One of the paradigm shifts that’s taken place in Hollywood in the last few years is the relative lack of big spec script sales; with studios cutting costs and becoming increasingly risk averse, the days when a Shane Black or a Joe Eszterhas could scrawl something down on the back of a napkin and sell it for millions of dollars are, for the most part, long gone.
However, there are exceptions; for instance, Variety announced today that Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films have picked up the script “Lightspeed” from writers Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilli for a figure in the low seven figures, against $3.5 million. Aspiring screenwriters shouldn’t get their hopes up just yet however — the pair also hold the record script sale for “Deja Vu” (which was also set up with Bruckheimer, for $5 million), and Rossio is a co-writer on “Pirates of the Caribbean,” among many others, so they’re not exactly fresh off the bus.
The script apparently focuses on spaceship racing, with a young pilot in the Earth Interstellar Racing Team who sets off on a dangerous journey. While the prospect of races across endless expanses of space doesn’t sound particularly thrilling, we imagine they’ll find a way to make it watchable. The intention is to shoot in live-action, and in 3D, to the shock of absolutely no one.
Bruckheimer’s clearly on the lookout for a new franchise, with “Prince of Persia” looking like it’ll underperform; that film opened in Europe this weekend to fairly dismal returns, partly due to glorious weather, and partly due to the fact that no one appears to want to see the thing (seriously, even kids seem fairly disinterested). Whether this is what he’s looking for remains to be seen, but the hefty price tag seems to suggest a certain confidence in the script at least.