EXCLUSIVE: Buzzy emerging screenwriter Morgan Lehmann has sold the pitch for an untitled WAGs comedy to Amazon MGM Studios‘ United Artists and Scott Stuber, Deadline has learned.
While plot details are being kept under wraps, the pitch is being described as a female-driven sports comedy in the vein of Miss Congeniality. The term “WAGs” refers to the wives and girlfriends of celebrities, including high-profile athletes.
The spec sale is Lehmann’s second of the year following a six-way bidding war for her first feature, involving erotic teen fan fiction, which was snapped up by A24 with Emma Stone’s Fruit Tree aboard to produce.
Lehmann is writing the script. Annie McCreery brought the pitch into UA, whose Stuber and Nick Nesbitt will produce.
Born on a pig farm in small-town Minnesota, Lehmann is an alum of Harvard University and UCB who frequently develops for TV, having most recently sold half-hour sitcoms to CBS, ABC, and Freeform. Past credits include The Cool Kids and Bless This Mess. Currently working on Rager, an adult comedy for Lionsgate to be directed by Jake Kasdan, she’s represented by Untitled, CAA, and Yorn Levine.
Stuber’s next film coming up for release is Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, which opens in limited theaters on October 17 before debuting on Netflix on November 7. It’s one of two awards prospects he has out this fall, the other being 20th’s Bruce Springsteen pic Deliver Me from Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White, which releases October 24.