SPARLING SPEC. **TRACKINGB EXCLUSIVE – SOLD! – UPDATED – JACK CHIMES IN**
**SOLD TO GOLD CIRCLE FILMS & THE SAFRAN CO. — PROJECT IS AN ACTION SPEC CALLED, ATM, AND CENTERS AROUND THREE FRIENDS WHO FIND THEMSELVES FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES AFTER A REGULAR STOP AT AN ATM. DAVID BROOKS (REPPED BY PRINCIPATO-YOUNG ENTERTAINMENT) ATTACHED TO DIRECT.
Hearing that hot BURIED screenwriter Chris Sparling has a new spec out this week… He’s repped at Kaplan/Perrone and UTA… Get on it.
January 27th, 2010 at 12:09 am
BURIED was awesome…
January 27th, 2010 at 2:54 am
Anyone got a log?
January 27th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Yeah, curious if he’s gonna ride out this whole contained thriller thing.
January 27th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Nice interview with the writer here:
http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2009/10/interview-with-chris-sparling-writer-of.html
January 28th, 2010 at 10:30 am
log anyone?
February 5th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Anyone know what David Brooks has directed?
February 5th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
per variety:
David Brooks did a short “Gone,” “ATM” feature debut.
February 5th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Charlie Ferraro & Doug Johnson were the agents.
February 5th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
I wanna read the hell outta this. Sounds like it could be an ATM ‘Phone Booth’.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
UPDATE – I’ve read this and it’s really, really good. Smacks of mid-era Stephen King, and hugely tense. Sparling’s probably gonna be pigeonholed as ’single locale guy’ but he knows what he’s doing.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
The log — for anyone who hasn’t read: ‘Three dysfunctional work friends (two guys & a girl) get trapped in an ATM booth by a mysterious, shadowy murderer waiting in the parking lot’.
I know that doesn’t sound like much, but Sparling – like he did in ‘Buried’ – really manages to up the stakes and answer some of the more ‘Why didn’t they do this…?’ questions. I would compare it favorably to ‘Frozen’ with more of a human threat. It’s a creepy script. Much more of a horror movie than ‘Buried’. Elements of it feel like ‘Phone Booth’, but it really caters more to the Stephen King/Twilight Zone/Tales From The Crypt audience. No joke. That’s the vibe I felt, and Sparling pulls it off in a vaguely real-world tone. We’ve all gone to that lonely ATM booth in valley late at night. This is the worst case scenario of that activity.
I also love that I can read Sparling specs in 25 minutes.
February 10th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
I agree with Jack. I too have rad it, and it’s certainly been executed efficiently. If Chris ends up becoming the “go to” guy for contained thrillers, then so be it. He knows how to write them. And write them well.
This is what studios are looking for these days. Cheap, contained thrillers, that can make a buck on their concept or hook.
Over the next few months — Expect to see a flood of “one location” thrillers in the spec market.
February 10th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
What Te22a says is so true — expect to see lots of these type of spec popping up on here – for better or worse. I’m more excited about the time when writers start running out of ideas:
‘Restroom’ — A group of desperate characters find themselves trapped inside a bathroom, fighting for their lives.
‘Trolley’ — A group of desperate characters, in San Francisco, find themselves on the wrong…trolley. Um, to – like – hell or something.
‘Bed’ — A group of lazy characters find themselves unable to get out of…bed. Also, they’re fighting for their lives. Somehow.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
ROFL!
You forgot that other pitch – ASHTRAY. Six strangers awake to find themselves inside a giant ashtray.
February 12th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Having read Buried and ATM, I’m pretty sure Sparling could make Restroom, Trolley, Bed, and Ashtray work.
February 19th, 2010 at 1:05 am
Ashtray would be a horror if you are a reformed smoker like me.