Jan 09 2009
What is…the Black List?
In contemporary Hollywood vernacular, the Black List refers to a roster of all the “hot” screenplays that have crossed the desks of a variety of bigwig studio development suits and high-level assistants. It ranks those scripts, and each year’s list contains only material that circulated during that 12-month period. That means that these works stayed in screenplay format and never really became films that were released in theaters during that given year.
Basically, in a nutshell, the Black List is a line-up of the hottest projects circulating in Tinseltown that you probably haven’t heard of yet.
Inclusion on the list doesn’t exactly guarantee a great movie. For example, the Halle Berry-starring snoozer of a drama Things We Lost in the Fire and too-cute-for-comfort comedy Lars and the Real Girl are both previous listees from other years. But it’s always interesting to check out what’s floating the studios’ boats these days and to figure out what, exactly, they seem to be looking for. And yes, you will probably recognize the names of at least a few scribes in the bunch.
Thus, I have for your download and reading pleasure, a pdf (it seems to be somewhat “censored” or “incomplete”) of the 2008 Black List. While it lasts, boys and girls!
