It’s enough to make executives or aspiring screenplay authors dream of the heady spec script deals of the 1990s.
In a deal that shakes up a sleepy Hollywood before the holidays, Fifth Season and Brad Weston’s Makeready banner have preemptively picked up Alignment, a spec script by Natan Dotan, a man who until a week ago had no representation.
According to insiders, Dotan had written his script then called one of two people he knew in Hollywood.
The managers signed the writer off a Zoom meeting with the goal of quickly packaging the script and swiftly taking it to market.
The reputation of the script grew at lightning speed, and in a week Dotan had over 20 meetings with producers.
A genuine multimillion-dollar deal, a rapidly growing feeding frenzy, and an unknown writer. The lucrative spec script deals of the 1990s are enough to make executives or aspiring screenwriters daydream.
Alignment, a spec script by Natan Dotan, who had no representation until a week ago, has been preemptively picked up by Fifth Season and Brad Weston’s Makeready banner in a deal that shakes up a slumbering Hollywood before the holidays.
In October, Nyad author Julia Cox sold spec Love of Your Life, which was produced by Ryan Gosling, to Amazon for low seven figures. This deal could end up being one of the biggest spec deals of the year, but it involves the breaking of a writer with limited Hollywood connections. It also deals with artificial intelligence, a subject that is causing a lot of interest and hand-wringing in Hollywood.
A number of careers preceded Dotan’s flamboyant foray into Hollywood.
He reportedly has a Ph.D. A. in sociology from Columbia University, worked in biology, held the position of chief analytics officer at multiple ad-media companies, led a PBS investigative news segment with ProPublica, and served as the country director of a non-governmental organization in Sierra Leone. Among his areas of expertise are data science, computer simulations, and mass media.
Insiders claim that after writing his script, Dotan contacted one of two Hollywood acquaintances. As a result, Dotan made contact with two literary managers from Untitled Entertainment, which is primarily recognized for its talent roster but had just a few months prior purchased boutique lit company Grandview. With the intention of packaging the script and bringing it to market as soon as possible, the managers invited the writer to a Zoom meeting. While artificial intelligence is a popular topic right now, there isn’t much time to make a movie about it that won’t be released for a few years.
According to some, Alignment, which takes place over the course of 36 hours, has the urgency of thrillers like Margin Call and Contagion. In order to stop his colleagues’ willful ignorance from causing a global catastrophe, the story revolves around a board member at a thriving AI company who struggles with corporate politics and twisted incentives.
Dotan had more than 20 meetings with producers in a week as the script’s reputation grew rapidly. Director Damien Chazelle reportedly met the writer, and Matt Damon expressed interest in it as well.
But on Wednesday night, things took a turn. A very strong offer was unexpectedly made by producer Weston and Fifth Season, the production and financing firm that was formerly known as Endeavor Content. The author and his new group were given three hours to respond.
Members of both sides met at The Hollywood Reporter’s Next Gen event and then proceeded to their respective corners to finalize dealmaking in the 1 a.m. A. hour.
According to several sources who spoke to THR, Fifth Season is paying $1.25 million for the script, which has a $3 million price tag if or when a film is produced. In contemporary Hollywood, which has eschewed the ostentatious spec deals that were prevalent in the 1990s, when authors like Shane Black, Joe Eszterhas, and M. Night Shyamalan built their careers on seven-figure deals, it’s an unprecedented deal for an unknown. Screenwriting was viewed at the time as an equal opportunity to enter the Hollywood dream factory.
Fifth Season, which primarily specializes in festival and indie music, has a new ceiling called Alignment. The company was responsible for the 80 for Brady and the Book Club franchise, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Oscar-nominated drama The Lost Daughter, John Carney’s critically acclaimed Flora and Son, and more. Internally, the company views the spec deal as a sign that it is prepared and eager to bid on projects that it believes are worthy.
Gang Tyre is also Dotan’s representative in addition to Untitled.
