful Dead Movie Houdini If I Stay	2: Deviant Behavior aka Golden Gate Night Mary
July	3	2: Countdown Deviant Behavior aka Golden Gate	1: Warm Bodies
August	3	0	0
October	3	1: Pyrates	1: Reply To All
December	3	1: Night Mary	1: Alibi

Recap:  10 projects on the grid in 2009, 7 of which closed.  All 5 projects on the grid in April were closed by December.


 

UNIVERSAL

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	55
May	60	10: Chasing The Dragon:  A Veteran Journalist’s Firsthand Account of the 1949 Chinese Revolution Coma Boy Counter Clockwise Goliath Awaits Midnight Delivery Party Boys Quantum Leap The Better Woman aka The Younger Woman The Creed of Violence The Secret	15: Barbie Creature From The Black Lagoon Fort:  Prophet of the Unexplained Full Metal Panic Head Games Jesus Christ Superstar Julius MPD-Psycho Scarpa The Adventures of Charles Fort The Coral Sea The People Under The Stairs The Vampire Chronicles Unt. Steve Carrell Project VIY
July	73	3: Fort:  Prophet of the Unexplained Scarpa So I Fell in Love With an Assassin aka Untitled Jason P. Howe Project	16: Bar Mitzvah Disco Battlestar Galactica Best Man-A-Thon Cookie Queen aka Unt. Isla Fisher Girl Scout Project Germs Gregory Burns Ouija Board The Bachelorette The Birds The Bourne Identity 4 The Funhouse The Killers The Remarkable Fellows Tupac Monster High aka Untitled Mattel Musical Project Wedding Olympics
August	73	6: Arcana City of Fear aka Brazilian Prison Gang Project Criminal Macabre Hassle Man The Parsifal Mosaic Shinobi	6: Bridget Jones 3 The Art of Racing in the Rain The Traveler The Twits The Virus Hunter Untitled Nicholas Wynding Refn Project
October	73	12: Bomber’s Row Cookie Queen aka Unt. Isla Fisher Girl Scout Project Miss Captivity MPD-Psycho Mrs. Pigglewiggle Nightmare Academy The Birds The Bourne Identity 4 The Little Mermaid The Power of Duff The Traveler The Twits	12: 100 Weddings Floriana Mask Merman Pop Up Book of Nightmares Primordia Sick Day Stretch Armstrong The Big Clock The Once and Future King This Gun For Hire Untitled Barry Manilow Proj.
December	63	21: 100 Weddings A Flowering Evil aka Untitled Joan Root Project Best Man-A-Thon Bridget Jones 3 Clue Gregory Burns Jesus Christ Superstar Juliet N.W.A. Ouija Board Primordia The Coral Sea The Nutty Professor III The Once and Future King The Wheel of Time: Eye of the World Tupac Untitled Barry Manilow Proj. Untitled Edison Chen Project Untitled J.J. Abrams Earthquake Project Untitled Steve Carrell Project VIY	11: American Pie 4 Around the World in 80 Dates Born Free Endless Love Expedition 6 aka Too Far From Home Namath Night Before Christmas Playboy aka Hugh Hefner Project The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft Untitled Anthony Leonardi Project Untitled Tim Story Project

Recap:  115 projects on the grid in 2009, of which 52 were closed as of December.  23 of the 55 projects on the grid in April were still open as of December.

You might be saying to yourself, “Good heavens, that’s a lot of open writing assignments!”  And you’d be absolutely right…but wait until you see the numbers for Warner Bros.  Like Paramount, the bulk of Universal’s OWA activity happened in the second half of the year once the Comcast/NBC Universal deal solidified and the studio's executive shuffle settled down.

 
 

UNIVERSAL PICTURES – ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	2
May	3	0	1: Untitled Animal Comedy
July	2	3: The Night Tourist Untitled Animal Comedy Unt. Meet The Parents-esque Comedy	2: Let It Rain Where’s Waldo
August	2	0	0
October	2	0	0
December	2	0	0

Recap:  5 projects on the grid in 2009, of which 3 were closed (including both of the projects on the grid in April).




About The Scoggins Reports:
The Scoggins Reports (Jason Scoggins’ Spec Market Roundup, Spec Market Scorecard and now this OWA Scorecard) are terribly unscientific analyses of the feature film development business based on information culled from a variety of public and non-public sources. These are by no means official statistics, merely a fairly complete summary.  Past editions of The Scoggins Reports can be found in the archives of The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) as well as on Scoggins’ website: http://www.lifeonthebubble.com.  Past editions of the OWA Scorecards can be found at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

Details on each person, project and company in the Reports are also available at http://www.itsonthegrid.com, a subscription-supported, web-based database of feature film development information launched in late 2009 by Scoggins and several other literary managers.  For daily posts of new and updated spec script, OWA and ODA information, check out the IOTG blog here:  http://blog.itsonthegrid.com. 

About Scoggins:
Jason Scoggins is a partner at Protocol, a literary management and production company.  He manages writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld and John Ufland.  Follow him here:  http://twitter.com/itsonthegrid. 

2009 OWA Scorecard: Part 5 - Overture through Screen Gems

2009 OWA Scorecard:  Overture through Screen Gems
by Jason Scoggins
January 19, 2010


Here’s the fifth installment of my look back at the studios’ 2009 open writing assignment activity, covering Overture through Screen Gems.  I’m powering through the remaining buyers this week and will post them once or twice daily here at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.  I’m also pulling all of the scorecards together in one document, and if you’d like to receive a PDF copy of it, there’s a sign-up form at the top of the right-hand column.

I explained how and why I’m doing this exercise in Part 1, but here’s what you need to know in order to understand the below grids: 

·       I’m taking copies of one big talent agency’s OWA Grid from six points throughout 2009 and comparing them side-by-side to see the number of OWAs at each company, as well as which projects were particularly active last year. 

 

·       To keep the below grids concise and consistent, I’m not differentiating between projects that came off the grid because the assignment was filled or for some other reason (e.g., the project becoming inactive, moving to another studio, etc.), which is why I’ve labeled any project that fell off the grid “Closed” rather than “Filled.”

Part 1 of this series covered CBS Films and Columbia Pictures and is available here.  Part 2 covered Dimension, DreamWorks, Focus and a few others and is available here.  Part 3 covered the Fox labels and is available here.  Part 4 covered Gold Circle through New Regency and is available here.



OVERTURE

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	1
May	1	0	0
July	0	1: Daughter of the Bride	0
August	2	0	2: Parent Class Untitled Heist Project
October	2	0	0
December	2	0	0

Recap:  3 projects on the grid in 2009, 1 of which closed.

 

PARAMOUNT

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	38
May	40	6: 70 Year Old First Grader Kid Robot Sebastian Knight aka Unt. Steve Koren Spy Project Snow Crash The Brazilian Job aka The Italian Job Sequel The Rivals	8: Bad Father Code Name Sasha Footloose Max Steel The Kid Table The Greatest Show on Earth aka Ringling Bros. The Return of King Doug Untitled Fashion Musical Proj.
July	39	9: Bad Father Bro-Jitsu Keep Your Hands Off My Daughter aka Unt. Jamie Foxx Proj. aka We Do Texas Hold ‘Em The Lesson aka Unman The Rats of Nimh Untitled Fashion Musical Proj. What Men Want World War Z	8: Captain Abdul’s Pirate School Grease (remake) Meatballs Summer Rental Suspicion The Dark Tower Thor Wife’s Away
August	42	6: Area 51 Mighty Mouse No Man’s Land Summer Rental The Kid Table The Secret Lives of Road Crews	9: 500 Rads C.O.D. Falcon’s Tale aka Untitled Jim Keene Project Mirror’s Edge Summer School Taming Ben Taylor The Donor The Lesson Thirty To Wife
October	41	14: 12 Year Old Food Critic Air Guitar C.O.D. Courtney Crumrin Dominion aka Coming Robot Army Gimme A Call Grease (remake) Portable Door Skip Day The Chancellor Manuscript The Tortoise And The Hippo The Warriors The Year of Living Biblically Transformers 3	13: Art of Making Money Beverly Hills Cop 4 Cardboard Universe:  A Guide to the World of Phoebus K. Dank. Dune G.I. Joe 2 Golddiggers Gullible’s Travels Moo! Pet Sematary Rings aka The Ring 3(D) Texas Hold ‘Em Unusual Mind of Vincent Shadow Virgin Galactic
December	38	12: All I’ve Got aka Kolma Captain Abdul’s Pirate School Code Name Sasha Max Steel Mirror’s Edge Moo! Summer School The Dark Tower The Greatest Show on Earth aka Ringling Bros. The Untold Story of the World’s Biggest Diamond Heist Thor Untitled Kathi Austin Project	9: Black Monday Gringos aka Old School 2 Joe’s Story aka Bong Hits For Jesus Monster Squad Mystery on 5th Avenue Property of the State Sebastian Knight aka Untitled Steve Koren Spy Project Untitled Johnny Knoxville/ Tracy Morgan Hitman Comedy Untitled Les Grossman Proj.

Recap:  85 projects on the grid in 2009, 47 of which were closed.

Paramount had a staggering number of OWAs in 2009, and most of the activity happened in the second half of the year after Adam Goodman took over as studio president in June.  Just 7 of the 38 projects on the grid in April were still open in December, not including two of April’s projects that went off the grid and came back on later in the year (Sebastian Knight and Texas Hold ‘Em).

 

PARTICIPANT

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	1
May	1	0	0
July	3	0	2: Untitled Contamination Horror Husky aka Untitled Animated Obesity Project
August	5	1: The Colony	3: Minimum Wage Untitled Natalie Portman Project aka Charity aka The Devil Wears Oxfam Untitled Pandemic Action Movie
October	6	0	1: The Appeal
December	6	2: Minimum Wage Untitled Natalie Portman Project aka Charity aka The Devil Wears Oxfam	2: Little U.N. Mr. Burnout

Recap:  9 projects on the grid in 2009, 3 of which closed, including the one project on the list in April (The Colony).

 

RELATIVITY

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	0
May	0	0	0
July	2	0	2: Hack/Slash Kashmir
August	3	0	1: Hunter-Killer
October	2	1: Hunter-Killer	0
December	2	1: Hack/Slash	1: Transit

Recap:  4 projects on the grid in 2009, two of which were closed.

I was surprised by how few OWAs Relativity had in 2009, since I’d thought their single picture business was broader than the above indicates.  Of course, one explanation could be that the company stuck with the original writers on their projects.  But that’s ridiculous, right?

 

SCREEN GEMS

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	3
May	6	1: Unseen aka See No Evil	4: Burlesque Planet B-Boy Resident Evil Begins Underworld 4
July	4	2: Burlesque Married Men	0
August	5	0	1: Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man
October	1	4: Hell Night Planet B-Boy Resident Evil Begins Underworld 4	0
December	2	0	1: Sparkle

Recap:  9 projects on the grid in 2009, 7 of which were closed.  All three of the projects on the grid in April were closed by December.



About The Scoggins Reports:
The Scoggins Reports (Jason Scoggins’ Spec Market Roundup, Spec Market Scorecard and now this OWA Scorecard) are terribly unscientific analyses of the feature film development business based on information culled from a variety of public and non-public sources. These are by no means official statistics, merely a fairly complete summary.  Past editions of The Scoggins Reports can be found in the archives of The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) as well as on Scoggins’ website:  http://www.lifeonthebubble.com.  Past editions of the OWA Scorecards can be found at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

Details on each person, project and company in the Reports are also available at http://www.itsonthegrid.com, a subscription-supported, web-based database of feature film development information launched in late 2009 by Scoggins and several other literary managers.  For daily posts of new and updated spec script, OWA and ODA information, check out the IOTG blog here:  http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

About Scoggins:
Jason Scoggins is a partner at Protocol, a literary management and production company.  He manages writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld and John Ufland.  Follow him here:  http://twitter.com/itsonthegrid.

2009 OWA Scorecard: Part 4 - Gold Circle through New Line

2009 OWA Scorecard:  Gold Circle through New Regency
by Jason Scoggins
January 19, 2010


Here’s the fourth installment of my look back at the studios’ 2009 open writing assignment activity, covering Gold Circle through New Regency.  I’m powering through the remaining buyers this week and will post them once or twice daily here at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.  I’m also pulling all of the scorecards together in one document, and if you’d like to receive a PDF copy of it, there’s a sign-up form at the top of the right-hand column.

I explained how and why I’m doing this exercise in Part 1, but here’s what you need to know in order to understand the below grids: 

·       I’m taking copies of one big talent agency’s OWA Grid from six points throughout 2009 and comparing them side-by-side to see the number of OWAs at each company, as well as which projects were particularly active last year. 

 

·       To keep the below grids concise and consistent, I’m not differentiating between projects that came off the grid because the assignment was filled or for some other reason (e.g., the project becoming inactive, moving to another studio, etc.), which is why I’ve labeled any project that fell off the grid “Closed” rather than “Filled.”

Part 1 of this series covered CBS Films and Columbia Pictures and is available here.  Part 2 covered Dimension, DreamWorks, Focus and a few others and is available here.  Part 3 covered the Fox labels and is available here.


GOLD CIRCLE FILMS

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	6
May	6	0	0
July	4	2: The Amy Biehl Story The Haunting in New York	0
August	4	0	0
October	4	0	0
December	3	2: Breaking News Inside Passage	1: If You Could See Me Now

Recap:  7 projects on the grid in 2009, 4 of which closed.  Four of the six projects on the grid in April were closed by December.

 

LIONSGATE

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	6
May	2	5: Agent In Place Cadavers Deal With The Devil God And California Warlock	1: Nurse
July	1	1: Nurse	0
August	5	0	4: Atlas Shrugged Cover Your Assets God And California The Broke Diaries
October	8	2: Atlas Shrugged The Last Equation	5: Conan The Barbarian Nurse Pride & Prejudice & Zombies The Vatican Tapes Will You Be My Black Friend
December	6	3: Conan The Barbarian God And California Nurse	1: The Game

Recap:  16 projects on the grid in 2009, 11 of which closed.  All 6 from April were closed by December.

Technically, there were only 14 projects on the grid for Lionsgate in 2009, since Nurse and God And California went off the grid in the first half of the year and popped back up in the second half.


 
MANDATE

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	3
May	4	0	1: Dancing In The Wings
July	4	0	0
August	4	0	0
October	3	1: Dancing In The Wings	0
December	1	2: Journeys With George aka On The Bus Monkey’s Paw	0

Recap:  4 projects on the grid in 2009, three of which closed.  Just Another Love Story was the one project on the grid in April that didn’t close by December.

 

MGM

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	2
May	2	0	0
July	4	1: Death Wish	3: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Executive Vice President in Charge of Mergers and Acquisitions David M. Murch’s Adventures in the Land of Zametherea The Outer Limits
August	4	0	0
October	4	0	0
December	5	0	1: Valley Girl

Recap:  6 projects on the grid in 2009, just one of which closed (no surprise).  War Games was the project on the grid in April that wasn’t closed by December. 

 

MIRAMAX

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	4
May	4	0	0
July	3	1: Friends Like These	0
August	2	1: Tell No One	0
October	2	1: The Unnamed	1: 32 Candles
December	1	1: 32 Candles	0

Recap:  5 projects on the grid in 2009, 4 of which closed.  Indignation was the project on the grid in April that wasn’t closed by December.

1/19/2010 Update:  I had lunch today with a motion picture lit agent from one of the big four agencies who told me Disney intends to re-launch Miramax as a label for projects written and/or directed by the parent studio’s up-and-coming talent that don’t fit the rest of their brands (Bruckheimer, Disney, DreamWorks, Marvel, Touchstone).  This would explain those rumors from last Fall about former Fox Atomic exec Debbie Liebling leaving Fox to join the Disney label.  (She ended up President of Production at Universal.)

 

NEW LINE

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	10
May	9	1: Venus Fixer	0
July	10	1: Catfight	2: Horrible Bosses Private Benjamin
August	12	0	2: Gears of War Parkour
October	7	7: Demon Streets Gears of War Hairspray 2 Horrible Bosses Journey to the Center of the Earth 2 Project A Straight Outta Compton	2: Cryptozoologists! Vacation Sequel aka National Lampoon’s Vacation Sequel
December	6	3: Macgyver Modern Bride aka Unt. Bridal Comedy Puberty	2: Puckface aka Untitled Sean Avery Project The King of Kong

Recap:  18 projects on the grid in 2009, 12 of which closed.  All 10 from April were closed by December.

 

NEW REGENCY

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	7
May	5	2: Beat The Reaper Love Me If You Dare	0
July	7	2: Capricorn One (remake) The End of Eternity	4: Click to Print fka Little Big War Medieval Seven Fires of Madmoiselle What Alice Forgot
August	8	0	1: Big Momma’s House 3
October	11	2: Big Momma’s House 3 Pets	5: Cutlass Island Daredevil 2 Mr. Romance Uglies Untitled Haitian Zombie Proj.
December	10	4: Mancamp Medieval Spooks aka MI-5 What Alice Forgot	3: Father Knows Best I Do My Name Is Memory

Recap:  20 projects on the grid in 2009, 10 of which closed.  All 7 from April were closed by December.



About The Scoggins Reports:
The Scoggins Reports (Jason Scoggins’ Spec Market Roundup, Spec Market Scorecard and now this OWA Scorecard) are terribly unscientific analyses of the feature film development business based on information culled from a variety of public and non-public sources. These are by no means official statistics, merely a fairly complete summary.  Past editions of The Scoggins Reports can be found in the archives of The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) as well as on Scoggins’ website:  http://www.lifeonthebubble.com.  Past editions of the OWA Scorecards can be found at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

Details on each person, project and company in the Reports are also available at http://www.itsonthegrid.com, a subscription-supported, web-based database of feature film development information launched in late 2009 by Scoggins and several other literary managers.  For daily posts of new and updated spec script, OWA and ODA information, check out the IOTG blog here:  http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

About Scoggins:
Jason Scoggins is a partner at Protocol, a literary management and production company.  He manages writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld and John Ufland.  Follow him here:  http://twitter.com/itsonthegrid.

Coming Soon: Complete 2009 OWA Scorecard (PDF)

I'll be wrapping up the 2009 OWA Scorecard articles between now and next Wednesday, and I'm planning to pull them all together into a single PDF document when I'm done.  If you'd like to receive a copy of the complete Scorecard, sign up using the new form at the top of the right hand column.

As always, this is a worry-free situation:  We won't sell, share or otherwise distribute your information to anyone outside of IOTG, ever, using the same privacy and other policies we've explicitly put in place over on the subscription site.  From time to time we'll send you a promotional piece about new itsonthegrid-related offers, but that's it, and if you find those irritating or tiresome you can easily unsubscribe from the mailing list.

2009 OWA Scorecard: Part 3 - Fox

2009 OWA Scorecard Part 3:  Fox
by Jason Scoggins
January 12, 2010


Here’s part 3 of my look back at the studios’ 2009 open writing assignment activity.  I explained how and why I’m doing this exercise in Part 1, but here’s what you need to know in order to understand the below grids: 

·       I’m taking copies of one big talent agency’s OWA Grid from six points throughout 2009 and comparing them side-by-side to see the number of OWAs at each company, as well as which projects were particularly active last year.  

·       To keep the below grids concise and consistent, I’m not differentiating between projects that came off the grid because the OWA was filled or for some other reason (e.g., the project becoming inactive), which is why I’ve labeled any project that fell off the grid “Closed” rather than “Filled.”

Part 1 of this series covered CBS Films and Columbia Pictures and is available here.  Part 2 covered Dimension, DreamWorks, Focus and a few others and is available here.  I’ll post another chunk on Friday afternoon (after The Business of Show Institute newsletter publishes), and then wrap up the rest Tuesday and Wednesday next week before I head to Sundance.


FOX

  

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	14
May	15	3: Neon Genesis:  Evangelion Slowman We Bought A Zoo	4: Deadpool The CIA And Candy The Fly (remake) Untitled Schools Project
July	21	1: Hitman 2	7: Click to Print fka Little Big War Just Do It Personal Security Six Pack The Big Bang The Monkees Wolverine 2
August	14	7: Alien (prequel) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (remake) Just Do It Living Oprah Six Pack Untitled Schools Project Zero-G	0
October	18	4: Personal Security The Fly The Sims Wolverine 2	8: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (remake) Missile Command Rip X Romancing The Stone (remake) The Traveler Untitled WWE Project X-Girls X-Men:  First Class
December	17	6: Animal Control Forget It Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (remake) Ten Best Days of My Life The Big Bang The Traveler	5: Boo! Father Knows Best The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Unt. End of the World Project Us & Them (aka Untitled Billy Crystal Project)

Recap:  37 projects on the grid in 2009, 21 of which were closed.

Fox is the second of the major studios I’ve examined in this context (the other was Columbia), and it’s interesting to note the difference in the number of projects each had on the grid, and how many of each sold:  Columbia’s ratio was 65/41, compared to Fox’s 37/21.  Those Fox numbers count Gentlemen Prefer Blondes once, even though it was on and off the grid twice during the year.

Of the 14 projects on the grid for Fox in April, just 2 were still on the grid in December:  Caves of Steel, and The Dangerous Book For Boys.  It’s interesting to note the number of sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots and projects based on significant underlying intellectual property.  Missile Command was one that caught my eye during this exercise – it’s been on the grid since October, but I haven’t heard anyone add it to the litany of videogames, toys and board games set up for adaptation in the last two years.  Chernin Entertainment is producing.

Just to illustrate the ever flowing stream that is the film development business, holidays or no holidays, a couple of high profile Fox projects filled their assignments in December (Deadpool and X-Men:  First Class), and we’re hearing they’re down the road with someone for the Romancing The Stone remake as well.


FOX ANIMATION

 

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	2
May	3	0	1: Turistas 2
July	2	1: Turistas 2	0
August	2	0	0
October	4	2: Untitled Chris Wedge Project Untitled Ice Age-esque Proj.	4: Cat And Mouse Rio Untitled Comedic Love Story With Creatures Untitled Pete De Seve Project
December	4	0	0

Recap:  6 projects on the grid in 2009, 2 of which were closed.

The above recap numbers don’t include Turistas 2, which clearly shouldn’t have been on the agency’s grid under Fox Animation.  The project is a sequel to the 2006 Fox Atomic film, and when Atomic was shut down in April last year one imagines the consternation of the agency’s film department coordinator (“Where the hell do I put this thing?  Hell, let’s just say Fox Animation.”).  According to FilmTracker, Fox Atomic changed its name to Fox Digital Studios, which is focused on branded entertainment projects for various digital platforms.  The distributor of the original Turistas is now listed as that entity in FilmTracker.

Both of the projects on the grid for Fox Animation in April were filled in October. 


FOX 2000 

 

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	8
May	8	1: Shadow Divers	1: USS Forrestal aka Sailors to the End
July	7	3: One Minute to Midnight Scarpetta USS Forrestal aka Sailors to the End	2: Sports Chick What Alice Forgot
August	8	0	1: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
October	4	6: Frank Genie Bob Lion Man aka Gino Bartali Project Sports Chick The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society The Passage	2: Dupli-Kate Stage Door
December	5	1: What Alice Forgot	2: Gucci Kiss And Tango

Recap:  16 projects on the grid in 2009, 11 of which were closed.

Just one of Fox 2000’s 8 projects on the grid in April was still open at the end of the year:  Jeremy Cabbage.


FOX SEARCHLIGHT

 

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	6
May	4	2: Colony Girl Living the Map	0
July	4	1: The Model & The Marriage Broker	1: The Necklace aka Traveling Necklace
August	5	0	1: La Corona
October	7	0	2: Bon Qui Qui Unt. Wong Kar Wai Project
December	8	0	1: Whispers in Bedlam

Recap:  11 projects on the grid in 2009, 3 of which were closed.

Two of the studio’s four projects on the grid in April were still open in December:  Beautiful Fall, and The Crowded Room aka The Minds of Billy Milligan.


About The Scoggins Reports:
The Scoggins Reports (Jason Scoggins’ Spec Market Roundup, Spec Market Scorecard and now this OWA Scorecard) are terribly unscientific analyses of the feature film development business based on information culled from a variety of public and non-public sources. These are by no means official statistics, merely a fairly complete summary.  Past editions of the Spec Market reports can be found in the archives of The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) as well as on Scoggins’ website:  http://www.lifeonthebubble.com.  Past editions of the OWA Scorecards can be found at http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

Details on each person, project and company in the Reports can also be found at http://www.itsonthegrid.com, a subscription-supported, web-based database of feature film development information launched in late 2009 by Scoggins and several other literary managers.  For daily posts of new and updated spec script, OWA and ODA information, check out the IOTG blog here:  http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

About Scoggins:
Jason Scoggins is a partner at Protocol, a literary management and production company.  He manages writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld and John Ufland.  Follow him here:  http://twitter.com/itsonthegrid.

2009 OWA Scorecard: Part 2

2009 OWA Scorecard, Part 2
by Jason Scoggins
January 8, 2010


Here’s part 2 of my look back at the buyers’ 2009 open writing assignment activity.  I explained how and why I’m doing this exercise in Part 1 (which covered CBS Films and Columbia Pictures and is available here), but here’s what you need to know in order to understand the below grids: 

• I’m taking copies of one big talent agency’s OWA Grid from six points throughout 2009 and comparing them side-by-side to see the number of OWAs at each company, as well as which projects were particularly active last year.  
• To keep the below grids concise and consistent, I’m not differentiating between projects that came off the grid because the OWA was filled or for some other reason (e.g., the project becoming inactive), which is why I've labeled any project that fell off the grid "Closed" rather than "Filled."

Enjoy.


Cartoon Network Movies 

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	3
May	2	1: Unt. Weird Al Yankovic Project	0
July	3	0	1: Hardy Boys
August	2	1: Untitled Sports Project	0
October	1	1: Untitled Indigo Kid Project	0
December	2	0	1: Hero Squared

The three projects on the grid for Cartoon Network Movies in April were the three filled during the year.


Dimension

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	8
May	7	2: Short Circuit (remake) Violence of the Lambs	1: Audrey’s Door
July	8	0	1: American Werewolf
August	8	1: Cops	1: A Matter of Size
October	8	1: Adrift	1: Children of the Corn (remake)
December	7	1: A Matter of Size	0

Four of the eight projects that were on the grid for Dimension in April were still on the grid in December.


DreamWorks

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	4
May	6	1: The Rivals	3: Forever 21 Fright Night (remake) Martin Luther King, Jr. Biopic
July	5	2: Button Man:  The Killing Game Non-Stop	1: I Am Number Four
August	8	2: Forever 21 Fright Night	5: Atlantis Rising Deep Sea Cowboys Ghost In The Shell Haunted House The Big One
October	8	2: I Am Number Four Rainbow Bridge aka Yomigaeri	2: Cruise Ship Racing Dreams
December	5	4: Deep Sea Cowboys Ghost In The Shell Martin Luther King, Jr. Biopic The Big One	1: Robopocalypse

It’s pretty clear from the above pattern when the DreamWorks/Reliance deal finally closed.  All four of the projects on the grid for the studio were closed during the year (three prior to August, and therefore out of Steven Spielberg’s pocket, and one afterward).


DreamWorks Animation

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	5
May	7	1: Dinotrux	3: Boo U. Untitled Birds Musical Untitled Mount Everest Project
July	3	4: Boo U. Untitled Birds Musical Untitled Hal Lieberman Project Untitled Mount Everest Project	0
August	4	0	1: Ready, Set, Slow!
October	1	3: Imperial Death Monkeys Ready, Set, Slow! Z Rex	0
December	5	1: Nursery Crimes	5: Gil’s All Fright Diner Imaginary Friends Lepre Con Pig Scrolls Unt. Galapagos Islands Project

Everything on the grid for DreamWorks Animation in April was filled by the end of the year.


Film Dept.

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	1
May	2	0	1: The Food of Love
July	2	0	0
August	3	0	1: FBI Wedding Idea
October	3	0	0
December	4	0	1: The Peak

The above speaks for itself.  It’ll be interesting to see how the company’s planned IPO will impact its development slate this year.


Focus Features

Month	OWAs	Closed	New
April	4
May	8	0	4: Beautiful Game aka FC Venus Larry’s Kidney Tell No One (remake) The Dubber
July	9	1: Go Fast	2: Butcher’s Crossing Humor Abuse
August	8	1: Tell No One (remake)	0
October	10	0	2: Human Resources Jane Eyre
December	10	0	0

With all of the Comcast/GE/NBC Universal deal commentary centering on the futures of the broadcast network and the main movie studio, there hasn’t been much public discussion of the futures of secondary properties like Focus.  In a vacuum, it’s hard to know what to make of the above pattern:  Does the fact that they filled so few of their assignments last year mean they’re headed for the fate of Picturehouse and Paramount Vantage?  Or were they simply hobbled by the corporate drama at their parent company and will spool up in 2010?  Hopefully the latter; the town needs as many vibrant studios as it can get.  In any case, only one of the four projects on the grid for the studio in April closed during the year (Go Fast).


About The Scoggins Reports:
The Scoggins Reports (Jason Scoggins’ Spec Market Roundup, Spec Market Scorecard and now this OWA Scorecard) are terribly unscientific analyses of the feature film development business based on information culled from a variety of public and non-public sources. These are by no means official statistics, merely a fairly complete summary.  Past editions can be found in the archives of The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) as well as on Scoggins’ website:  http://www.lifeonthebubble.com. 

Details on each person, project and company in the Reports can also be found at http://www.itsonthegrid.com, a subscription-supported, web-based database of feature film development information recently launched by Scoggins and several other literary managers.  For daily posts of new and updated spec script, OWA and ODA information, check out the IOTG blog here:  http://blog.itsonthegrid.com.

About Scoggins:
Jason Scoggins is a partner at Protocol, a literary management and production company.  He manages writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld and John Ufland.  Follow him here:  http://twitter.com/itsonthegrid.