LOS ANGELES—Calling its musical cue of “Paramount trumpet theme” a perfect choice, Paramount Pictures executive Michael Ryan quickly snapped up a script Friday that began with a series of animated stars swooping through the clouds before joining the studio’s logo and fading into an establishing shot of an actual mountain. “A lot of screenplays come across my desk, but when I saw ‘PARAMOUNT LOGO DESCENDS INTO FRAME,’ I knew this one was special,” said the vice president of development, who reportedly made an offer as soon as the stage directions indicated the words “A Viacom Company” would fade in on the bottom third of the screen. “I was hooked from page one. From the slow-zoom on the Paramount logo to the three-second static shot of the Paramount logo, it just has Paramount Pictures written all over it. When we got on the phone, I told this guy, ‘Listen, I just can’t see this anywhere else but Paramount,’ and then we acquired it for $1.2 million on the spot.” At press time, sources confirmed the screenwriter had pulled out of the deal and decided to take the script to Universal Studios.

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