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EXCLUSIVE: A low seven-figure spec script deal just went down as Sony Pictures acquired a spec script with the working title Sex Tape. Written by Kate Angelo, it’s about a married couple who get a night off from their kids, get adventurous and decide to spice up their lives by making a sex tape. When they wake the following morning, the tape is missing, and they must find out who took it and how to get it back. The project will be produced by Escape Artists partners Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch, who came up with the idea. UTA and David Fox rep Angelo, who most recently scripted the Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy The Back-Up Plan. Columbia Pictures execs Andrea Giannetti and Adam Milano will steer a project that will be fast tracked.
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I don’t know what you’re all getting excited about. it sounds to me like an episode of Modern Family. Now that’s not a bad thing, it’s just not enough to sustain a film and draw a crowd. From the list here, it seems like those attached don’t have any real feel for comedy. They better attach a first rate comedy director attached fast.
Wow, what a great idea. and it only took three people to come up with it! Normally an idea this innovative and fresh, it’ll take at least seven or eight people to come up with the idea, but these three big brains were able to hatch this on their own. Ben franklin, Thomas Edison, Steven Spielburg and all the other idea men throughout history, take note – these three dudes just trumped you.
This idea has been done to death. Hopefully the part about getting the tape back is the movie because the rest of it is completely derivative.
The Back Up Plan was the worst written romantic comedy in at least a decade.
So it’s Date Night?
The Hangover meets Date Night. Enough said.
I hope the other 85 pages are as funny as the first 10 sound. I also hope this makes a fortune so the spec market opens again (a spec script is just a free rewrite in reverse).
So a worse, even less believable version of Date Night?
Love seeing spec sales, but not a fan of this idea…
“Low seven figures”. I love that term. Ain’t no seven figure sale that’s low in my book.
Thank you for making sense.
haha. Low that comment. I agree. I’d love a low seven figure sale.
Lot of haters on this board. I think spec script sales are great for writers. Support your fellow writers, quit hatin’, and start writing some good material!
I can’t believe I’m typing this, but I’d definitely see this movie with Tina Fey and Steve Carrell reteamed as the married couple.
I just finished writing the gritty-thriller version of that. Looks like I need to paper the town before this thing gets going.
The “Back Up Plan” film wasn’t good. The script was very good. Stop the hating.
Wait, so the three producers came up with the idea, then had Kate write it, then gave her seven figures? That seems a little off.
They should make this a vehicle for Blake Lively. She can draw on her real life experiences.
Only a nerd could come up with something that lame.
Jees, why is everyone on this site such haters?!?! Here you have a female writer selling a high concept idea for big bucks, which means the market is there for big ideas when properly executed. You really think belittling her accomplishments solves anything for you? I’ve been in this business for 15 years as a writer and I have never had a hole in my schedule. However, after fifteen years of selling idea after idea, NONE have gotten made. I take some of the blame, while some is just a function of changing tides and studio heads (have had particularly bad luck with that last part). But Kate got BackupPlan MADE. She was the sole writer. Albeit, it wasn’t exactly what she had in mind, but she can hold her head up high and say, “I made that.” Also, she happens to be from good stock – a great family, her brother is a writer, dad is a big hedge fund guy. She’s a hard worker and her success is good across the board for female writers everywhere. Not to mention, all writers, who can now stop asserting that the spec market is dead. It lives! So ease up, people.
I agree with you on all points except the part where you said that she is from good stock because her dad is a “big hedge fund guy.”
Do you know what these guys do? Not exactly benevolent, altruistic work.
These comments are what is wrong with hollywood on two levels. 1)Kate’s spec draft of THE BACK UP PLAN was a great script. What the producers, studio, director, and actors turned it into was something awful. Kate is a fantastic writer. You cant blame the writer for what they turned her script into but because nobody reads and everybody chases the heat of a successful film, the writer suffers. Blame the producers, studio, director, and actors for what the Back Up Plan was. Anybody who reads knows that Kate is the read deal. But we work in a business where Lucas and Moore get credit for writing the Hangover and can get any job in town and are even directing now…..but they did not write a word of the hangover. Ask Todd Phillips. 2)So much hate and jealously. Really a bummer. We work in a business that is dying before our eyes, we should celebrate when a spec sells and when a movie opens, not hate on it. A big spec sale and a movie opening mean that our business is not totally dead yet and anybody who wants or does make the film business their career should be celebrating this!
This was a funny episode of Mad About You 16 years ago.
I’m surprised it hasn’t been done, as well. There have been a number of stories in the media about real life couples who have had sex tapes get out. I recall one story that occurred a number of years ago, where a cop borrowed a video camera from work, went home and made a naughty tape with his wife…when he returned the camera on Monday, guess what he forgot to remove?! I believe the story was/is in development somewhere.
I came to DEADLINE to read some HATE.
You dont like the idea – dont watch it.
How many of you have sold anything?
Dont know the writer; The Back Up Plan WAS garbage; but a writer sold something that they wrote. Good for her. She played the lotto and won.
Congrats!
(With all this hate and negativity I feel like I’m at a TeaBag Convention).
This premise is based on video tape. Are they going to the Salvation Army to find a camera that uses tape?
This would make more sense if the couple made a ‘video’ and it goes viral –
hilarity ensues…..That actually might make a more interesting movie in the hands of a good writer. But it wouldn’t be ‘Date Night.’ It would obviously have to be a bit darker, but that could be fun and relevant.
Seriously, this could be the next direct to video American Pie (if they were still doing them that is). Seven figures for this crap? wow. Kate is a mediocre writer (at best). Why would they pay so much for this? Who sold Amy this bill of goods? Whoever you are, great f’n job!
Garbage!
This premise was a really good episode of “Mad About You.” Fifteen years ago.
Sometimes all you can do is just shrug. This business is fascinating, I tell ya.
Brilliant, original idea? This is the 3rd spec titled sex tape to be out this year alone. All with the exact same premise. Married couple makes a sex tape that goes missing. Maybe the execution is better, but original?… afraid not