Spec screenplay

A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or studio.

Spec scripts which have gone on to win Academy Awards include: Thelma & Louise (sold by Callie Khouri to MGM for US$500,000 in 1990); Good Will Hunting (sold by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to Miramax Films for US$675,000 in 1994); and American Beauty (sold by Alan Ball to DreamWorks SKG for US$250,000 in 1998).

In 1933, Preston Sturges is believed to have sold the first spec script in Hollywood history. Fox bought The Power and the Glory for US$17,500 plus back-end revenue. The movie did poorly at the box office. However, in 2014 the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Spec scripts have not always held as much cachet in the business as they do now. Ernest Lehman describes how his original script for North by Northwest was unusual at that point in his career:

In the late 1960s, William Goldman sold his spec script Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to Warner Bros. for US$400,000 in a studio bidding war. The script went on to win the Academy Award for Best Screenplay. This event precipitated a rise in screenwriters writing on spec.

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