The scripts are not only flying off those proverbial Hollywood shelves, but have also sealed deals at studios and, in one case, secured a name director. The first instance concerns Draft Day, an NFL-centered comedy that Paramount have bought for Ivan Reitman to helm and, through his Montecito Pictures, produce. Written by Scott Rothman and acclaimed playwright Rajiv Joseph, Day spans one of the most important and stressful 24 hours of the profession’s calendar year, following the Buffalo Bills’ GM as he “frantically [tries] to get the number one pick for his struggling team.” [Deadline]

Interesting stuff, if only because we rarely get a sports comedy that — well, we rarely get sports comedies in general nowadays — plays with any conventions of narrative or, possibly in this case, general filmmaking. And while, yes, I know Reitman‘s “recent” work is either muted (No Strings Attached) or outright terrible (My Super Ex-Girlfriend), it’s still sort of impossible to turn ones back on the man who made Ghostbusters and Stripes. If a right script is all he really needs to make another solid outing, Draft Day might be his next best step.

Next up, Deadline has brief, vague news that Chris McCoy and his production company, Mandeville, have sold Disney a “high-concept romantic comedy” centered on fairy tale creatures. I’ve got, let’s say, a spot of curiosity as to what the (eventual) screenplay could entail, though curiosity doesn’t get us very far in instances such as these; we can at least bet Reese Witherspoon will get a call about the starring role.

Finally, Variety informs us that Dan Antoniazzi and Ben Shiffrin have caught Millennium Pictures’ attention with their own romantic comedy, Match; Scott Sanders Productions will be producing. How this actually ends up being a romantic comedy remains to be seen, since the logline — in which, basically, the owner of a dating web site “declares war” on a competitor sprucing up unseemly profiles for their unlucky customers — doesn’t leave much room for entanglement. Perhaps said owner discovers that said competitor is owned by a lovely lady or chap that matches his own needs. I bet it’d be more interesting than most other entries into this genre, should that be the case.

Is Reitman-related directing news still encouraging to you? What do you make of these two other recent sells?