Has Summit Pulled A Rabbit Out Of The Hat With Dean Parisot … 
Scoot McNairy Shores Up ‘Black Sea’ Role 
‘Client List’ Season 3 Pickup In Limbo Over … 
New Myth, Toonz Ent. Help Launch Epiphany, A $200 Million … 
Amazon Orders Cop Drama Pilot Based On Michael … 
Third Point Raises Stake In Sony And Presses To Join Its … 
Lionsgate Acquires Pulitzer Prize Winner ‘Devil In … 
ABC Executive Quinn Taylor Moves To NBC To Head Longform … 
Future Of ‘Anger Management’ Co-Star Selma … 
Returning Showrunner Dan Harmon Slams … 
EMMYS: Will “Arch Rival” Matt Damon Be Jimmy … 
Neil Patrick Harris Takes ‘Hedwig And The Angry … 
‘True Blood’ Season 6 Premiere Draws 4.5 … 
Cary Woods And His Long Road Back Into Film; Makes … 
Sony Doing Two More ‘Spider-Man’ Movies, Sets … 
Dave Chappelle To Headline Funny Or Die’s Oddball … 
CBS Sets Fall 2013 Premiere Dates 
‘Man Of Steel’ Soars To $200.3M Worldwide In … 
WME Signs Stage Vets Michael Mayer And Stephen Karam As CAA … 
Bruce Rosenblum Joins Legendary As President Of Television … 
‘Boy Meets World’ Sequel ‘Girl Meets … 
EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has picked up the spec script Somacell from first time writer Ashleigh Powell. The Dark Knight/Man Of Steel co-writer David S. Goyer will produce the dystopia thriller. Somacell chronicles a female prison guard in the near future who discovers that the virtual reality process that rehabilitates convicts is not all it promises to be. The deal with the studio was in the mid-six figures, Deadline has learned. Ashleigh Powell is represented by Bob Hohman, Bayard Maybank, Devra Lieb, JR Satery of the Gersh Agency, Daniel Vang and Jake Weiner of Benderspink and attorney Eric Feig.
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.
Loading ...
First time writer! Good job breaking the wall Ashleigh
indeed! she was first discovered by Benderspink through the trackingb TV contest. congrats to all!
Great news! She’s very, very talented.
How does a so-called first time screenwriter have 6 agents, as it says near the end of the article? Not a first timer that’s why. I smell BS.
“Bob Hohman, Bayard Maybank, Devra Lieb, JR Satery of the Gersh Agency and Daniel Vang and Jake Weiner of Benderspink represent Ashleigh Powell.”
You are considered a first timer until you’ve sold a script or been hired to do a re-write. It has nothing to do with how many representatives you have.
Because she DOESN’T have six agents. She has the law firm of Hohman, Maybank and Lieb, her agent at Gersh and her manager at Benderspink. Perfectly normal retinue for a talented first-timer or ‘any’ timer.
Except Hohman, Maybank, Lieb is not a law firm. Stop trying to correct shit you know nothing about.
First timer with all those peeps behind one script? Guy who smelt the fatt on this elevator was right… Bet she’s hot and has dated well on town
Right, because any woman who succeeds must have bedroom ties to her benefactors. Myself being a woman who has achieved a certain level of success and wrongly accused of “help” from men, I find your comment beyond insulting. Swallow your bitterness about someone other than you making a sale and open your eyes to the fact that yes, women can write.
you go girl! tired of this sexism! now can i please have your number?…lol
I don’t understand the anger about how many representatives she has, but it comes from pure ignorance, so I’m going to take the time and try to correct this perception so that I don’t have to read these idiotic posts any more.
Here is the reality: having a large team of reps does not mean she’s worked before. The process for most writers’ first sale is they get signed by a manager and/or agency, which almost always involves a team of people at the agency (a jr agent for day to day and higher level agent for when you need them, plus very possibly someone in television.) That is what agencies do to woo someone, and if they think someone young is talented they will do it even if the person hasn’t sold anything because they don’t want to lose them to another agency. It’s also very common for young managers to bring in a higher level manager within their company for the same reasons, and since these young managers/agents are the people who are willing to read unsold writers, not their bosses, hating on them for finding someone they believe in then convincing a bunch of higher level people to also get excited about that new writer is comically hypocritical.
Re: lawyers, when the manager/agents have worked with the writer on a spec script that is ready to go out that the agents think has a reasonable chance of selling, even if it’s a total crapshoot which it always is, they will find the writer an attorney so that if there is a deal to be made, a) there is already someone in place to make it, and b) you know you have a lawyer who cares about the client and was willing to sign on not knowing if they’d sell something, not the rush of people offering their services when they know there’s money on the table.
Reading this article to jump to the totally unfounded conclusion that this woman’s number of reps proves she isn’t new and there is some vast conspiracy keeping young writers out of the business rather than actually trying to understand how the process unfolds and applaud the people who are actually trying to break new writers in is pretty much the opposite of why anyone outside hollywood should follow deadline. Oh, and the vitriolic ignorance doesn’t make anyone want to represent you.
Hohman, Maybank & Lieb are agents at Gersh. They had a really successful boutique feature lit agency and sold it to Gersh.
Looks like ashleigh needs a few more people repping her and then she can form her own baseball team.
Love it when I see original material selling, hate it when no one involved can come up with a logline that makes the least bit of sense.
Um, so it’s about a prison guard, but the plot apparently has nothing to do with the GUARDING of prisoners, it has to do with their REHABILITATION, which is done through some kind of virtual reality thingamajig, what kind of virtual reality thing we’re not sure but virtual reality sure was cool when they were making movies like DISCLOSURE about it 20 years ago, but the virtual reality thing isn’t do all it “promises?” Or something?
I’m picturing a mash-up of Minority Report and Demolition Man. Let’s hope it’s a little more Minority Report.
This is three victories: 1. First timer 2. Female 3. Female lead.
A story like this flies in the face of all the ignorant agents and managers telling clients that “Original spec sales are rare, and first timers never get good deals.”
Boo-yah.
Congrats, Ashleigh!
Yep, I concur. Congrats to the writer.
My manager will not let me write scripts with female leads. This seems highly ignorant of him and makes me angry but I am an unsold writer and am scared of the prospect of finding a new manager as an unsold writer in this climate. I did seek a second opinion from my agent, who is a woman, and she more-or-less agreed with my manager.
So, there you have it. I don’t write scripts with female leads because my reps won’t let me and I freely admit I am too weak to stand up to them.
Congrats to Ashleigh on the sale — writers like you deserve this success, and I can overcome my jealousy long enough to thank you for showing that writers with balls deserve success, not scared sheep writers, and that my reps, in whom I have entrusted my career, may know quite a bit about the business but they need to fvcking stop acting like they know everything.
Why don’t you write a script like Fun Size that had a female lead and it did really well this past weekend.
Yeah, or a script like CHASING MAVERICKS which had a male lead and was a box office smash? Obviously you can’t go wrong with a male lead in your movie. Just look at what a huge hit DREDD was, they even named the movie after the guy!
Idiot.
Unfortunately, bud, there are always exceptions. And selling an action/thriller with a female lead is certainly rare in today’s market. But this sale doesn’t mean your reps are steering you in the wrong direction. Success for you is success for them. I imagine they have your best interest at heart.
I don’t think she has enough representation. You can never be too careful in Hollywood.
Proof that good things happen to good people. She is a talent and could not be prouder of her!
Benderspink still has a management company? Huh.
Good. For. Ashleigh. Nice to see someone break in
Why don’t y’all try learning a little about the business before spouting your rhetoric? Hohman-Maybank-Lieb was an outstanding agency prior to being enveloped by Gersh, so it stands to reason they collectively work very closely with one another on their respective clients. Weiner and Vang work at, you know, Bender-Spink…
So for those of you playing along at home who have reading comprehension skills above the 3rd grade (and an understanding of how this stuff works)…Ashley is repped by *agency* Gersh, *manager* Benderspink, and *lawyer* Eric Feig. This article is juuuust a little more specific about pimping out the particulars.
Oh, and 2 + 2 = 4.
But by all means, please…continue to bile away.
PS — nice ink, Feig. Sincerely, your pal Judge Rexford.
HML was so outstanding they were about to go bellyup before merging with Gersh, the number 5 or 6 agency in the business.
Who gives a flip about who or how many handle her, except for those that rep and handle her? They made a sale. COngrats to them. And congrats to a woman writer making a sale in this genre.
The question remains is whether this is a “good” script. I read so many times on here about “what a great script! Great writer! Good talent scouts to grab this up!” only to watch a finished film crash and burn. Ah, but such is Hollywood. ‘Good’ = valuation = sale.
Ideally, it will rock with the best of action, sci-fi thrilers and be another “Death Race” or something.
So “Death Race” is the high bar all action/sci-fi writers should be aiming for?!?
So whose gilded shoes would you rather be walking in right about now…
A) One of the recent Nicholl screenplay winners?
or
B) Ashleigh Powell?
For my two cents, I’m leaning toward Ashleigh, given the odds are probably far greater that her words will see the Big Screen sometime in this decade (After all the most successful Nicholl scribe ever is arguably Mike Rich, and he’s proven to be a once-in-a-generation Nicholl success story seeing he’s had several Hollywood hits.)
Congrats, Ashleigh and good luck!
Um, so who would you rather be right now?
A) a Nicholl winner, or B) one of the 7,038 aspiring writers who entered and didn’t win?
But thanks for asking a pointless question. Yes, most people would rather be a writer with a six-figure spec sale than a writer without one, what is your point? That a third-tier competition is suddenly the equivalent of the Nicholl because of a single success story?
There are many paths to success for unknown writers, including but not limited to entering competitions and blind querying and using family connections and waiting tables at restaurants frequented by industry professionals and slipping business cards with script links into their handbags. All of these methods have led to success, it does not mean they’re created equal. A screenwriter can enter Northwest Oklahoma Big Hollywood Break screenplay competition and go on to get repped and sell a script, the Northwest Oklahoma Big Hollywood Break screenplay competition is not suddenly the Nicholl Fellowships.
The Nicholl is by the most prestigious and respected screenwriting competition and has led BY FAR to the most success stories in both absolute and relative terms of any other competition/fellowships/contest. By far and bar none. No, many (probably most) Nicholl fellows do not go onto to sustained careers, and yes, occasionally a different competition produces a success story, but there is nothing close to equivalency between the Nicholl and any other competition out there. Yes, aspiring writers should enter Nicholl, and yes they should be doing other things to further their writing aspirations.
You bet, Mike Rich is a big success story, more successful than Ehren Kruger? Or Susannah Grant or Andrew Marlowe? Seriously dude, the Nicholl track record speaks for itself. So get a grip. Yes, congrats to Asheligh and every other neo-scribe who finds success, there are ways to do it without Nicholl — no one is saying Nicholl is the only way. Sure, a lot of Nicholl winners don’t go on to sustained careers, guess what? Hardly anyone has sustained careers in this business. The fact the Nicholl alumni includes so many people who HAVE had sustained success speaks for itself.
Thanks for your feedback, HW. My post was not written with a hidden agenda or snark. It was a serious query. And I appreciate your thoughtful reply. That’s what makes this Deadline board very interesting. And, I totally brain farted on other esteemed Nicholl alum, including Ms. Grant (who rocks!), Mr. Kruger (pretty damn awesome himself) and, yes, Mr. “Air Force” Marlowe (who also has a nice list of TV credits to go along with his terrific feature credits) Yup — consider me wiping egg from my face after the elucidation of your post. So, thanks again for writing it, HW!
— bobby the saint
Ehren Kruger is probably a bit more successful as a former Nicholl winner than Mike Rich.
Errrrrrpppp!!! (elimination buzzer) No, the most successful Nicholl scribe is not Mike Rich. It’s Andrew Marlowe, with AIR FORCE ONE. And many, many credits since. It’s way, way, way better to have sold a script to a studio in a bidding war than to collect $25 grand or so as a Nicholl Fellow. The problem, imo, with the Nicholl, is that they are unashamedly biased toward artsy dramas as opposed to the kind of movie that’s going to make a dent in the box office. Sure, you’ve got your outliers, like A MANY SPLINTERED THING, which has one of the most unique voices in years, and from this year’s winners, STOCKHOLM, PENNSYLVANIA, about a young woman who was kidnapped as a young girl and is only now reunited with her family (good, inherent tension here), but for the most part, the Nicholl tends to reward touchy, feely dramas that, by and large, don’t do very well at the box office if and when they’re made. Ashleigh’s in a great place right now. Good for her.
Errrppp!!! Great point about Andrew Marlowe, bad point about Nicholl bias. To the extent it skews to drama, it’s because that’s what most non-professional writers write. Writers tend to start out writing dramas, personal stories that mean a lot to them or based on that AMAZING World War Two romance that involves their grandparents. If they’re talented, they’ll garner attention (through the Nicholls or otherwise) and then they’ll start writing scripts the market actually wants, like genre scripts.
But, that’s a separate discussion — the numbers don’t lie. Greg Beal has addressed this point repeatedly in the past and has been transparent about the scripts that are submitted and the scripts that win and he has shared the numbers. Genre-wise, the ratios hold up. Genre scripts win at the same RATE as dramas.
I know this girl personally.. and it is her first time. Im sorry that your jealous and can’t appreciate the fact that this girl is truly talented.
I don’t know, and I’m still happy for her. Great job! Keep it going.
Well said!
Such a cool idea! LOVE female driven scifi!
Keep em coming, Ash!
congrats Ashleigh,so proud of you!
Congrats to Daniel Vang!! Way to kill it brotha!!
I read a smart spec pilot from Ashleigh about a year ago and just loved it. Great character work (female lead), just the genre she wrote for it was too saturated at the time to make it (in my opinion). Met with her for a general and she was also really lovely in a room. I think she’s very talented, so good for her! We need more female writers in this town. Ashleigh, if you ever read this, please know that one of your earliest readers is (still) rooting for you
How old is she? Just curious…
Haven’t read the script, hope it’s good, and congrats, but I’m sure the name “Goyer” is what put this over the top. Security blanket and a pretty good resume.
First things first. New title.
Way to go ashleigh!! Sacrifice is the key!! I’m sure it’s a wonderful one obviously, WB love it!
Now, the debate moves over to the subtleties of Nicholl winners vs. not? How inane. How many screenplays – and i mean in the 1,000s that have gone into production in the last 2 decades were Nicholls winners?
The barometer of ‘success’ is purely subjective. If the objective is to make a cool six figure sum and ignore the subtleties of writing the next “Chinatown” then absolutely fine. It’s a writer’s or agent’s prerogative. If a filmmaker wants to take the road less travelled, forsake the big bucks, and hammer out the next “Beasts Of Southern Wild” then that is JUST AS VALID.
Some people make films to make a fortune. Some people make films because of that dirty word “art.” In an ideal world we accomplish both. So, Woody Allen does not have as big a box office tally as Lucas or Jarmusch (know him?) doesn’t come close to Woody!
But somehow I’d bet my house that Jarmusch is pretty content with his career and the films he’s made.
Congratulations, Ashleigh.
“Let’s go bowling.”