The BlackList Screenplays
I've got all 70 of the BlackList scripts and have begun reading them. There is lots of good stuff here.
The number one script "The Imitation Game," is great. It has already been optioned for Leonardo DiCaprio and slated for 2014.
If you can get your hands on these, I highly recommend reading them, as it gives great insight into the current writing trends.
You can see what agents consider the BEST. You can also gauge different agents tastes and possibly pitch those agents your similar project.
The most fascinating thing is how many screenwriting rules are broken. Writers are including emotions, camera angles and specific music in the scripts, which has long been a NO, No.
Film executive Franklin Leonard has been compiling The Black List since 2005. He started it out of desperation. Then a development executive at Appian Way, Leonard had been drowning in a sea of bad screenplays. He turned to his counterparts in the industry for a life preserver, and his simple e-mail to 75 Hollywood execs asking for good script suggestions resulted in an avalanche of replies.
He compiled those answers into a dossier he dubbed the Black List — part self-referential title (Leonard is African American) and part ironic nod to the 1940s and '50s Hollywood blacklist of suspected communists and communist sympathizers that on occasion derailed careers. A phenomenon was born.
Today, over 300 people participate in compiling the list; those invited to participate contribute an unranked list of up to 10 of their favorite scripts of the year. While the number of participants has ballooned, Leonard says the purpose of the list remains the same: to recognize solid screenplays.
In the past, the list has been responsible for bringing Oscar-winning films such as Juno, Slumdog Millionaire and The King's Speech to the attention of studios.
The 2011 list consists of 74 screenplays that film executives have voted their favorite scripts yet to make it into production.
This year, scripts had to receive at least six mentions to be included on The Black List.
The Black List is not a "best of" list. It is, at best, a "most liked" list.
Enjoy.
#1. 133 Votes
THE IMITATION GAME
by Graham Moore
The story of British WWII cryptographer Alan Turing, who cracked the German Enigma code and later poisoned himself after being criminally prosecuted for being a homosexual.
AGENCY: CAA
AGENT: JP Evans, Jacqueline Sacerio
MANAGEMENT: The Safran Company
MANAGER: Tom Drumm
FINANCIER: Warner Brothers
PRODUCER: Ido Ostrowsky, Nora Grossman
#2. 84 Votes
WHEN THE STREET LIGHTS GO ON
by Chris Hutton, Eddie O’Keefe
In the early 1980s, a town suffers through the aftermath of a brutal murder of a high school girl and a teacher.
AGENCY: WME
AGENT: Simon Faber, Sarah Self
MANAGEMENT: Tariq Merhab Management
MANAGER: Tariq Merhab
PRODUCER: Imagine Entertainment
#3. 59 Votes
CHEWIE
by Evan Susser, Van Robichaux
A satirical behind the scenes look at the making of Star Wars through the eyes of Peter Mayhew who played Chewbacca.
AGENCY: WME
AGENT: Mike Esola
MANAGEMENT: Industry Entertainment
MANAGER: Jess Rosenthal
#4. 53 Votes
THE OUTSIDER
by Andrew Baldwin
In post World War II Japan, an American former prisoner-of-war rises in the yakuza.
AGENCY: CAA
AGENT: Jay Baker, John Garvey
MANAGEMENT: Anonymous Content
MANAGER: Bard Dorros, David Kanter
FINANCIER: Warner Brothers
PRODUCER: Linson Entertainment
#5. 43 Votes
FATHER DAUGHTER TIME: A TALE OF ARMED ROBBERY AND ESKIMO KISSES
by Matthew Aldrich
A man goes on a three state crime spree with an accomplice, his eleven year old daughter.
AGENCY: CAA
AGENT: John Garvey, Stuart Manashil
MANAGEMENT: Silent R Management
MANAGER: Jewerl Ross
FINANCIER: Warner Brothers
PRODUCER: Pearl Street Productions
#6. 33 Votes
IN THE EVENT OF A MOON DISASTER
by Mike Jones
An alternate telling of the historic APOLLO 11 mission to land on the moon that examines what might have happened if the astronauts had crash landed there.
AGENCY: CAA
AGENT: David Kopple, JP Evans, Matt Rosen
MANAGEMENT: The Gotham Group
MANAGER: Lindsay Williams
PRODUCER: FilmNation
#7. 30 Votes
MAGGIE
by John Scott 3
As a “walking dead” virus spreads across the country, a farm family helps their eldest daughter come to terms with her infection as she slowly becomes a flesh-eating zombie.
AGENCY: CAA
AGENT: Billy Hawkins, Dan Rabinow
MANAGEMENT: Sly Predator
MANAGER: Trevor Kaufman
FINANCIER: Pierre-Ange Le Pogam
PRODUCER: Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Trevor Kaufman, Matthew Baer
#8. 30 Votes
THE CURRENT WAR
by Michael Mitnick
Based on the true story of the race between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse to develop a practical system of electricity and sell their respective inventions to the country and the world.
AGENCY: WME
AGENT: Simon Faber
MANAGEMENT: Fourth Floor Productions
MANAGER: Jeff Silver
#9. 29 Votes
GALSPANIC
by Paul Roc
A shy flat chested girl must compete in the BIG breasted world of Wet T-Shirt contests in order to save her grandmothers bar from a religious nut.
AGENCY: WME
AGENT: Robert Newman
MANAGEMENT: PW Media Group
MANAGER: Michael Hutchinson
#10. 28 Votes
THE END
by Aron Eli Coleite
Four people - a veteran broadcaster in London, a sixteen year old girl and her boyfriend in Ann Arbor, and a devoted family man in Shanghai - each try to make peace with their lives before an interstellar event ends the world in six hours.
AGENCY: CAA
AGENT: Matt Rosen, Martin Spencer
FINANCIER: Warner Brothers
#11. 27 Votes
BEYOND THE PALE
by Chad Feehan
Teenage siblings suspect they’ve been ripped off by the town undertaker, but what they discover is much more sinister than either imagined.
AGENCY: CAA
AGENT: Matt Rosen, Jacqueline Sacerio
MANAGEMENT: Management 360
MANAGER: Guymon Casady, Mary Lee
FINANCIER: Vendome Pictures
PRODUCER: The Fort
#12. 27 Votes
EZEKIEL MOSS
by Keith Bunin
A mysterious stranger who possibly has the power to channel the souls of the dead changes the lives of everyone in a small Nebraska town, especially a young widow and her 11-year-old son.
AGENCY: CAA
AGENT: Rowena Arguelles
MANAGEMENT: Kaplan/Perrone
MANAGER: Alex Lerner, Sean Perrone
PRODUCER: A Likely Story, Mandalay Pictures
#13. 24 Votes
GRACE OF MONACO
by Arash Amel
Grace Kelly, age 33 and having given up her acting career to focus on being a full time princess, uses her political maneuvering behind the scenes to save Monaco while French Leader Charles de Gaulle and Monaco’s Prince Rainier III are at odds over the princi¬pality’s standing as a tax haven.
AGENCY: CAA
AGENT: Rich Green, Matt Rosen
FINANCIER: Pierre-Ange Le Pogam
PRODUCER: Pierre-Ange Le Pogam
#14. 24 Votes
HE’S lalalalaIN’ PERFECT
by Lauryn Kahn
A social media savvy girl who is pessimistic about love finds the perfect guy and decides to use her internet research skills to turn herself into his perfect match.
AGENCY: WME
AGENT: Cliff Roberts
FINANCIER: Fox 2000
PRODUCER: Gary Sanchez
#15. 23 Votes
BETHLEHEM
by Larry Brenner
A group of people struggling to survive a zombie apocalypse make an alliance with a vampire, trading themselves as food in exchange for protection since zombies don’t eat vampire.
AGENCY: CAA
AGENT: Martin Spencer, Jacqueline Sacerio
MANAGEMENT: Magnet Management
MANAGER: Mitch Solomon
PRODUCER: Roth Films
#16. 20 Votes
THE THREE MISFORTUNES OF GEPPETTO:
by Michael Vukadinovich
A prequel to the story of Pinocchio in which Geppetto endures a life of misfortune, war, and ad¬venture, all to be with Julia Moon, his true love.
AGENCY: ICM
AGENT: Ava Jamshidi
FINANCIER: Fox
PRODUCER: 21 Laps Entertainment
#17. 20 Votes
POWELL
by Ed Whitworth
Based on the true story of Colin Powell questioning the Bush administration leading up to his United Nations presentation where he made the case for going to war with Iraq.
AGENCY: WME
AGENT: David Karp, Cliff Roberts, Dan Cohan
MANAGEMENT: Circle of Confusion
MANAGER: Ashley Berns
PRODUCER: Spirit Dance Entertainment
#18. 19 Votes
THE KNOLL:
by Christopher Cantwell, Christopher Rogers
A rookie cop and his potential flame witness JFK gunned down from the grassy knoll on November 22, 1963. Within hours, they’re on the run from the murderers who desperately need them silenced.
AGENCY: ICM
AGENT: Aaron Hart
MANAGEMENT: Management 360
MANAGER: Jennifer Graham, Chris Huvane
PRODUCER: Management 360
#19. 17 Votes
HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY:
by Ed Solomon
A child prodigy tries to take control of his life away from his demanding parents.
AGENCY: CAA
AGENT: Jay Baker, Todd Feldman, David O’Connor
FINANCIER: Sony
PRODUCER: Escape Artists
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