30-Minute Podcast Explores Hollywood's Career Changing The Black List

“Here’s to the fools that dream,” goes the tagline for “La La Land,” and it’s a perfect summary of Los Angeles and Hollywood, where the cliché that every busboy is a screenwriter and every bartender is an actress seems to be pretty close to reality. But it’s the opportunity of overnight success that keeps people coming from all over the country to try to make it big, and Hollywood is still the place where that can happen. And while networking is still hugely important, in recent years, a website has changed the lives of many looking for their big break.

READ MORE: The 2017 Oscar Nominations By The Numbers

In 2005, Franklin Leonard, then a junior executive at Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Appian Way production shingle, decided to quietly survey people he knew in the industry to discover what they though the best unproduced screenplays of the year were. After sifting through the answers from 93 people inside Hollywood, he sent around the results. Little did he know how much it would catch fire. A couple years later, The Black List launched online, giving screenwriters — from all levels of experience — a place to upload their work and get direct (anonymous) feedback from those in the industry. The yearly rankings continued as well, and the influence has been huge.

Four of the past eight Best Picture Oscar winners have come from Black List scripts, and films at first touted by the site include “Spotlight,” “The Revenant,” “Whiplash,” “Argo,” “The King’s Speech,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Wrestler,” “Juno,” and “There Will Be Blood.” That’s some impressive stuff.

In a new podcast from The Atlantic, the magazine dives into the impact The Black List has made on the industry, particularly one that has increasing turned toward big-budget and tentpole movies.

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2016

“The Black List is asking a different question than the market does. We’re asking what scripts people love. The market requires that they answer ‘Which scripts do you think will result in a profitable movie?’,” Leonard said.

“The survey forces Hollywood to look in the mirror and say, ‘Here’s what you said you liked!’,” he added. “Because there’s been so much success with the list, not only are studio execs and producers saying that, but now you have actors — when the list comes out — going through it, calling their agents, and saying, ‘Hey, you gotta get me that script.’”

It’s fascinating stuff, and keeps hope alive that there will always be room adventurous, compelling storytelling in the halls of Hollywood.