Black List 2007′s Best Liked Screenplays

COMMENTS (54)

• I think this is the year that the Black List jumped the shark. Almost every script is unavailable or erroneously reported as available. The great thing about JUNO and LARS AND THE REAL GIRL was that they were needles in a haystack…not Studio X project #1234.

  Comment by blacklistvoter — Friday December 7, 2007 @ 6:36pm PST  Reply to this post

• Hey Nikki –

  Re: your blacklist of screenplays…
  Coxblocker is my pitch and script — Tim Dowling (a friend) just did a polish.

  Read your site everyday. Thanks for all of your hard work.

  Best,

  Greg

  Comment by Greg Coolidge — Friday December 7, 2007 @ 8:31pm PST  Reply to this post

• Were all of those assignments or adaptations? Any specs in there?

  Comment by Pat — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 4:05am PST  Reply to this post

• I’m sure the AMPTP is wondering what the average salary for 2007 is for the people on that list! That’s their point. People WHO WORK make a killing. Who in America is crying for a person who sells a script called “I Wanna Fuck Your Sister” for $300,000/$600,000. Maybe now is not the time to make their point.

  Comment by realworldperson — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 5:03am PST  Reply to this post

• my script is on this year, and i’ve not made a killing. unless by ‘killing’ you mean ‘zero dollars.’ and ‘i want to fuck your sister’? magnificent title.

  Comment by blacklistdude — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 10:22am PST  Reply to this post

• Nice to see Michael Cooney (IDENTITY) on the list. Good to have one writer on the entire list actually have talent and didn’t get where he was thanks to nepotism.

  Comment by Sherilyn — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 2:34pm PST  Reply to this post

• I WANTO TO FUCK YOUR SISTER is a disgusting title. No surprise that got on the list considering the depravity that runs so rampant in Hollywood these days. And the fact that a woman actually churned that one out is even more nauseating. Complete and utter misygonistic swill.

  Comment by Sandy — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 2:39pm PST  Reply to this post

• Congrats to all the writers who made the list!

  I must take issue with the post that states that writers make $300K to $600K per script. That is NOT TRUE for the majority of writers.

  Most writers spend YEARS working on a spec script that will sell for the WGA minimum which is about $120K — OR LESS — depending on the film’s budget. (WGA rates are available for anyone to see, just check out their website.)

  The real issue is about residuals — writers need that money to sustain them between scripts — to help pay for health insurance, support their families, and save for retirement.

  Without residuals, if a writer is fortunate enough to sell one script every six years (and believe me, most writers are not that lucky), that $120K only amounts to $20K per year.

  Just as only a handful of A-list stars make the big bucks, the same goes for writers. Most writers are not making the big bucks like the studio executives and producers.

  Good writing and great scripts are too few and far imbetween. When a good script comes along, the writer deserves every penny s/he is paid.

  Comment by BEck — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 3:11pm PST  Reply to this post

• How many screenwriters are on the Black List? Interesting that out of all the screenplays received, there are only 10 women’s names there. I guess some things never change…Say, how about an annual “Pink List”…where the screenwriters are all women?!

  Comment by mermaid7seas — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 3:48pm PST  Reply to this post

• I am also on this list. I didn’t get on the list because of nepotism and I didn’t make a ‘killing.’ I also have a sexually ambiguous first name, so how do you know if I am a woman or not? I am with a big agency now, but I was not when I got this assignment. It is a book adaptation which was set up somewhere and now is not.

  I was on the Black List last year with a spec script. It opened many doors for me. Has anyone here actually read ‘I want to F— Your Sister’ or know what it is about?

  Because of this assignment, I am now a proud member of the WGA.

  I am also honored to be included on this list, as it is recognition from my peers in this industry, whom I hope to be getting back to work with when this whole thing clears up.

  Let’s not make assumptions and tear each other up during this time when we should be supporting each other.

  I congratulate all of my fellow black-listers and all of the writers out there trying to make a go of it, especially during these difficult times.

  Comment by Pat Healy — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 5:07pm PST  Reply to this post

• You can tell just by the title of many of these picks that they’re wanker-material.

  Comment by Mark S. — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 5:39pm PST  Reply to this post

• I thought my sci fi spec, NOVALIS, was pretty cool, but it didn’t make the list. Sux to be me.

  - MJR, writer, not in the guild… yet.

  Comment by outside the gates — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 6:51pm PST  Reply to this post

• I was on the list, too. I made $300k on the nose, and it was mostly nepotism.

  Comment by Anonymous — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 7:04pm PST  Reply to this post

• Hey, judging from a place of ignorance is fun!

  Unfortunately, “I Want to ___ Your Sister” (it isn’t actually “I Want to Fuck Your Sister” anywhere on the script, sorry guys) isn’t some kind of horrible misogyny-fest. It’s about a guy who’s a cad and a jerk to women and whose little sister suddenly grows up and gets cute, and he of course panics.

  If you haven’t read these things, maybe you shouldn’t go around declaiming loudly and obnoxiously and ignorantly that you know what you’re talking about.

  Just a thought.

  (I didn’t write this script and I have nothing to do with it. Unlike Sandy above, I just happened to have actually, you know, read the thing.)

  Comment by velveeta — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 8:04pm PST  Reply to this post

• I think it’s really interesting that in the past the Black List has been great at (and really…this was it’s greatest and potentially only purpose) identifying “up and coming’ writers who had not gotten the recognition they deserved.

  Hilariously this year’s list included scripts by some of the biggest name scribes around. Jumped the shark? Um…yes. The Black List is the screenwriting equavilant of the Grammy Awards.

  That said, I actually read I WANT TO FUCK YOUR SISTER -and as a young woman working her way up in Hollywood – ROCK ON Mellisa Stack, your script fucking ruled.

  XO

  Comment by asstgirl — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 8:32pm PST  Reply to this post

• I write coverage for one of the big agencies – and I’ve read about 75% of these. With the exception of 2 or 3, they all ABSOLUTELY deserved to be on this list. It’s difficult to write a good screenplay, and there’s nothing wrong with lauding the people who manage to do it. And, like Velveeta, I also read “I want to — Your Sister” and quite enjoyed it.

  By the way, for my money, “Edwin A. Salt” was #1. I think Terry George is going to direct it.

  Comment by Script Reader — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 9:40pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’m on the list.

  That’s all I wanted to say.

  Comment by anon — Saturday December 8, 2007 @ 10:37pm PST  Reply to this post

• I wish I was on the list. That’s all I wanted to say.

  papa
  stas

  Comment by baseballstas — Sunday December 9, 2007 @ 2:29am PST  Reply to this post

• A good writer gives their script a title that tells whoever sees the title a little something about the script. But instead the writer of I WANT TO FUCK YOUR SISTER simply went for the attention-grabbing and exploitive in order to get a reaction from people who saw the script lying around (or to get reads from a query).

  So don’t act all holier than thou when people react negatively to such a vulgar title. Of course if something has a vulgar title, people are going to assume the contents of the scripts is vulgar as well. Who wouldn’t?

  Likewise, if someone wrote a script called I WANT TO FUCK A CORPSE, don’t bother telling me the script is a rom com about a girl who has no interest in fucking a corpse.

  Give it a title that matches the content.

  Unless you’re only interested in attaching a salacious title in order to get some cheap attention for your crummy script.

  Comment by Sandy Daley — Sunday December 9, 2007 @ 6:43am PST  Reply to this post

• Sandy, I already told you: there’s no “fuck” in the title. Is it thrilling to keep repeating it, though?

  Comment by velveeta — Sunday December 9, 2007 @ 11:25am PST  Reply to this post

• Script Reader, would you read my script? Please?

  J.L.

  Comment by J.L. Tyler — Sunday December 9, 2007 @ 1:10pm PST  Reply to this post

• Don’t be haters. These are all amazing scripts and these writers need to be recognized.

  Comment by Carter — Sunday December 9, 2007 @ 2:28pm PST  Reply to this post

• Velveeta, I’m sure it thrills Melissa to include the word every time she writes to her grandmother. She ought to be ashamed of herself for writing such vile crap.

  I assume she’s not aiming for an Oscar though so I’m looking forward to her next “comedy” which will probably include the words “homosexuals” and “die”.

  She seems like that kind.

  Comment by Sandy Daley — Sunday December 9, 2007 @ 6:13pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’m most interested in seeing PASSENGERS, PIERRE PIERRE, UNTITLED MICHAEL MANN, and GIANT MONSTERS ATTACK JAPAN.

  Comment by popcorn — Sunday December 9, 2007 @ 9:09pm PST  Reply to this post

• Looks like good scripts only come from the major agencies. Gersh slipped one or two in Paradigm had a few, but clearly no good writers are repped by anyone but the big 5 (or is it 4 now). Hmmm – but other agencies sell scripts. How could this be? Gee, wow, zowee, walking triangles in the rain! – Could it be that this is all bullshit? Could it be that the big agencies lobby and armtwist the great independent thinkers in the industry? Say it isn’t so, joe!

  Comment by tentoes — Sunday December 9, 2007 @ 9:09pm PST  Reply to this post