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BREAKING: In what amounts to the biggest spec deal so far this year, Bill Block‘s QED International has paid $1 million for Fury, a WWII spec script by End Of Watch writer/director David Ayer. Ayer will direct, and QED will produce with John Lesher and his Le Grisbi Productions banner. Ethan Smith, Block and Lesher are producing and they are eyeing a fall production start. QED is selling foreign.
The action takes place in 1945 as the Nazi regime collapses and the five man crew of an American tank called Fury battles a desperate German army. Ayer and QED reteam after the action thriller Ten, which Ayer directed and which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington and Mireille Enos. Open Road will release it next January. Lesher produced Ayer’s End Of Watch.
Describing his project, Ayer said his goal is to “bring a fresh execution to the genre. What these men went through is worthy of a complex, honest portrayal. This will have incredible, visceral action and complex rich characters. I plan to bring tank combat to life in a way that lands with a modern audience.”
Block would not confirm the dollar figure, but acknowledged this was QED’s biggest material deal ever. “Fury is not your father’s WWII movie, it digs deep into the complexities of battlefield heroism,” he said.
Aside from Ten, QED also shot Fading Gigolo with John Turturro and Woody Allen, and the Jacki Weaver-starrer Haunt. CAA and David Weber made Ayer’s deal.
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Ayer is a beast. This sounds great.
Best news I’ve heard all day. We may finally have a healthy spec market since the writer’s strike/SAG downturn all but destroyed it.
This is great to hear.
We just saw End of Watch. Maybe one of the best “cop”movies we have ever seen. Lesher still knows great directors. Good luck John, David is a brilliant filmmaker.
Couldn’t make it thru end of watch. But props on the big sale.
Just hope it’s not as uninspired as E of W. Ayer is a better writer than director.
Cograts Mr. Ayer! Most excellent!
Great news. END OF WATCH got a good score on Rotten Tomatoes and did so well financially. I’m glad that established and hopeful writers, who create these products, can look forward to million dollars sales and immediately have someone like Carson Reeves/Chris Eads write 300 words on why it’s a bad script. Then 300 more words about how it’s a bad movie. You can’t even enjoy success anymore becuase of these people.
Also, he should have gotten 4 million for the script, given what they paid 20 years ago. Agencies should talk about that — The studios may have a backlog of scripts, but don’t sell these things for less than what they’re worth. Sure, some of them aren’t worth poo, but scripts that sell for 1 should all be selling for two. The studios are hosing writers.
The Reeves reviews didn’t strike me as mean-spirited or vindictive. He just didn’t like the film, and stated some of the reasons why the story’s execution didn’t work for him. He said that he really liked ‘Training Day’, too. I have seen many critics (Matt Goldberg, Dana Stevens, David Denby) bitch about a film months after it has been released, as if readers are misguided and need to be lectured about how their opinion is wrong. So, I am not sure why Reeves was in the wrong here as he clearly didn’t think the conceit worked, that’s all.
Sounds like, JOW, didn’t get his script selected for amateur Friday. if you don’t like the guy’s blog, why go back on several different occasions to see what his opinion on something is? You’re like those Beiber haters who seek out articles about him and his videos just to say something negative.
Carson’s blog is meant to help amateur writers. If he had more support he could help more amateurs break through the mile wide barrier keeping un-produced writers out. And $1 million dollars for a spec script from a guy who’s had several major successes as a writer director means nothing for unproven amateur writers. He’s in the “club.” People like Carson wants to break up the “club” mentality.
Bullshit, people Carson want to be in the club, not break it down.
Carson’s blog is designed to give vital information, for free, to amateur writers. In order to help them break through the mile thick barrier placed around Hollywood that prevents amateurs from getting in. The detractors of his blog only make things worse for aspiring writers.
And a spec sale for $1 million dollars from a writer/director who already has several major successes under his belt means nothing for “hopeful writers,” because Ayer has been a member of the “club” since the success of training day. Carson is trying to break the mentality of the “club.”
I would also suggest not visiting a blog that you don’t like simply to trash it, Jow. You went to the blog on several occasions to look two different reviews. You remind me of the Beiber haters who seek out articles about him as well as his videos, just to say something negative.
Gary “Star Wars” Kurtz is already casting his “Panzer 88″, about a German tank crew with cutting edge tank battles, right now for a summer shoot. And they’ve got a cool Weta Workshop monster. I’m putting my money on the Germans this time around.
Script wasn’t very engaging.
Great stuff indeed.
Sounds like it might be a winner. Arnie for the leader of the German platoon, anyone? (G
The same David Ayer who gave us the limpest WW2 submarine entry yet: U-571? Pass. Check please…
U-571 was terrible.
This town has such a mindless aversion to WW2 scripts, it’s nice to see some of that may be changing. No, WW2 movies will not be your 4 quadrant tent poles, but there are so many visceral and exciting stories to be told from those years and audiences like them when done well and in a fresh way. And they don’t have to outdo Saving Private Ryan, a visceral contained story about a tank unit sounds great. The great tank battles in North Africa and the eastern front were like nothing the world had seen before or will ever see again.
This sounds like QED trying to make a big splash more than anything.
We get it, you have some money.
Now don’t throw it all away on garbage.
Anyone see that other little tank movie, “Lebanon”? Or “The Beast”, another good one.
They were both well done, to me more interesting than a U.S. tank crew in Germany, simply because of the more complex psychology in the first two as was generated by the context of the stories.
If Carson’s blog is supposed to help amateur writers, then why doesn’t he ONLY do “amateur” scripts? He’s essentially created a great place for writers to give group feedback…why then does he review scripts that are in production without the authority of the writer or studio/owner?