Scott,

Would you still consider this a spec sale if it played out the way you describe?

I have a tangental question about period pieces, I hope no one minds.

Do you think period pieces offer a backdrop that makes it easier to tell compelling crime dramas? You posted that "Crime Cops" video (hilarious) and it made me think about the use of technology in solving a caper.

I think Blade Runner can get away with it because the mood is so good and Harrison Ford is drinking while he zooms in so that makes it seem pretty cool. Also, it's from the early 80s and we can believe that in the future you can zoom in as many times as you want. (This is the futre I hope for - infinite zooming and sexy androids. And flying skateboards)

You take Se7en, and I don't think they used a single computer.

Even in The Departed, Damon's character goes so far as to erase some video evidence to cover his tracks.

In Inception, the crimes take place inside dreams so that there is no surveillance or evidence. Security measures are just characters within the dream world.

I know that I'm probably stretching the definition of period, and perhaps the definition of crime drama. But I think what I'm trying to say is that it looks like an audiences's preconceived notions of surveillance and evidence make it extremely challenging to write crime in a contemporary setting.

Maybe we want to see things like Chinatown and the French Connection where technology is so primitive that we feel like we're in the story, like it's malleable.

But I don't know. 24 seemed to be pretty popular and they're always in front of a computer.

Gabe, re spec scripts: We've touched on this a bit before, but it's a good thing to talk about from time to time as a reminder.

The term 'spec script sale' is a malleable one. Most people probably think of it being an original script written by a screenwriter that goes out on the market and gets purchased amidst interest from multiple buyers.

That can and does happen. However let's start back a bit. A spec script is any script written 'speculatively.' That is the writer isn't paid for their draft. So when Variety reports 'The Outsider' as a spec script sale, we may assume this to be the case here, particularly since they indicate Warner Bros. bought it as a 'preemptive purchase.'

There was a case recently where Diablo Cody set up a script called "Lamb of God". It is reported that Mandate 'acquired' the property and they were excited to "partner with her [Cody]" as she will direct this project. Now there may well have been a tacit agreement between Cody and Mandate as she wrote the script they would get first crack at it. But whereas I've not seen this project listed as a spec script sale, to me that qualifies if, indeed, Cody did not get paid to write the script (hence a "spec script"), then the project got set up at Mandate (hence "sale").

Tracking this market is not an exact science. I know for there have been occasions where a project has been trumpeted as a 'spec script sale,' when in fact the deal was nothing more than a free option, the writer worked on a script in-house with a producer, who then used the front of a spec script sale to generate some buzz around the project.

This is why whenever I post a spec script sale or discuss numbers, I say, "By my count." I'm not claiming to be the ultimate authority.

However since I have been using the same practices to count projects as spec script sales since I started this blog in 2008, the numbers I use here as points of comparison are like to like.

Final note: We're seeing more of these in-house spec deals where writers work on projects in conjunction with manager-producers or producers, then script offered to one buyer for a first shot. While a lot of work (just go back and read this interview with Friedman & Palmer about their saga when selling the spec "Family Getaway" to Warner Bros.), the upside is you are less likely to write something far afield from what buyers will be into, assuming your information and direction from producers is solid.

Gabe, I deliberately set one of my scripts in the 70s just so I would avoid modern technology. A quick Google search would ruin the plot and what's the fun in that!

Now the reporter in my story has to do some real research - looking through public records printed on catalog cards and searching through microfiche in a library. That takes some time so it builds suspense.

Plus, I love the sound of dialing a rotary phone and it looks so much better on screen than a smartphone...