Film: “The Truman Show,” a hot spec...

Film: “The Truman Show,” a hot spec script by Andrew Niccol, a young New Zealand-born writer, has been sold to Paramount Pictures in a writer-director deal worth $1.5 million. The script ignited a brief but intense bidding war Wednesday between Paramount and Warner Bros. after Scott Rudin, one of the most prolific producers on the Paramount lot, said he was captivated by the premise and wanted to make the film. “It’s about a guy who comes to understand what he perceives to be reality maybe isn’t real,” Rudin said. Lynn Pleshette, Niccol’s agent, was guarded in describing the plot, saying only that it centers on a Queens, N.Y., insurance adjuster. Under terms of the deal, Pleshette will also serve as producer with Rudin on the film. While it’s unusual for an agent to also act as a producer on a client’s movie, Pleshette denied it poses a problem. “‘There is an implicit conflict of interest with my client,” she said. “But Andrew wants me to do it.”