YOU MAY or may not have heard of the Black List, but you’ve almost certainly seen films from it. Not to be confused with Joseph McCarthy’s blacklist that tarnished and ostracised Hollywood writers in the 1950s, the modern Black List is an annual compilation of the best unproduced scripts in Hollywood.
Established by Hollywood executive Franklin Leonard, it’s compiled by consulting dozens of the top agents, executives and producers. Back in 2004, Leonard sent an email to some friends, asking them to name their favourite unproduced screenplays. It went viral and the following year a definitive Black List was selected. Leonard, an African American, chose to name it the Black List to create a positive linguistic association with the colour. Or, to quote his intro to the 2006 list, “All irony aside, black is the new white.”
The list is admirably diverse, and in the few years since the Black List began, some of these scripts went onto become Oscar winners ( Juno), box office hits ( Zombieland), critical darlings ( 500 Days of Summer, The Social Network, The Town), nondescript flops ( Rendition, Fur), flat-out turkeys ( Cop Out) and genuine oddities (the forthcoming Mel Gibson film, The Beaver).
Highlights from the 2010 list include:
F*cking Jane Austenby Blake Bruns
A modern man, resentful of the expectations created by the popular novelist, finds himself transported back to Austen’s lifetime and must seduce the titular writer.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunterby Seth Graham Smith
Another genre mash-up: This historical comedy/horror finds the lanky emancipator moonlighting as, well, you know.
Boy Scouts vs Zombiesby Carrie Evans and Emi Mochizuki
A group of boy scouts must prevent a zombie outbreak and protect the local girl-scout troupe.
Jackieby Noah Oppenheim
A drama about Jackie Kennedy’s fight to define her husband’s legacy in the days following his assassination.
Free Countryby Josh Parkinson
The owner of a tourist-attraction cave schemes to kill a rich boy who finds a ruby. (Great title for a thriller, no?)
Can you keep a secret?by Megan Martin
A woman, during a turbulent plane journey, confesses an embarrassing secret to another passenger. He turns out to be her new boss.
All you need is Killby Dante Harper
A soldier finds himself caught in a time loop when he’s killed and then wakes up the day before his death.
