After more than a decade and about 20 screenplays, screenwriter Brandon Feldman's hard work and clever ways of navigating around the Hollywood gatekeepers has finally paid off. His horror-thriller spec Canopy recently sold to Netflix in a reported six-figure deal, less than 16 weeks after he came up with the idea.
"I've been writing for a while now, so it's nice to get some positive progress. It's been a nice couple of years," Feldman says.
The Fake Manager Who Opened Real Doors
Growing up in Oak Park, California, Feldman loved writing comic books and dreaming up movie ideas. But it wasn't until he attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he studied accounting, that he met comedy-enthusiast Ben Agron. After college and living in Brentwood, the two began writing screenplays together in 2012, focusing on rom-coms.
Neither had attended film school, so they taught themselves screenwriting by reading books, listening to podcasts, and organizing table reads with friends. Their initial goal was modest: Land a meeting with someone, anyone, in Hollywood. But without representation, getting people to read their work proved challenging. That's when Feldman decided to get creative.
"I created a Google email account as a fake manager," he says, explaining that a friend named Alex had previously used Feldman as a fake manager to find acting opportunities. Feldman began emailing producers as Alex, pitching his two talented clients, Brandon and Ben.
"I got pretty deep in it where I had a Google phone number, so it was separate from my own phone number. I would take calls and stuff," he says. Eventually, someone saw through the act.
"Someone called me once on it," he admits, laughing about the experience. "I didn't bother changing my voice or anything."
Despite the sneaky strategy, the pair optioned several scripts, including the second screenplay they ever wrote together. More importantly, their imaginary manager helped them connect with their first real manager, who represented them for approximately six years.
During that time, Feldman and Agron continued writing comedies, but the projects weren't gaining the traction they'd hoped for. Eventually, Feldman began experimenting with horror on his own. Unfortunately, his manager at the time dropped the writers as clients in 2024. What initially appeared to be a setback turned out to be a turning point.
Within months, Feldman and Agron signed with manager John Dunne, who saw potential in their existing material. One screenplay, Marriage Material, attracted Emma Roberts within months of the new partnership. The romantic comedy is currently in development. Dunne also encouraged Feldman's horror writing, providing notes on his early drafts. Then came Canopy.
A Woman Stuck in a Tree
Feldman jokingly describes Canopy as a movie about "A woman stuck in a tree." But the premise is a bit more complicated, combining a terrifying survival story with the emotional stakes of a mother desperate to save her dying daughter.
The screenplay follows a botanist who travels deep into the Amazon rainforest searching for a rare fungus that could cure her seriously ill child. While climbing a giant tree, her partner is killed by a mysterious creature that seems set on destroying anyone who enters its territory. The idea began when Feldman read a friend's screenplay about a sketch artist and started wondering what other unusual professions might lend themselves to a horror thriller.
"I just started Googling random jobs," he says. "I didn't know anything about botanists and people in the Amazon climbing trees and stuff." Discovering that researchers use ropes to climb enormous rainforest trees sparked his imagination. But he needed to come up with a terrifying creature that lived in the canopy.
"I didn't want to just do a jaguar or some real-life animal," he says. "I wanted to do an animal that could read as being true and authentic, but also have some Amazonian mythological traits."
One detail is the creature's backward-facing feet, inspired by Amazonian folklore, which confuse anyone attempting to track it. Feldman also needed an emotional reason for audiences to care about the woman fighting for her life. The solution was her sick daughter.
"I wanted to create a reason why this botanist was there, and have a ticking clock, so not just her surviving, but her needing to get home in time."
Feldman also drew inspiration from Arrival, using flashbacks of the mother and daughter together to deepen the emotional stakes and gradually reveal more about the protagonist's decision to undertake such a dangerous mission.
From Idea to Netflix in Less Than 16 Weeks
In late July, Feldman pitched the concept to his writers group. By August, he had completed an extensive 40-page outline. "I basically have the movie ready to go in the outline," he says.
With minimal dialogue and a carefully plotted sequence of scares, Feldman finished his first draft in about four weeks. That first draft was the one Netflix purchased.
While his manager was on vacation, Feldman decided to upload the screenplay to the Black List website for feedback. His expectations weren't particularly high, especially after a friend received a disappointing four rating for a screenplay Feldman thought was great. Canopy received an eight - and then a four, showing just how subjective screenplay evals can be.
"It's a crapshoot," Feldman says, though he acknowledges the platform's importance in connecting writers with industry professionals.
The eight proved especially valuable. After the score was circulated through the Black List's notification system, it garnered some attention from various studios. Meanwhile, Feldman's manager began generating additional interest and getting the screenplay into other producers' hands. Suddenly, the screenplay was attracting interest from multiple buyers. Then Netflix made its move. Feldman received a call from his agent and manager telling him that the streaming giant had purchased the screenplay. From the first spark of inspiration to a six-figure sale, the entire process had taken approximately 15 weeks.
Feldman knows that kind of speed is highly unusual. His romantic comedy Marriage Material, for example, began as a screenplay in 2019 and has taken years to move toward production. "Some things take weeks, some take years," he says.
Horror and Comedy Have More in Common Than You Think
Although Feldman's recent success has come through horror, comedy remains his first love. He and Agron began writing romantic comedies as the theatrical comedy boom associated with filmmakers like Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen was beginning to fade. Knowing that horror was growing in popularity, Feldman decided to give the genre a try. He says that horror and comedy share some similarities like establishing setups that eventually pay as jokes or scares.
"We like to do running gags in our comedies, and you can kind of do the same thing with horror where you tease a couple of things and then you have the big payoff at the end," he says.
Ultimately, both genres allow him to accomplish something fundamental as a storyteller: Provoke an emotional response. Whether that means making an audience laugh or scream, Feldman is happy to do either.
Finding a Fresh Way to Scare Audiences
For screenwriters hoping to take advantage of horror's current popularity, Feldman's advice is simple: Find a concept that stands apart from the competition.
Rather than writing another conventional home-invasion movie or exorcism thriller, Feldman encourages writers to look for unexpected ways to reinvent familiar genres.
His own approach involves studying movies he loves, including Smile, It Follows, 47 Meters Down and Barbarian, then finding a distinctive twist that makes the concept his own.
"I'd say just try to be as unique as possible," he says.