My goodness is the spec market hot right now. In what is usually a slow week for business because of Easter breaks and Passover, two big time deals went down last night.

Warners picked up spec script Lore which has Dwayne Johnson attached to star. Cory Goodman and Jeremy Lott wrote that one. The spec is based on the IDW graphic novel and has been compared to Men in Black, with mythological creatures. Four studios bid on it.

But that’s not all!

In a high six against potential seven figure deal, Warner Bros also acquired screen rights to The Ghostman, the upcoming novel by 23-year old author Roger Hobbs.

The studio went hard after the novel because it has franchise potential for a young leading man in his 30s. The protagonist is a young man who cleans up messes and helps fugitives disappear. He is careful but gets sucked into a casino heist gone terribly wrong. His former mentor bankrolled the casino heist, which left several dead, and a crack addict in the wind with $1 million in cash that was supposed to pay off a drug debt.The Ghostman finds himself in a race over 48 hours to clean up the mess or his mentor will be in the cross hairs of a ruthless drug kingpin called The Wolf, and there is an attractive CIA agent in the center of things.

This is a good thing for writers. It has always been my thinking that a healthy spec market equals a healthy film business.

Source: Deadline