Black List 2007's Best Liked Screenplays

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1. 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 — December 7, 2007 @ 6:36 pm

2. 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 — December 7, 2007 @ 8:31 pm

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

   Comment by Pat — December 8, 2007 @ 4:05 am

4. 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 — December 8, 2007 @ 5:03 am

5. 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 — December 8, 2007 @ 10:22 am

6. 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 — December 8, 2007 @ 2:34 pm

7. 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 — December 8, 2007 @ 2:39 pm

8. 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 — December 8, 2007 @ 3:11 pm

9. 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 — December 8, 2007 @ 3:48 pm

10. 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 — December 8, 2007 @ 5:07 pm

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

    Comment by Mark S. — December 8, 2007 @ 5:39 pm

12. 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 — December 8, 2007 @ 6:51 pm

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

    Comment by Anonymous — December 8, 2007 @ 7:04 pm

14. 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 — December 8, 2007 @ 8:04 pm

15. 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 — December 8, 2007 @ 8:32 pm

16. 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 — December 8, 2007 @ 9:40 pm

17. I’m on the list.

    That’s all I wanted to say.

    Comment by anon — December 8, 2007 @ 10:37 pm

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

    papa
    stas

    Comment by baseballstas — December 9, 2007 @ 2:29 am

19. 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 — December 9, 2007 @ 6:43 am

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

    Comment by velveeta — December 9, 2007 @ 11:25 am

21. Script Reader, would you read my script? Please?

    J.L.

    Comment by J.L. Tyler — December 9, 2007 @ 1:10 pm

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

    Comment by Carter — December 9, 2007 @ 2:28 pm

23. 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 — December 9, 2007 @ 6:13 pm

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

    Comment by popcorn — December 9, 2007 @ 9:09 pm

25. 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 — December 9, 2007 @ 9:09 pm

26. The “f-word” exists.

    Get over it, Sandy.

    Comment by Sandy's gettng a little hysterical, no? — December 10, 2007 @ 12:30 am

27. 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 — December 10, 2007 @ 5:26 am

28. 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 — December 10, 2007 @ 8:35 am

29. 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 — December 10, 2007 @ 9:31 am

30. 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 — December 10, 2007 @ 9:58 am

31. 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 — December 10, 2007 @ 10:17 am

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

    Comment by Anonymous — December 10, 2007 @ 10:21 am

33. 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 — December 10, 2007 @ 10:29 am

34. 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 — December 10, 2007 @ 10:58 am

35. 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 — December 10, 2007 @ 5:05 pm

36. 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 — December 11, 2007 @ 3:33 am

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

    Comment by Kim — December 11, 2007 @ 7:26 am

38. 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 — December 11, 2007 @ 8:42 am

39. 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 — December 11, 2007 @ 10:59 am

40. 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 — December 11, 2007 @ 2:18 pm

41. 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 — December 11, 2007 @ 2:24 pm

42. **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 — December 11, 2007 @ 4:02 pm

43. 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 — December 11, 2007 @ 10:41 pm

44. 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 — December 12, 2007 @ 5:28 am

45. 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 — December 12, 2007 @ 10:00 am

46. 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 — December 17, 2007 @ 5:47 pm

47. 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 — March 25, 2008 @ 6:33 pm

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