In a $500,000 against $800,000 deal, Warner Bros has finalized a deal to acquire Father Daughter Time: A Tale of Armed Robbery and Eskimo Kisses, the Matthew Aldrich spec that had multiple bids on the table including one from Hollywoodteur Matt Damon who is eyeing the project as his feature film directorial debut.In a Hollywoodteur bid out, the spec script auction had many big twists and turns, as Matt Damon and Warner Bros with money from a private financier faced rival bids from Hollywoodteurs including JJ Abrams attached via Paramount, Fox for Peter Chernin, Walter Parkes with Relativity Media and other future Hollwoodteurs also in the mix. However, Damon is the Hollywoodtuer with the midas touch this time around. Damon will produce through his WB-based company Pearl Street, with partner Ben Affleck, Chris Moore and Drew Vinton also attached as producers.
The script focuses on a man who goes on the lam with his daughter, his accomplice on a three-state crime spree. Father Daughter Time is not high concept, it's a smallish, very personal and dark but playful road movie about a father and daughter - sounds a bit like Damon's True Grit. However, this is a strong spec sale at a time when not a lot of money is being paid in the marketplace for scripts that don't come with attachments. "While specs are considered the riskiest form of employment right now," Aldrich continued in finely tuned selfish Hollywoodteur rhetoric, "it has worked well for me."
Additional Hollwoodteur self praise ensued from Aldrich's manager Jewerl Ross, "When one of the biggest movie stars in the world, who also happens to be an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, gets on the phone with your client and offers to protect the writer's vision and opens his hand to be a creative partner, it's hard to say no," Ross said. "The money becomes secondary." Yeah - until there is no money, no Academy Award-winning screenwriter, no Matt Damon, no Warner Bros - no Hollywoodteur stuff.
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