Black List Revealed: Hollywood’s Favorite Unproduced Screenplays

Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks optioned one of the scripts, while another comes from Joss Whedon's brother Zack

Franklin Leonard's Black List revealed its list of Hollywood’s favorite unproduced screenplays on Monday — opting this year to issue them one each minute on Twitter.

Rajiv Jospeh and Scott Rothman's "Draft Day," a story about the conflicted general manager of an NFL team, topped the list with 65 votes. Ivan Reitman's Monteceito Pictures owns the rights.

Among the agencies, WME scored the most entrees with 22, leading all other comers by double digits. CAA placed second with 12. 

The list began with Brad Desch’s “Fathers and Daughters” and concluded with Roberto Bentivegna's "The Eel." It includes several high-profile projects such as “Glimmer,” a spec script by Carter Blanchard that DreamWorks optioned in June, and “Come and Fine Me” from Zack Whedon, brother of Joss Whedon. The brothers co-created the “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog,” a well-received web series, with brother Jed.

Leonard launched the first Black List in 2005, based on a survey of film industry executives who chose their favorite unmade screenplays. Several past scripts on the list have gone on to great acclaim, such as five Oscar winners – “Juno,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Social Network," ”The  King’s Speech” and ‘The Descendants.”

Leonard has since moved full-time to expanding the business. In September, he left Overbrook Entertainment, which TheWrap reported exclusively. In October, he launched a service whereby aspiring writers can pay to upload their scripts for review.

For this year's list, he partnered with Twitter.

“Twitter’s role, both in Hollywood and the world beyond it, is truly singular,” Leonard said in a press release Friday. “Our mission has always been to celebrate exceptional screenwriting and the writers who do it. We think this partnership has extraordinary potential to do that more effectively than we ever could before.”

“Increasingly, Twitter is a place where news breaks. Releasing the list on Twitter first is a great way to spark a conversation around these scripts,” Omid Ashtari, Twitter’s head of sports and entertainment, said in a statement.

This year’s Black List surveyed 290 executives and scripts needed to receive at least six mentions to make the cut.

The full list (ranked): 

 

The 2012 Black List:

65 Mentions: “Draft Day" by Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman

43: “A Country of Strangers,” by Sean Armstrong, "Seuss" by Eyal Podell and Jonathan Stewart: 43 mentions

39: "Rodham" by Young Il Kim

35: "Story of Your Life" by Eric Heisserer

33: "Wunderkind" by Patrick Aison

31: "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile" by Michael Werwie

29: "Glimmer" by Carter Blanchard, "Me & Earl & the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews

28: "Devils at Play" by James Dilapo

26: "Sweet Virginia" by Paul China and Benjamin China

25:"Fathers and Daughters" by Brad Desch

23: "Shut In" by Christina Hodson

22: “The Keeping Room" by Julia Hart

21:"If They Move… Kill 'Em!" by Kel Symons

20: "Americatown" by Ben Poole, "The Judge" by Bill Dubuque and "Sand Castle" by Chris Roessner

19: "Clive" by Natasha Pincus, "Comancheria" by Taylor Sheridan, "Flower" by Alex McAulay, "Whalemen" by Tucker Parsons and "Whiplash" by Damien Chazelle

18: "George" by Jeff Shakoor

17: "The Fault In Our Stars" by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber and "The One That Got Away" by April Prosser

16: "The Ballad of Pablo Escobar" by Matt Aldrich, "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" by Mark Hogan and "Man of Tomorrow" by Jeremy Slater

15: "El Tigre" by Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley and "Murder City" by Will Simmons

14: "The Final Broadcast" by Chris Hutton and Eddie O'Keefe and "The Survivalist" by Stephen Fingleton

13: "Black Box" by David Guggenheim, "Cherries" by Brian Kehoe and Jim Kehoe, "From New York to Florida" by Austin Reynolds and "Hey, Stella!" by Tom Shephard

12: "The Broken" by John Glosser, "The Disciple Program" by Tyler Marceca and "Jojo Rabbit" by Taika Waititi

11: "All-Nighter" by Brad Ingelsby, "McCarthy" by Justin Kremer, "Who Framed Tommy Callahan?" by Harry Kellerman and

"The Winter Kills" by Ben Carney

10: "Our Name Is Adam" by T.S. Nowlin, "The Portland Condition" by Dan Cohn and Jeremy Miller, "Somacell" by Ashleigh Powell and "Untitled Cops Script" by Blake McCormick

9: "Conversion" by Marissa Jo Cerar, "Goodbye, Felix Chester" by Max Taxe and "Penny Dreadful" by Shane Atkinson

8: "Border Country" by Jonathan Stokes, "Doppelgangers" by Evan Mirzai and Shea Mirzai, "The Equalizer" by Richard Wenk, "Ground Control to Major Tom" by Jason Micallef, "Out of State" by Eric Pearson and "Times Square" by Taylor Materne and Jake Rubin

7: "Bleeding Kansas" by Russell Sommer and Dan Frey, "Ex Boyfriend of the Bride" by Matt Hausfater, "Hibernation" by Will Frank and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, "The Hooverville Dead" by Brantley Aufil, "The Killing Spree" by Derek Elliott and Jack Donaldson, "Midnight at Noon" by Nathaniel Halpern, "The Outskirts" by Dominique Ferarri and Suzanne Wrubel, "Stockholm, Pennsylvania" by Nikole Beckwith and "Transcendence" by Jack Paglen

6: "Almanac" by Jason Pagan and Andrew Stark, "Come and Find Me" by Zack Whedon, "Don't Make Me Go" by Vera Herbert, "The Eel" by Roberto Bentivegna, "Fuck Marry Kill" by Neel Shah and Alex Blagg, "Hold On to Me" by Brad Ingelsby, "King of Heists" by Will Staples, "The Lighthouse" by Eric Kirsten, "Monsoon" by Matt Ackley, "The Paper Man" by Sean O'Keefe and "Peste" by Barbara Marshall and "Titans of Park Row" by Mitch Akselrad

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