Universal Buys ‘Don’t Go In The Water’; Spec Is Verve’s First Sale Since Signing WGA Deal

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures has paid mid- to high-six figures for Don’t Go in the Water, a Peter Gaffney spec script that has 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy and Dan Levine and Lit Entertainment’s Adam Kolbrenner producing with Adam Rodin.

Script, being called a suspenseful monster movie, is the first spec deal for Verve since the agency agreed to the WGA Code of Conduct. Gaffney is a New York-based writer who previously set up the sci-fi specs Harvest at LeVision Entertainment and Terrestrial at Lionsgate. He is represented by Rodin at Old Soul Entertainment, Verve and McKuin Frankel.

Matt Reilly and Lexi Barta will oversee for Universal.

21 Laps and Lit Entertainment are currently in production on Free Guy, which Levy is directing and which stars Ryan Reynolds. 21 Laps is in post on Monster Problems, which Dylan O’Brien stars in for Paramount. The company is prepping Sesame Street for Warner Bros, with Anne Hathaway starring.

Lit Entertainment Group is also in series production on Ridley Scott’s Raised By Wolves for TNT written by Aaron Guzikowski, and is prepping Chris Pratt’s next film Ghost Draft for Skydance, with Chris McKay directing.