The Black List (survey)


The Black List is an annual survey of the "most-liked" motion picture screenplays not yet produced. It has been published every year since 2005 on the second Friday of December by Franklin Leonard, a development executive who subsequently worked at Universal Pictures and Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment. The website states that these are not necessarily "the best" screenplays, but rather "the most liked", since it is based on a survey of studio and production company executives.
Of the more than 1,000 screenplays The Black List has included since 2005, at least 450 have been produced as theatrical films, including Argo, American Hustle, Juno, The King's Speech, Slumdog Millionaire, Spotlight, The Revenant, The Descendants, Promising Young Woman, and Hell or High Water. The produced films have together grossed over $30 billion, and been nominated for 241 Academy Awards and 205 Golden Globe Awards, winning 50 and 40 respectively. As of the 92nd Academy Awards, four of the last 10 Academy Awards for Best Picture went to scripts featured on a previous Black List, as well as 12 of the last 20 screenwriting Oscars. Additionally, writers whose scripts are listed often find that they are more readily hired for other jobs, even if their listed screenplays still have not been produced, such as Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, two of the writers of the screenplay for The Descendants, who had an earlier screenplay make the list. Slate columnist David Haglund has written that the list's reputation as a champion for "beloved but challenging" works has been overstated, since "these are screenplays that are already making the Hollywood rounds. And while, as a rule, they have not yet been produced, many of them are already in production."

History

The first Black List was compiled in 2005 by Franklin Leonard, at the time working as a development executive for Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way Productions. He emailed about 75 fellow development executives and asked them to name the ten best unproduced screenplays they read that year. To thank them for participating, he compiled the list and sent it to the respondents. The name The Black List was a nod to his heritage as an African American man, and also as a reference to the writers who were barred during the McCarthy era as part of the Hollywood blacklist.
The screenplays to top The Black List, from 2005 to 2025 respectively, are: Things We Lost in the Fire; The Brigands of Rattleborge; Recount; The Beaver; The Muppet Man; College Republicans; The Imitation Game; Draft Day; Holland, Michigan; Catherine the Great; Bubbles; Blond Ambition; Ruin; Frat Boy Genius; Move On; Headhunter; Cauliflower; Pure; Bad Boy; One Night Only; and Best Seller.
On January 27, 2019, at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, it was announced that the LGBT media advocacy group GLAAD had partnered with The Black List to create The GLAAD List, a new curated list of the most promising unmade LGBT-inclusive scripts in Hollywood.

Structure

The Black List tallies the number of "likes" various screenplays are given by development executives, and then ranks them accordingly. The most-liked screenplay is The Imitation Game, which topped the list in 2011 with 133 likes; it went on to win the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 87th Academy Awards in 2015.

Films on the Black List

More than 450 screenplays have been put into production after appearing on The Black List. These include:

2005 Black List

  • 21
  • Afternoon Delight – then titled Tricycle
  • All God's Children Can Dance – then titled K-Town Super Frog
  • The American – then titled A Very Private Gentleman, by Laura Harrington
  • Altered Carbon – adapted to television
  • Anonymous – then titled Soul of the Age
  • Armored – by Andrew Kevin Walker
  • Babel
  • Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach
  • Black Snake Moan
  • Blades of Glory
  • Blind
  • Blood Diamond – by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz
  • Breach
  • The Brothers Solomon
  • The Bucket List
  • The Burial
  • Buried in Barstow – then titled Barstow
  • Carnival Row – then titled A Killing on Carnival Row; adapted to television
  • Chapter 27
  • Charlie Wilson's War
  • Charlie Bartlett
  • Cougars, Inc. – then titled Mother's Little Helpers
  • Dan in Real Life
  • Dangerous Parking
  • Dark Around The Stars – then titled Stars
  • Death at a Funeral
  • Delirium – then titled Home
  • Dexter – adapted to television
  • Disturbia
  • The Dirt
  • Dream House
  • Eight Below – then titled Antarctica
  • Ender's Game – by D.B. Weiss
  • The Expendables – then titled Barrow
  • Factory Girl
  • Fanboys
  • The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
  • The Forger
  • Freedomland
  • Fur
  • The Game Plan – then titled Daddy's Little Girl
  • Get Low
  • The Good Lie – then titled Lost Boys of Sudan
  • A Good Old Fashioned Orgy
  • Hal Buckley
  • Hall Pass
  • Hancock – then titled Tonight, He Comes
  • Harold
  • The Hawk Is Dying
  • Henry Poole Is Here – then titled Stain
  • The Highwaymen
  • The Hoax
  • Horrible Bosses
  • Hot Rod
  • The Hunting Party – then titled Spring Break in Bosnia
  • Infamous – then titled Every Word is True
  • In Secret – then titled Terese Raquin
  • Juno
  • Killer Elite – by John Jarrell
  • King of California
  • The Kingdom
  • The Kite Runner
  • Lars and the Real Girl
  • The Ledge
  • Legendary – then titled Oxley's Road
  • Life After Beth – then titled Winged Life
  • The Life Before Her Eyes – then titled In Bloom
  • Little Children
  • Little Miss Sunshine
  • Love in the Time of Cholera
  • Lucky Number Slevin
  • The Maiden Heist – then titled Lonely Maiden
  • Mama's Boy
  • Margaret
  • Married Life – then titled Marriage
  • Meet Bill – then titled Bill
  • Meet Dave – then titled Starship Dave
  • Message from the King
  • Michael Clayton
  • A Million Little Pieces – by James Frey
  • The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
  • My All American – by Jeff Roda
  • The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
  • Nacho Libre
  • Nebraska
  • Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
  • Not Another Happy Ending – then titled Happy Endings
  • Notes on a Scandal
  • The Number 23
  • One Percent More Humid
  • The Only Living Boy in New York
  • The Other Boleyn Girl
  • Pathfinder
  • Passengers
  • Peacock
  • Post Grad – then titled Ticket to Ride
  • The Prestige
  • The Proposal, by Jennifer Kirby
  • The Promotion — then titled Quebec
  • The Pursuit of Happyness
  • Pu-239
  • Quid Pro Quo
  • The Queen
  • Reservation Road
  • Righteous Kill
  • The Sasquatch Gang – then titled The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang
  • Stardust
  • The Starling
  • Stop-Loss
  • Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – then titled Studio 7
  • Survivor
  • The Ten
  • Tenure
  • Things We Lost in the Fire
  • The Time Traveler's Wife – by Jeremy Leven
  • Turistas
  • Under the Skin – by Alexander Stuart
  • Wanted
  • We Are Marshall
  • The Whistleblower
  • Wild Hogs
  • The Words
  • World Trade Center
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine
  • The Year of Getting to Know Us – then titled Eliot Rockett
  • Youth in Revolt
  • ''Zodiac''

    2006 Black List

  • 3:10 to Yuma – by Stuart Beattie
  • 500 Days of Summer
  • A Mighty Heart – by Michael Winterbottom & Laurence Coriat
  • All About Steve
  • Assassination of a High School President
  • Away We Go – then titled This Must Be the Place
  • The Brothers Bloom
  • The Bucket List
  • Changeling
  • Crash Pad – then titled Bim Bam Baby
  • Curve
  • Dear Dictator – then titled Coup d'Etat
  • Death at a Funeral
  • The Devil's Double
  • The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
  • The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
  • Dracula Untold – then titled Dracula Year Zero
  • The Fighter – by Lewis Colick
  • Frost/Nixon
  • Get Smart
  • Get On Up – then titled Superbad
  • Hanna
  • Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
  • In Bruges
  • Life of Pi – by Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Guillaume Laurent
  • Lions for Lambs
  • The Men Who Stare at Goats
  • The Messenger
  • My All American – Jeff Roda
  • Natural Selection
  • The Other Woman – then titled Love and Other Impossible Pursuits
  • Open Grave
  • Rendition
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – then titled Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
  • Seven Pounds
  • Seven Psychopaths
  • She's Out of My League
  • State of Play
  • Superbad
  • There Will Be Blood
  • Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
  • ''Year of the Dog''