Every year 311 clandestine Hollywood executives get together to determine the future of movies. These executives publish the Black List a list of “most liked” screenplays somehow associated with the year. The unique qualification for the Black List: screenplays chosen will NOT be produced at least within the year.
The term “blacklist” has a long and painful history with Hollywood. In the late 1940s a list was published of “fascist sympathizers” within the movie studio system. The list effectively killed the careers of all the names listed and sent a wave of fear throughout the entertainment community. Many of the artists were at high levels of production like Dalton Trumbo writer of classic film “Spartacus.” For almost 10 years Hollywood executives were held captive by blacklists firing anyone listed and avoiding any activity or offense that could lead to inclusion.
Today the new Black List has Hollywood’s attention. This is because many of the last six years’ biggest blockbusters and critical masterpieces have come straight off of the previous year’s blacklist. “Slumdog Millionaire The Wrestler” and “Hangover” were all included on 2007’s blacklist and became huge hits. Last year’s Black List listed “The Social Network” as its second-most-liked script. Now Aaron Sorkin’s chronicle of the founding of Facebook by Mark Zuckerburg is garnering early Oscar buzz and is an almost sure hit at the box office. Also included is the script for “Buried the bold confinement movie that features Ryan Reynolds trapped in a coffin for the entire feature film. The movie was the first to sell to a distributor at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.
The formula for the list is simple. Each year a select and always secret group of executives is given the opportunity to list the 10 scripts they liked best out of the thousands that fly across their desks. Each executive is an industry veteran or a respected up-and-comer. In the entertainment industry your opinion is your résumé and those chosen always have a history of success. Scripts must obtain at least five mentions before they are included in the Black List, which starts with the scripts with the most buzz.
Getting on the Black List is very difficult. There are hundreds of reasons a project can fail, and it’s even easier than that to kill a script. Before an executive with producing power reads a script, especially from an inexperienced writer, it has probably passed through at least four other readers, meant to save the executive’s time by weeding out the garbage. It often starts with an intern or assistant that may have had less than a year of experience and virtually no training.
But if the Black List chooses the most popular scripts, why aren’t they being produced right away? Like the scripting process, the production process is fickle, and even more so in today’s economy. Even a movie giant like MGM has been forced to delay or cancel many of its upcoming projects. Guaranteed blockbusters like Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit” have been delayed to the point of falling apart and the newest Bond movie “Bond 23 is struggling to hold on to commitments from its cast due to the hold on development. If huge-franchise movies are having trouble getting the green light, it’s no wonder that despite their impressive popularity, 80 percent of the Black List often goes unproduced.
These are daunting and disappointing figures for writers. Not even being on the Black List can guarantee a script will begin production. Ahead of The Social Network” on last year’s list was “The Muppet Man chosen by 47 top producers. The Muppet Man” is an outside take on the life of Jim Henson creator of the Muppets. Since the Black List was published the script has shown no signs of life even while other less popular scripts on the list like “Buried” will be released soon.
The list is released each year in December. See if you can pick a winner.