Lionsgate Snaps Up Sci-Fi Script Terrestrial From First Time Writer
This article is more than 2 years old
As a writer you hope that everything you churn out will finally get you the recognition and acclaim you so richly deserve. You are, after all, an unknown genius and everyone who doesn’t see that immediately is clearly a fool. Peter Gaffney is realizing his goal as a writer, selling his first script, the sci-fi themed Terrestrial, as well as securing representation for his future endeavors. I’m sure this is far from the first thing he’s ever written, but good for him.
The Wrap reports that Lionsgate has paid somewhere in the low six-figures (that still sounds like a lot of figures to me) for the first-time writer’s spec script. In addition to securing a nice payday for Gaffney, he has now also signed on with talent agencies UTA and Energy Entertainment, which will most likely lead to more work in the future.
Aside from the fact that Terrestrial is a science fiction movie, there is really nothing else to talk about content wise. There report contains literally no plot or story details, or even hints as to what the movie may be about. Aliens, maybe? Though little is known about the film, at least outside of the circles of people that have ready access to that sort of thing, Gaffney’s script did make the rounds and garner a fair amount of pre-sale recognition. Before being picked up by Lionsgate, the screenplay landed on the list at Adam Rodin’s yearly feature contest at trackingb.com. Rodin will also be one of the film’s executive producers.
Though Terrestrial comes from a first time writer, the film will have a pretty substantial push behind it when it finally goes into production. Tripp Vinson, who has worked on the likes The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Journey 2, is the one who took the script to the studio, and has signed on to produce the picture. Lisa Zambri (Choke, Battle of the Year) has also joined the party in an executive producer capacity.
Despite the fact that we don’t know jack about Terrestrial aside from some behind the scenes personnel, which really means absolutely nothing to the vast majority of us, this is still good news. One, it’s nice to see that a studio is willing to take a chance on an unknown screenwriter based on nothing more than the strength of the story alone. I hope this is something that continues to flourish, where a good story is enough to get industry people interested, not necessarily who wrote a script or what they’ve done before.
Another thing that we can all appreciate about the Terrestrial situation is that this is an original idea. When it feels like damn near every movie coming out is a remake, a reboot, based on book or comic, or a sequel of some kind, we have to grab onto the unique ideas when and where we can. They’re all too rare. I can’t speak to any of the details, I’m not even going to speculate about that, but I like the mystery of not already knowing exactly what we’re in for.
