Spec Script Deal: “Smother In Law”

In a “competitive situation,” Netflix acquires comedy spec script “Smother In Law” written by April Prosser. Via Deadline:

While an official logline wasn’t shared, we hear the project revolves around a young woman’s attempts to help her single (and overbearing) mother-in-law with her love life.

And check this out!

For Prosser, an in-demand writer who has spent many years tackling open writing assignments for a range for studios, Smother in Law is the first spec in a decade. Sensing a marketplace trending, to an extent, back toward an embrace of original material, she knew she had something when she hit on the title and concept for Smother in Law, decided to bet on herself, and won.

While specs are always hit-or-miss for writers, Prosser has now sold each of the four she’s written, the others being The One That Got Away to Amazon, Rugged to Lionsgate, and Plus One to The Weinstein Company.

“Embrace of original material.” You may recall that during a two-week period in August when there were eight announced spec script deals, among them Paramount dropping a reported seven-figures to acquire the comedy spec script “Bald Eagles” (written by one of my former students), the studio heads released this comment to the press:

Paramount co-chairs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, even as they plan to manage brands and IP, are making it a point to acquire original material and are willing to bet on what they believe will pay off as they race to build a diversified slate at top speed.

There it is again: “original material.”

Is this a trend? Hollywood kicking its addiction to IP? Might we see more movies based on “original” stories as opposed to an endless array of remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels, and shequels?

We can hope!

If you need motivation to write that spec script you’ve been kicking around, embrace the approach April Prosser took: “Sensing a marketplace trending, to an extent, back toward an embrace of original material… [she] decided to bet on herself, and won.”

Congratulations, April! Thanks for the inspiration!

Prosser is repped by Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment.

By my count, this is the 27th spec script deal in 2025.

There were 23 spec script deals year-to-date in 2024.