While the spec script market was almost non-existent last year, due to studios tightening their belts and buying in almost nothing, it’s picked up slightly in the last few months, although it’s still far from where it was a few years ago.
One man who’s been able to get Hollywood interested in his screenplay is Tim Kelleher, who’s sold his pitch, Grudge Match, to Warner Bros. According to THR, the film wants to evoke the spirit of Space Cowboys, although rather than seeing old guys go into space, this one has retired boxers Billy “The Kid” McGuigan and Henry “Razor” Sharp, who were bitter rivals during their pugilist careers, coaxed out of retirement for one last bout. However these aren’t guys who gave up fighting a couple of years ago, as their last match-up was 50 years back!
Kelleher is mainly a TV writer, who’s worked on the likes of In Living Color and The Arsenio Hall Show, although he did script the Sinbad starring First Kid in 1996. There’s no news on a director, but as Mark Steven Johnson, helmer of Ghost Rider and Daredevil, is producing, he may be looking at it as a potential directing project.