Lionsgate Buys Joshua Friedlander Spec ‘Couple Up’

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate has just closed a deal for Couple Up, a spec script by Joshua Friedlander, in a competitive situation. The plan is to distribute it via the studio’s Codeblack Films label. A married couple, verging on divorce, wishes they had never met. In an It’s A Wonderful Life-type scenario, they see what life would have been like had they never gotten together.

Paradigm, Industry and attorney Rob Syzmanski brokered the sale for Friedlander, whose script Pictures Of You made the Black List, and who wrote an untitled EDM project with Nick Weiss for New Regency with John Rickard Producing, and Virgins America with Weiss for Paramount. Jim Field Smith is directing and producing are Kapital Entertainment and Bwark Productions. He also sold a project on pitch to Universal with Hurwitz & Schlossberg producing and attached to direct.

Friedlander also sold One Night Stand to Lionsgate.