Monday, December 10, 2007






AFTERTHOUGHTS (30)
THE BLACK LIST

Happy Christmas, The Black List 2007 is out.
Before we get into that though—in fact, let’s save that for Afterthoughts (31)—let’s have a quick overview of The Black List.

In the words of its compiler and originator, Franklin Leonard, “THE BLACK LIST was compiled from the suggestions of over 150 film executives and high-level assistants, each of whom contributed the names of up to ten of their favorite scripts that were written in, or are somehow uniquely associated with, 2007 and will not be released in theaters during this calendar year.
Like last year, scripts had to receive at least two mentions to be included on THE BLACK LIST.”

Leonard—who currently works for Mirage Enterprises (Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella’s production company)—also goes on to note, “It has been said, but it’s worth repeating: THE BLACK LIST is not a ‘best of’ list. It is, at best, a ‘most liked’ list.”

To give you an idea of the kinds of scripts that were once on The Black List, the top three titles on The Black List 2005 were Allan Loeb’s Things We Lost In The Fire (25 mentions), Diablo Cody’s Juno (24 mentions), and Nancy Oliver’s Lars and the Real Girl (15 mentions).
At #5 with 13 mentions was Aaron Sorkin’s Charlie Wilson’s War, and #6, with 10 mentions, David Benioff’s The Kite Runner.
Other scripts that were on The Black List 2005 were Peter Morgan’s The Queen, Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan, and Guillermo Arriaga’s Babel.

On The Black List 2006 were Kelley Sane’s Rendition (#3; 19 mentions); Matt Carnahan’s Lions For Lambs (6 mentions); Michael Winterbottom & Laurence Coriat’s A Mighty Heart (4 mentions); Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg’s Super Bad (4 mentions); Stuart Beattie’s 3:10 To Yuma (3 mentions); and Dean Craig’s Death At A Funeral (2 mentions).

The Black List is only three years old, but already it’s become, as the New York Times puts it, “a Hollywood phenomenon, the kind of underground document that writers with projects stuck in development pray will mention their script.”
So, if you want to see the 2007 scripts that are on my personal film geek radar, check out Afterthoughts (31) in the Archive.

(All OS’s [Things We Lost In The Fire, Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, Charlie Wilson’s War, and The Kite Runner] courtesy of impawards.com.)

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