Paramount Wins Six-Studio Bidding War For Erotic Revenge Thriller Spec ‘Over Asking’ From Caroline Dries, Striking Seven-Figure Deal

EXCLUSIVE: In a highly competitive situation involving six parties, Paramount Pictures has snapped up rights to Over Asking, a sexual revenge thriller spec from Caroline Dries.

Both streamers and traditional studios were in the mix, as others who made offers included Amazon, Apple, Skydance, New Line and Sony, according to multiple sources, who said that the deal came in at north of seven figures.

Said to be a throwback in the vein of Paramount’s classic erotic thrillers, the film watches as a chance encounter between a seemingly perfect couple and a powerful female attorney leads the couple down a scary path that throws everything into jeopardy. Karen Rosenfelt (The Twilight Saga) will serve as its producer.

The deal was described as a heartening reflection of a market that most have been down on, amid the contraction following last year’s damaging double strike, demonstrating that studios are still more than willing to step up to acquire strong material. It comes just a week following the major revelation that Skydance and Shari Redstone have agreed to terms on a new merger proposal for Paramount.

A well-respected veteran writer-producer, Dries has most recently written on and served as consulting producer for The CW superhero series Gotham Knights. Prior to that creating, showrunning and exec producing The CW’s Batwoman, which ran for three seasons, Dries was also a writer and exec producer on The CW’s The Vampire Diaries, making a name for herself there as one of Kevin Williamson’s top writers. Other credits for Dries include Melrose Place and Smallville, where she began her career.

Emmy-nominated for her work as exec producer of Hulu’s Dopesick, Rosenfelt subsequently moved on to exec produce Prime Video’s YA romantic drama The Summer I Turned Pretty. In addition to steering major studio franchises like The Twilight Saga and Alvin and the Chipmunks, she’s served as producer or EP of films including The New Mutants, Me Before You, Marley & Me and The Devil Wears Prada, among others.

Dries is represented by WME, Entertainment 360, and Wendy Kirk at Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.