| Photo Copyright: Jacey Kessen Kunka |
Screenwriter Daniel Kunka's new spec has some serious lift-off at Netflix. His script Lift was snatched up by the streaming giant earlier this year in less than 24 hours.
The plot involves a female master thief and her ex-boyfriend, who works for the FBI, who team up to steal $100 million in gold bullion being transported on a 777 passenger flight from London to Zurich. According to Kunka, the script is in the vein of Ocean's 11 or "The Italian Job set on a commercial airplane."
Kunka says he had the idea for Lift almost 10 years ago. He had pitched it a few times, but nobody was buying. He says the idea was always something he wanted to spec next, but never quite got around to it. "Then last November I was looking for an idea and read the outline again and thought, 'This is good!' The twist worked. So I wrote it."
Lift is the eighth "or ninth" spec script of Kunka's that has sold. While he acknowledges he's been "super lucky," he says the process hasn't gotten any easier.
"I think I understand the business a bit more and I know what's going to work on the page so that helps, but it's never ever easy," he says. "I personally love writing specs. It's the one time being a writer that you actually feel like you're in control."
Kunka says he doesn't usually work with producers if he has a clear concept and throughline. His scriptwriting process is fairly structured. "I'm up at seven, kids out the door by eight, at my computer at eight-oh-five. I'm much more of a morning writer now that I'm older, too," he says. "It used to be late nights and all that, but now I'm most productive from nine to noon. Then a break for lunch, then back at it throughout the afternoon. If I'm really in the zone or on a deadline, I'll try to write at night, but usually by eight I'm done."