Black List 2007′s Best Liked Screenplays

COMMENTS (54)

• The “f-word” exists.

  Get over it, Sandy.

  Comment by Sandy's gettng a little hysterical, no? — Monday December 10, 2007 @ 12:30am PST  Reply to this post

• Excited to see this Alex Garland script.

  I’ve heard a lot about Burn After Reading. Sounds good.

  Hey, John August, you’re not on the list…maybe let’s have something that Tim Burton won’t be directing, please? “GO” back to your old style.

  Comment by Chief — Monday December 10, 2007 @ 5:26am PST  Reply to this post

• As a member of the homosexual lobby, I’m disgusted by Sandy Daley’s attempts to further denigrate a writer by invoking our name. Though homosexual deaths in films are unfortunate (and ought to be avoided), Neuter-think has never been part of our gay agenda.

  I pray to my false god (the Oscar, an infallible harbinger of taste) that the reeducation swat team has already begun a John Waters marathon, so that in the future, she may speak more accurately to the needs and desires of flaming homos, like myself, everywhere.

  Comment by Token Lesbian — Monday December 10, 2007 @ 8:35am PST  Reply to this post

• I WANT TO FUCK YOUR CORPSE is actually set up with Lions Gate right now with Selma Blair and Ryan Reynolds attached. I read it and it’s absolutely delightful. And to the ignorant haters out there: read the scripts before you judge them. Because the title is I Want to Fuck YOUR Corpse, not I Want to Fuck A Corpse.

  Comment by Anonymous — Monday December 10, 2007 @ 9:31am PST  Reply to this post

• I am one of the voters for the list and I can tell you that no one influenced my choices in any way – I seriously voted for the scripts that I loved reading this year (and I work at a production company – I have no clients to tout). It didn’t and doesn’t matter if they are available or not (so I find the idea that the list “jumped the shark” ridiculous)- it’s about sharing material that we think is good, whether or not it’s getting made. Sure, we do all read a ton of material, so you can call us jaded, but it really is on the level. It was started by an exec who just wanted to help out and share good work that’s being done that everybody might not know about. It’s amazing to me that so many writers are posting sour grapes stuff here based on titles, etc (Sandy, you might try reading the actual script before railing to long and hard against it) – you would think that writers would appreciate a list like this. A few of these scripts were sold in big, splashy deals, but most of these scripts are small stories that aren’t likely to get made and most of these writers deserve (and could use) a little extra support.

  Comment by Voter — Monday December 10, 2007 @ 9:58am PST  Reply to this post

• You also have to remember, tentoes, that scripts from the big agencies are generally more widely disseminated – it’s impossible for a script to get 44 votes if it hasn’t been read by 44 of the voters. Plus, many writers leave their small agencies after they begin to have some success – so the big agency thing becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  Comment by voter — Monday December 10, 2007 @ 10:17am PST  Reply to this post

• I’m on the list and got my agency rep BECAUSE of this script, not BEFORE it was written.

  Comment by Anonymous — Monday December 10, 2007 @ 10:21am PST  Reply to this post

• I agree with your thoughts in regard to the top five agencies hogging the list and thus only clients of those agencies are getting on the list. As if they’re the only writers who can write a great script. And so it goes. Nepotism and incest everywhere in this God forsaken business.

  Comment by Francine Fishpaw — Monday December 10, 2007 @ 10:29am PST  Reply to this post

• RE: Lack of females on the list.

  Yeah, it blows. But I also think there’s a really cool way to parlay having ovaries into success. It makes you a novelty, especially if you’re unrepentent and badass about it.

  Own it. And write your ass off. Some people may be assholes about it, but most are pretty supportive.

  It’s worked for me. I thank everyday I’m not just another pasty, white dude. Boooooorrriiinnnggg.

  Comment by blacklist chick — Monday December 10, 2007 @ 10:58am PST  Reply to this post

• I’m currently doing a polish on “I WANT TO —- SANDY’S SISTER.”

  Ah, sweet comedy muse, thank you for your bountiful gifts to me.

  Comment by barney — Monday December 10, 2007 @ 5:05pm PST  Reply to this post

• I rec’d Sex and Sylvia Plath for the Expo contest — it definitely stood out for a contest entry, but I don’t know how well it would actually do on screen. Personally I’m kinda of tired of “off-beat” teen angst, but I suppose it sells.

  Comment by E — Tuesday December 11, 2007 @ 3:33am PST  Reply to this post

• Wow. These comments went downhill faster than Lindsay Lohan on a shag rug covered in coke.

  Comment by Kim — Tuesday December 11, 2007 @ 7:26am PST  Reply to this post

• If most writers are lucky to sell one screenplay for one hundred twenty thousand dollars every six years (as a post above states), perhaps most writers would be better off seeking a different profession.

  Comment by Mark — Tuesday December 11, 2007 @ 8:42am PST  Reply to this post

• I just read I WANT TO FUCK YOUR SISTER’S CORPSE, and it is magnificent, to say the least. It’s “When Harry Met Sally” meets “Night of the Living Dead.” I see Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts as the leads.

  Comment by Anon — Tuesday December 11, 2007 @ 10:59am PST  Reply to this post

• I can tell you right now that if Bruce and Julia team up side by side in “I WANT TO FUCK YOUR SISTER’S CORPSE” then no doubt about it…

  …I can already smell the Oscar buzz.

  A born winner if I do say so myself.

  Comment by the corpse sister — Tuesday December 11, 2007 @ 2:18pm PST  Reply to this post

• Bad news BLACK LIST writers. The networks are taking all your scripts, cutting them into hour-longs and shooting them for primetime TV.

  They don’t think you’ll mind.

  Comment by intheknow — Tuesday December 11, 2007 @ 2:24pm PST  Reply to this post

• **It really is realistic in Hollywood

  to get a million dollar deal.

  That’s a thousand dollars a week

  for twenty years !!

  Comment by Jeff McGivern — Tuesday December 11, 2007 @ 4:02pm PST  Reply to this post

• For what it’s worth, here’s one more opinion from someone who read I WANT TO ______ YOUR SISTER (which, by the way, is how the title appears on the cover page of the script).

  Far from “utter mysoginistic swill,” it’s a sharp, clever little movie with a lot more to say than most teen comedies out there. In fact, it reminded me quite a bit of MEAN GIRLS, which was once the hot new comedy of the moment before anyone had ever heard of Diablo Cody (or the Black List, for that matter).

  So I guess my point is the same one that’s already been made on this discussion board: don’t judge a script by its cover.

  Comment by Anonymous — Tuesday December 11, 2007 @ 10:41pm PST  Reply to this post

• Honestly, some of the people writing comments on this site should consider what they are saying. This post was about some undoubtedly amazing scripts!
  Every second post is practically about the movie title ‘I Want to __ Your Sister’, either get a life and move on from the topic or just shut the hell up!

  Comment by Dani — Wednesday December 12, 2007 @ 5:28am PST  Reply to this post

• I WANT TO ____ YOUR SISTER was a great script – and guess what, Melissa Stack is a lawyer! She is smart, funny and she can write.

  Comment by studio exec — Wednesday December 12, 2007 @ 10:00am PST  Reply to this post

• Yeah, it really doesn’t seem fair that the top five agencies monopolize the Blacklist. You know that can’t be right…

  Comment by G — Monday December 17, 2007 @ 5:47pm PST  Reply to this post

• I read most of these screenplays. I liked “Farragut North.” I’m surprised that “Shamrocks & Thistles” wasn’t on this list. Maybe it will be next year. Also, “The Road” was good. Congratulations to everyone.

  Comment by Timothy Klein — Tuesday March 25, 2008 @ 6:33pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Maybe one day I will be on this list.

  Comment by Anderson Black — Saturday September 13, 2008 @ 9:57am PDT  Reply to this post

• **It really is realistic in Hollywood

  to get a million dollar deal.

  That’s a thousand dollars a week

  for twenty years !!

  $1,000,000 divided by 52 weeks divided by 20 years is $961 a week.

  Take out commissions and taxes and a million bucks would work out to about $500 bucks a week.

  Jeff McGivern, are you the same guy who wrote that e-mail about the AIG bailout?

  Comment by jdog — Wednesday December 10, 2008 @ 9:14am PST  Reply to this post

• I’ve read a couple of scripts on the list this year, and they were nothing to scream about.

  Comment by Fucking A — Wednesday December 10, 2008 @ 12:17pm PST  Reply to this post