Summit Buys ‘Spinback’ Spec; Scott Speer To Helm Mystery Set In Electronic Dance Music World
EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate/Summit has won an auction for Spinback, a John Swetnam spec script action thriller set in the world of electronic dance music. Scott Speer (Step Up Revolution) is attached to direct, with Todd Garner producing through his Broken Road Productions banner, with Sean Robins and Jeremy Stein.
Garner hatched the idea, which, boiled down is: soldier returns from Afghanistan. When his brother, a prominent DJ on the EDM circuit, is murdered, he must infiltrate that world in order to figure out the killer. The project aspires to have a fast-paced niche subculture vibe reminiscent of The Fast And The Furious and XXX.
Speer is currently at work with Swetnam on the next installment of Step Up at Summit, so it’s easy to see why the studio wanted this project. Swetnam most recently worked with Garner on Black Sky, the New Line natural disaster project which sold under the working title Category 6. Swetnam will also be involved in a producing capacity.
Speer amped up the stakes by making a mock trailer for the movie, featuring EDM footage and footage from other movies which cut together established the tone they are after here. EDM, I’m told, is a $4 billion industry, and it sounds like an elevated version of rave and house music. The DJs are treated like rock stars.
Aside from Step Up 5, Swetnam is also writing an untitled martial arts movie for New Line. He also scripted the found footage movie Evidence for Bold Films and producer Marc Platt. Swetnam is repped by Paradigm, Benderspink and Loeb and Loeb, while Speer is repped by WME and Principato Young.
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