Just got back from visiting Mystery Man On Film’s blog. Great write up of development hell for Moneyball.

“Moneyball was in development a few years and championed by Columbia Pictures co-chair cutie Amy Pascal. It’s an adaptation of a popular book by Michael Lewis.”

“Whispering lips say the studio spent roughly $10 million to get this project off the ground. Steven Zaillian wrote a script. Everybody loved it. Soderbergh came onboard. Brad Pitt came onboard. The budget ballooned to around $57 million, which is quite risky. Baseball movies can be hit and miss…” Read the rest at Mystery Man on Film

Moneyball is the story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget, by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

You can follow the progress on the Moneyball twitter page. There are two drafts of the script floating around. There is the Steven Zaillian December 1, 2008 2nd draft (pdf format) and there is the Steven Zaillian, revised by Steven Soderbergh June 22, 2009 revised draft (also pdf foramt). Thanks to Pursue The Passion.com – Don

Sam Mills, long time supporter of SimplyScripts, has a new book out available on Kindle, The Money Tree.

Set in the wilds of Western North Carolina, the story turns on two teen brothers’ chance discovery of a drug dealers’ money drop in the knothole of a tree. The impoverished boys enjoy the “fruit” of “the money tree” until they are caught by the mafiosi whose money it is. The boys narrowly escape, setting off a wild, downriver chase through the trackless Green River Wilderness – a chase that pits unarmed country boys and armed-to-the-teeth city men in a “guerrilla” war to the death.

The October One Week Challenge selected script is Old Ninety-nine Face by Cameron Mitchell (cam17)
Read by: iScript.com

The October One Week Challenge genre was Family Horror (in other words, a horror movie you could watch as a family). The theme, as selected by my nine-year-old son, was “At the Halloween festival, strange things happened”. Participants had one week to write a 12 page script on the genre and theme. We had 29 scripts which were read and discussed over on the discussion board. One script was selected to be audio performed by the fine folks over at iScript.com. That selected script is Old Ninty-nine Face by Cameron Mitchell .

Evan, new to the neighborhood, hears the legend of Old Ninety-nine Face, a hermit whose ghost supposedly haunts a nearby house. As the story goes, steal something from the house on Halloween night, and the ghost of Old Ninety-nine Face will come for you. Evan doesn’t believe it, but he soon will.

You can read along with the pdf version of the script. You can discuss this script and all the OWC entries here. Click the “Play” button to listen to the script.

 

 Old Ninety-nine Face by Cameron Mitchell [15:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (250)

Thanks to everyone who participated in the challenge. – Don

Very special thanks to iScript.com for sponsoring the challenge and judging the final scripts.

Pipe image courtesy of AdHocPipe.com

Over on the TV Scripts page there is Pinnacle by Larry Gelbart courtesy of Written By.

Larry Gelbart died September 11 of this year at the age of 81. He developed the hit television series M*A*S*H, wrote the wildly successful play A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and the screenplay Tootsie.

My PDF Scripts has an excellent article recapping Larry Gelbart’s life. – Don

On the Unproduced Scripts page we have over fifty original works across all genres. Among them, what caught my eye was The Werewolves of World War Two by Aaron. This is an action/horror period piece that chronicles the adventures of a pack of allied werewolves into the heart of Germany to battle the Third Reich. (pdf format).

And Steven has his followup feature to his series Better Days. You can listen to the first six episodes here. Famous, Rich & Beautiful (pdf format) has two documentary filmmakers follow a former TV star on his day to day life and get more than they bargained for.

Check out there and more on the Unproduced Scripts page. – Don

“Don’t Let Her See” by Matias Caruso ~ First Place
A suburban husband plots to leave his psychotic wife, who has telekinetic and mind-reading abilities.

“Point of view” by Jon Hill ~ Second Place
A tired coroner is stalked by the living dead — but only when she isn’t looking!

“Tears” by Erich VonHeeder ~ Third Place
An old friend delivers a special gift in honor of a deceased friend.

Each month, Movie Poet runs a free online five page screenplay contest. On the first of each month a new contest is announced. During that month, you can enter your script. During the next month, you can read, vote, and comment on all the entries. Finally, during the third month, the results are announced.

Head on over to Movie Poet and give it a go. – Don

Here is the lastest twist on the Nigerian email scam.

Several writers have received an email from one “Martin Sanders” who claims to be representing Shoot Rajasthan Film (a legitimate film production company, by the way).

Phil (dogglebe) received one such email and posted it to the discussion forums.

The email contains a fake message from Shoot Rajasthan Film to Mr. Sanders purportedly asking Mr. Sanders to secure the rights to a particular script. Mr. Sanders then sends out an email informing you, the writer, that he and only he can represent your script for the mere sum of $300.

This is a scam.

Phil confirmed this with Mr. Dilip Kungwani of Shoot Rajasthan Film who responded, “thanks for your mail..this man is totally fake.”

You can read the full scam email and follow along the subsequent email exchange between Phil and “Mr. Sanders”. Phil decided to have some fun with Mr. Sanders. – Don

The October, 2009 One Week Challenge scripts are up. This month, the genre was family horror. Participants were challenged to write a 12 page family horror script on the theme At the Halloween Festival, strange things happened

There are 29 entries which you can read here. Click the title to open the discussion thread of the script. Click the title in the scripts discussion thread to read the script. – Don

Tick, tock. The October OWC closes in three hours (11:49 pm eastern daylight time). The scripts are trickling in.

On another note, I reposted the August OWC selected scripts Our Time Deserves A Love Song. The wrong audio file was being presented on iTunes. So for those of you subscribed to the SimplyScripts podcast feed, the correct file should now be there. If you use iTunes, you can subscribe to the SimplyScripts podcast feed by clicking on this link.

Oh, and if you feel like it, you can be the first (or one of the firsts) to write a review of the SimplyScripts podcast on iTunes. – Don