Hollywood Big Hitter Strikes Out : Movies: Multimillion-dollar scriptwriter Joe Eszterhas can’t find a taker for his new script, despite effusive reactions to it.

A film script reportedly described by Hollywood’s elite as “a masterpiece,” “Oscar-caliber” and, simply, “the best,” has nonetheless failed to find a studio executive willing to fork out any money for it. The film, reportedly, isn’t “commercial” enough.

“Blaze of Glory,” by highly successful and often controversial screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, is the first script he has written on spec that he has not been able to sell since 1983. Eszterhas established himself at the pinnacle of A-list screenwriters when he sold his script for “Basic Instinct” for a record $3 million in 1990. Other films written by Eszterhas include “Flashdance,” “Jagged Edge,” “Nowhere to Run” and “Sliver.”

“Blaze of Glory” examines the friendship between soul legend Otis Redding and his manager, Phil Walden, in the 1960s. The screenplay, said Eszterhas, “is about a white man and a black man in the South in the ‘60s, and examines the civil rights struggles of the time. It examines how the era affects their relationship.”

Eszterhas put the script on the market last Tuesday. When it became clear that there were no takers, he withdrew the script on Friday.

“This is my fourth spec script that I have not sold,” Eszterhas said. “You win some and you lose some. I’m disappointed but I’m very proud of the script. We will regroup and try to get it made some other way.

“I love the script,” he said by phone Friday afternoon from his producer’s office in Los Angeles. “I won’t rewrite it because I believe in the power of the piece.”

Though Eszterhas has explored racism in previous films such as “Music Box” and “Betrayed,” his latest script was a marked departure from his other recent works. The screenwriter had been on a lucrative roll with a string of sexy, violent thrillers that began even before his record payday on “Basic Instinct” with “Jagged Edge.”

Currently in production are “Jade,” starring David Caruso, for which Eszterhas was paid approximately $2.5 million, and “Showgirls,” a lap-dancing epic that earned him $3.7 million. He also received an estimated $3.5 million for “Foreplay” and $4 million for “One Night Stand,” which have yet to go into production.

Ben Myron, who hoped to produce “Blaze of Glory,” said, “The praise that we received was unlike any that I’ve ever heard. It was universal, loud, it was unbelievable. . . . We heard terms like ‘masterpiece’ and ‘Oscar-caliber’ across the board, without exception.”

So why was everyone afraid to take a chance?

The story Eszterhas tells requires a sizable budget, making turning a profit a potentially iffy proposition. “It’s hard to say what the budget would be, but it’s a large piece,” Myron said. “It’s not written as a small rock ‘n’ roll story. It’s an epic story, told on a large canvas. . . . It’s not an inexpensive picture. No matter how much people liked it, no matter how much they appreciated it, they questioned its commerciality. That’s what we were faced with.”

Walden, the man whose life with Redding is essayed in the film, is partnered with Eszterhas and Myron and was likewise disappointed. “I thought Joe did a magnificent job capturing the essence of the times, of Otis, of our relationship, his music, the whole era. But I’m confident that we’ll see the day when this will be a major motion picture.”

Despite the disappointment, Eszterhas maintained a sense of humor and a philosophical tone. “As Otis Redding said, ‘God is good,’ ” he concluded. “As Chuck Berry said, ‘Hail, hail rock and roll.’ ”

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Times staff writer Claudia Eller contributed to this report.