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A pair of writers have landed deals after being discovered on The Black List‘s online pay service for unrepresented screenwriters to have their work analyzed by industry pros. Benderspink has inked Bob Ingraham based on his script Possum, which centers on a team of thieves who incorporate an autistic man with unique skills into their group as they prepare for their biggest heist yet. The deal came together quickly, with the deal signed Monday after the firm downloaded Ingraham’s screenplay from Franklin Leonard’s service — the script is being prepped to go out with a new title. Meanwhile, Verve and Kaplan/Perrone have signed Richard Cordiner based on his script The Shark Is Not Working, which chronicles of the making of Jaws. Of course, the first writer to land a deal from the service — Justin Kremer, who signed with CAA based on his screenplay McCarthy, chronicling the rise of Sen. Joe McCarthy’s anti-Communist fervor — was discovered to have previously interned for Leonard’s site, which led many to question whether the operation launched in October was legit. But we’re hearing that more deals are in the works, so maybe there’s something to it.
Two More Black List Site Scribes Nab Rep Deals
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Do you hav to have an AGENT and REP to be on the BLACK LIST? Just checking. Getting an Agent is hard work lol
Did you bother to read the article? It’s about how both of those writers just landed representation from being on the Black List.
Yay, writers get reps. Now these reps can send them out to work on spec.
Wake me in 2017 when one of these guys actually books a gig or gets produced.
This industry needs to re-examine the role of the writer. No one else would be asked to work on spec or execute notes for a year for free. The WGA really needs to step up its game, because there are a lot of people having their passions taken advantage of.
Good luck with that.
Come on, man. It’s never gonna happen. The WGA are about as useful as a fart in a wet blanket. Any writer who expects them to stand up to the studios and fight for better conditions is kidding themselves.
Are you even in this industry?
I am actually. Are you?
“Wake me in 2017 when one of these guys actually books a gig.”
Not working out for you, huh?
If you’re finding fault with that statement you clearly don’t work in the industry
Are you?
I don’t know about lukeandlaura, but I work in the industry. I don’t think comments like the one you posted are particularly helpful. Yes, Hollywood is full of people who got a burst of recognition for a few moments and then faded. So what? Yes, the town lives on hype. So what? These people got a decent break. Maybe they’ll stall out, maybe they’ll go far. You don’t know. So why piss and moan about it?
Ha, well if you came to an internet comments board looking for something truly helpful, you came to the wrong place. But I’m not pissing and moaning about anything, I’m being frank and realistic and the market for baby writers. Hell, ANY writers. Writers aren’t getting paid. Fewer movies are getting made. No movie gets made without movie star and director attachments. No one’s spending development money.
The only realistic way these guys have to move forward is work for years on spec, hoping to get attachments and hoping the planets align and something hits. If they’re smart about their choices and are able to log a few thousand hours of writing on spec and stick at this for three to five years, maybe this will happen. Anything more than that — booking a job (a REAL job for real money) or getting produced is pie-in-the-sky stuff.
“The only realistic way these guys have to move forward is work for years on spec, hoping to get attachments and hoping the planets align and something hits.”
Umm, no. Specs rarely sell, but very good specs can get attention, and if the writer plays his/her cards right, this can lead to writing assignments in the form of both rewrites and lower level adaptations. You don’t have to start with a major studio; one can start learning the ropes at any number smaller production companies (think how many careers Roger Corman started).
A career is rarely built in one fell swoop, with a big spec sale. It often takes years, moving from very low paid non-union work to WGA minimum to (hopefully) bigger paydays.
This is great news. I’m glad to see the upload blacklist site start to see some good writers signed.
These posts annoy me a little– I think it’s good to report on people getting repped via Blcklist, which is a great site, but they are far from DEALS. Once their reps get them PAID then call it a deal.
Yes. More like “two writers shake hands with reps.” As a writer myself, I’d rather not work for free, therefore I don’t pitch to managers.
Congrats all around.
Scary to think out of the many thousands of scripts sent in (2000 and counting?) only a few people have gotten reps. That just tells you how much bad writing is out there.
I was an assistant in the MoPic Lit. Dept. at one of the bigs (THE big, actually) for 3 1/2 years.
The amount of writing out there that is bad to downright terrible is unimaginable. UN-imaginable.
What’s your point? So is the amount of bad acting, bad directing, bad assistanting, oh and pretty much everything else. If you worked in the lit dept. at CAA, wading through scripts was your JOB. If you didn’t like it, you were free to go work for, say, a casting director, where, guess what? You’ll see an unimaginable amount of bad acting. Oh, the stain on humanity, the horror of choosing to work in an insanely competitive industry where very few people ever get out of the slush pile, regardless of whether they’re actors or writers or producers or agents.
At least you were getting paid.
Ted, all this person was saying was that there was a lot of bad writing out there. You don’t have to go ballistic on him/her.
And the amount of unimaginative assistants/readers out there with an UN-informed opinion is staggering. Staggering.
How is a former asst w/ 3 1/2 years experience reading “uninformed”? I was an asst for 18 months at Fox and I totally agree with his/her opinion. The only thing staggering is the truth of it.
Folks. We have our winner. The award for the most asinine comment of the day on Deadline goes to … this guy.
3 1/2 years (or 18 months) reading scripts behind a desk does not make you a filmmaker or a producer. Or even an senior executive whose job is on the line every time they chose what scripts to buy and produce.
Sorry Haywood, but Indrid is spot on. Also sorry that the assistants and readers do not care for your work.
What exactly is Indrid “spot on” about? No one’s disputing there’s plenty of bad writing out there. So effing what, what’s his point? That assistants are on the whole smarter and more capable people than writers? That there aren’t bad actors? Just seems like a pretty stupid point, that hardly needed to be supported with an “I worked at an agency!” qualifier.
Sorry to disappoint you but I’ve sold plenty of scripts. And the producers I work with do everything in their power to make sure execs read the script and not just the coverage.
See my problem is that Hollywood seems to rely on the so called coverage of assistants and inexperienced kids who “worked at an agency” once. In my experience “readers” are insanely unqualified to know a good script from the crappy ones. Yes I’ve read the coverage on my scripts and it appalled me that the “reader” could not even string together two sentences that made a lick of sense. And their reading comprehension skills were 6th grade level at best. But that’s just my opinion and the producers I work with. I’ve never worked at an agency so what do I know.
That’s because people underestimate how hard it is to do well. Nobody thinks they can pick up a guitar and jam away, but they all think they can write because they’ve “written” all their lives (emails, memo’s, whatever). You have to have some talent and imagination to begin with (most don’t) and then you have to work at the craft for years before you’re even halfway decent at it. Anybody with a little determination can finish a screenplay, but very few can do it well.
Something tells me you wouldn’t know a good script if it bit you on the ass.
About the post – where are the deals? Two agents got repped by managers/agents. So what? This means nothing. Statistically had all these guys just sent their scripts out instead of uploaded to Blacklist, two should have been signed. Actually, a lot more than two. So can we safely say that the Blacklist site impedes a writer’s progress? I think so.
Two WRITERS got repped I meant.
Yeah…and look at the non-stop, unwatchable pieces of sh** that get made.
i have to agree with this. I know everyone thinks there own work is brilliant, but as someone who has read hundreds of scripts that have been submitted to agencies for representation, talent attachment, etc, it is really easy to see who can write an even BEARABLE script. I’d say 70 percent are unreadable, 20 percent are just “fine” and 10 percent are even ready for representation. So paring down a list to a handful of universally respected scripts (chosen by people who are trained to look for good material) is a helpful thing for reps. Yes, they have a long way to go before they are profitable, but we (the reps) are betting on these guys.
You’re half right. Yes, there is a helluva lotta bad writing. A helluva lot. There is also a lot of good writing that goes un-found due to spineless, moronic agents, and, to a lesser extent, managers, who don’t trust their own ability and only sign friends of friends and family members. The nepotism and cronyism in Hollywood are off the charts. Young, wannabe writers need to be aware of this, and strongly consider another line of work if they don’t have the connections. I see a lot of young, smart people wasting their lives trying to be writers when they would have made terrific lawyers, teachers, businessmen…professions where merit counts.
I think your odds of getting signed off the Blacklist service are probably about 1,000 to one. Your odds of getting ripped off are probably 100 to one. Your choice.
I was a freelance script reader in NYC off and on for a couple of years until I was able to start selling my own scripts. Yes, there’s an unbelievable amount of bad writing out there and the business is insanely competitive and unfair. BUT, if you write a truly good script you will get signed by a decent agent eventually. You really will. There are a lot of folks looking for great material. They will find you, but it may take a while. Hang in if you can.
Yes. I like what Franklin is doing, but come on, two unknown writers sign with two mid-level/boutique companies, not a deal, not even terribly newsworthy.
I guess the mid-level company that developed and co-produced the blockbuster Hangover films is a nobody. Good to know.
Lots of mid level management companies represent writers that break out with big movies. They got lucky that Todd Philips and Jeremy Gerelick knew how to really crack that story and they got lucky that WB was kind enough to give them EPs on it.
But, if you want to claim that they are the top managers in town, that’s fine. They’re very smart guys, it’s a great company, but IMO, they are mid level. I will grant you the UPPER ECHELONS of mid level, though.
Benderspink and Kaplan/Perrone are “mid-level/boutique companies”?? Hahahahaha!!!!! Yeah, you sure know this town inside and out.
They are both mid level companies. They are not at the top of the pile. BS was, but not anymore. That doesn’t mean they are low quality. Not everyone can be at the top, dude, that’s why they call it the top.
Beyond that, I guess you think this is newsworthy? You think WME puts out a press release every time they sign a working writer, much less an unproduced writer? Get a grip.
I think I first read Possum 12 years ago. Great script but pretty sure the guy used to have a rep. Not exactly an overnight success but these things take time.
Ding ding ding!
Hence they send it out with a new title.
Should have announced it with the new title, because now the possum is out of the bag. And Benderspink continues its race to the bottom…
When a spec sells, that’s a deal. This is getting an agent or manager. And many of those agents and more so managers will sign someone off a good spec that they don’t think will sell… and won’t send it out… and then try to get them to spec another few scripts that they’ll attach themselves as Producers. Do that with 20 newbie writers, you basically have a shot at one being sellable and being attached as a producer. Being repped doesn’t mean getting paid to write. Hoping some bigger things come out of the Black List than some writers getting repped, but its a nice start. Hoping to see something big out of this eventually.
No. Editors too.
I forgot where I read it, but there was a survey that indicated that the general audience tends to value story/concepts/premise (and directors) more than who’s acting when picking movies. Film/TV: spend more money on writers, less money on actors.
Lost began its run with relative no-namers — who still remain relatively no-named — but its tremendously high concept and stellar writing pulled viewers in. Vegas and Blue Bloods feature some heavy-hitting acting talent, but their concepts and premises are unimaginative and unengaging.
I don’t fault George Clooney in any way for his choice of projects (in fact, he should probably be commended for taking the road less-traveled), but he’s a prime example of the lack of pure drawing power of A-list talent.
Give Sam Worthington a stratospherically-high-concept film with stunning visuals, and even with mediocre writing and story-telling, Worthington put more butts in seats in 5 months than Clooney has in his whole career.
In other words, The Black List may be on to something, and it’s good for just about everyone if legitimately good but undiscovered writing talent finds its way through newer and newer channels.
I’m a big fan of Leonard and The Black List, but it does seem weird to announce every time somebody gets signed from his service. As other posts have mentioned, getting signed is definitely good news for the writer, but it’s not the same as a sale to a studio or financier. Agents sign emerging writers all the time, but it doesn’t wind up on Deadline. Why all the free PR?
I doubt it’s free. It’s call a press agent with a nicely greased palm.
POSSUM sounds a whole lot like THE LOOKOUT.
It’s not newsworthy… Since when are stories about people, in particular people experiencing something a little different than the norm…
Considering “Fred” has his own Disney show and Bieber has now made more cash than any of us I personally find it interesting that the net is also promoting writing talent… How nice these guys won’t be known as YouTube sensations… And yet are getting their shot.
I know there’s another making-of-Jaws script already making the rounds with producers called The Mayor of Shark City that went out from Rothman Brecher Kim. I heard it was getting a good response and was in at DreamWorks.
If you’re an aspiring writer with no deals or produced credits, and no representation, your goal isn’t to get paid. Your goal is to ‘get into position to get paid’. That means making a relationship with an agent, manager or exec who supports your work, who will then put you in a position to get paid.
Writers who understand the business should be very interested in submitting their work to the Black List site because the business of discovering and supporting new writing talent has migrated from the agencies to the management companies. Managers’ core business is new talent, they’re the ones whom new writers should be targeting. It doesn’t matter how high profile your manager is, if he’s experienced and earning a living as a manager, he’s getting work for his clients. Writers can and will graduate to higher profile representation as demand for their work rises. Doesn’t matter what level you start at, they key is just starting.
So the people who are poo-pooing the Black List service are wrong, it’s both a valuable service for writers, and the fact that the Black List is actually finding writers good enough to sign is definitely news; it hasn’t been done before. If ScriptShark has a history of getting writers signed, they’re not touting it very well. And if you ask the agents and reps whom ScriptShark lists as referral partners if they receive material and sign writers referred by ScriptShark, the answer is no. One of the management companies I spoke to didn’t even know ScriptShark listed them as a referral partner.
Franklin is charging a lot of money for his scripts to be read by terrible writers, i.e., studio readers. It’s not a charity he’s running, it’s an expensive service where one script gets arbitrary scores by readers who barely read the thing. You also get no notes, no coverage, no suggestions, no nothing.
This whole site is weak. But writers are desperate. 2000 scripts, some folks signing with managers. Oh, cool. A manager. 2000 scripts, and some signings? Sorry, but 10-20 of those scripts should have sold.
You realize that anyone, no matter how bad can submit a script? You have NO IDEA how many should or shouldn’t have sold. Most spec scripts are garbage, or have you never read one? Most spec scripts for newbie writers only serve as a starting point for a career and are rarely actually bought.
Exactly. A handful of signings out of 2,000 scripts? So what? Young writers, don’t you get it by now? Hollywood does not care. They don’t care unless they know you, and unless you can do something for them.
If you’re a young writer, instead of taking an extension writing class or having your script evaluated by a paid consultant, you can do more for your career by learning to give a good BJ. It’s the sad truth.
While you are mentioning the writers who got signed via the new Black List site, you might also note the writer from Talentville.com, Bernard Serieux, who was signed three weeks ago by Lit manager Doug Draizin at Ensemble entertainment. Bernard’s TV pilot, Nowhere & Nothing, is currently out to a number of production companies and top tier agencies. BTW, Talentville is run by me, the creator and co-founder of Final Draft.
This guy is lying, I’m the real co-founder of Final Draft. Also, an update to Bernard’s TV pilot, Nowhere & Nothing: it got sh_tcanned at a number of production companies and top tier agencies. So no need to report a typical day in Hollywood. That is all.
Every time a story like this is published, an unknown, inexperienced writer says “that could be me!” At that same moment, Franklin Leonard rubs his hands, as another sucker with a credit card sends him money. Leonard set up his site explicity to separate desperate writers from their money and buy himself a beach house.
How many pro writers does he expect to emerge from the huddled Master Carded masses? 1%? 2%? That means he knows that 98% are just sheep to be fleeced. So he makes sure that every signing, every deal, and every bit of praise is sent out through his flack to Nikki and every other outlet he can reach.
He seems to be the smartest. most mercenary leech to come to Hollywood in a very long time. He should go far.
Love that screen name–Blood of Heroes!
Why is no one even talking about InkTip here?! Sure, no real blockbusters, but inktip.com has been closing half a dozen deals every week online for completely unknown writers for a decade.
BlackList has hype. InkTip has credits. http://www.imdb.com/company/co0251773/
Keep the faith ladies. If you want it bad enough it will happen. You will find a way to make it happen…or you won’t. Lots of talented writers never make it, sure it’s unfortunate, but if you write a high concept story and have the writing chops to back it up. That may be your ticket into this industry.
It’s sad! In this screenwriting arena, it’s NOT based on your talent – but who know. If you’re a new/unpublished writer, it’s extremely hard to get any agent/management companies to take you on as a client – that is, the legitimate one’s. Good luck writers!