Here’s an idea for 2013 — no more tweeting awards or nominations. Seriously. This year has seen various critics guilds spend pretty much all day voting or announcing their winners on Twitter, and now the Black List has followed suit, by spending some time today tweeting (out of order, mind you) the “most liked” unmade scripts of the year. It’s called a press release, guys. Anyway, they finally have revealed the full slate from top to bottom and there are some interesting titles. And why should you care? Well, movies like “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The King’s Speech” once placed on here, and while the names might not be known right now, these are guys and gals who will be rising in the next few years.
First off, Paramount might have a bit of egg on their face as a project they recently put in turnaround, “Draft Day,” landed the top slot. The dramedy, about the manager of a football team who chases the top draft pick, was set up with Ivan Reitman to direct and Kevin Costner to star. But scheduling couldn’t be worked out, one thing led to another, and Paramount let it go. We have no doubt it will find a new home, and fast.
Meanwhile, just as Martin Scorsese gears up a documentary on Bill Clinton, the former First Lady Hillary Rodham is the subject of “Rodham,” which traces all the way back to the days of the Watergate scandal, and shows how her political career was altered by a guy named Bill. And speaking of careers forged by coupling, “Seuss” takes a look at famed author Ted Geisel, and how his wife helped him with his first big hit “The Cat In The Hat.”
Also of note, Jack Paglen‘s script for “Transcendence,” which is getting produced by Christohper Nolan, directed by Wally Pfister and stars Johnny Depp, also placed on here, perhaps as a reminder of the heights your script can can go. Check out the top ten below, the round-up of mentioned screenplays at the bottom and whole shebang with synopses and all at the official site. [THR]
1.) Draft Day (Rajiv Joseph, Scott Rothman), 65 mentions. On the day of the NFL Draft, Bills General Manager Sonny Weaver has the opportunity to save football in Buffalo when he trades for the No. 1 pick. He must quickly decide what he’s willing to sacrifice in the pursuit of perfection as the lines between his personal and professional life become blurred.
2.) A Country of Strangers (Sean Armstrong), 43 mentions. Based on true events, the story chronicles Inspector Geoff Harper’s 40-year search for the Beaumont Children, three siblings taken from an Australian beach in January 1966.
2.) Seuss (Eyal Podell, Jonathan Stewart), 43 mentions. As a young man, Ted Geisel meets his future wife Helen, who encourages his fanciful drawings, and in the 1950s when Ted is struggling professionally, Helen helps inspire the children’s book that will become his first big hit, The Cat in the Hat.
4.) Rodham (Young Il Kim), 39 mentions. During the height of the Watergate scandal, rising star Hillary Rodham is the youngest lawyer chosen for the House Judiciary Committee to Impeach Nixon, but she soon finds herself forced to choose between a destined path to the White House and her unresolved feelings for Bill Clinton, her former boyfriend who now teaches law in Arkansas.
5.) The Story of Your Life (Eric Heisserer), 35 mentions. Based on the short story by Ted Chiang. When alien crafts land around the world, a linguistics expert is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat. As she learns to communicate with the aliens, she begins experiencing vivid flashbacks that become the key to unlocking the greater mystery about the true purpose of their visit.
6.) Wunderkind (Patrick Aison), 33 mentions. A Mossad employed father and his CIA agent son team up to hunt an escaped Nazi.
7.) Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile (Michael Werwie), 31 mentions. Based on a true story, a promising young law student fights an oppressive legal system and growing public scrutiny when his routine traffic stop snowballs into shocking criminal charges, imprisonment, daring escapes and ultimately acting as his own attorney in a nationally televised murder trial.
8.) Glimmer (Carter Blanchard), 29 mentions. When three friends go missing on a camping trip in a forest rumored to be haunted, the two left behind discover clues that lead them to a safe deposit box containing video tapes showing exactly what happened to their friends.
8.) Me & Earl & the Dying Girl (Jesse Andrews), 29 mentions. Based on Andrews’s eponymous novel, a quirky high school student who enjoys making films sparks a friendship with a classmate dying of leukemia.
10.) Devils at Play (James Dilapo), 28 mentions. In the Soviet Union in 1937, a worker of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs finds a list of traitors, which he thinks is going to be his way out.
Scripts included: Fathers and Daughters by Brad Desch, Somacell (Ashleigh Powell), a project that is currently being fast-tracked at Warner Bros.; George (Jeff Shakoor); Americatown (Ben Poole); Midnight at Noon (Nathaniel Halpern); The Final Broadcast (Chris Hutton, Eddie O’Keefe); Out of State (Eric Pearson); The Ballad of Pablo Escobar (Matt Aldrich); Comancheria (Taylor Sheridan); Clive (Natasha Pincus); From New York to Florida (Austin Reynolds); Stockholm, Pennsylvania (Nikole Beckwith); The Hooverville Dead (Brantley Aufill); Whiplash (Damien Chazelle); Transcendence (Jack Paglen); The Equalizer (Richard Wenk); Come and Find Me (Zack Whedon); Untitled Cops Script (Blake McCormick); Murder City (Will Simmons); Monsoon (Matt Ackley); Man of Tomorrow (Jeremy Slater); Fuck Marry Kill (Neel Shah, Alex Blagg); The Paper Man (Sean O’Keefe); Peste (Barbara Marshall); The Outskirts (Dominique Ferarri, Suzanne Wrubel); Ex Boyfriend of the Bride (Matt Hausfater); The Lighthouse (Eric Kirsten); Bleeding Kansas (Russell Sommer, Dan Frey); King of Heists (Will Staples); The Broken (John Glosser); Who Framed Tommy Callahan? (Harry Kellerman); Goodbye, Felix Chester (Max Taxe); The Judge (Bill Dubuque); El Tigre (Aaron Buchsbaum, Teddy Riley); Hibernation (Will Frank, Geneva Robertson-Dworet); Cherries (Brian Kehoe, Jim Kehoe); The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Mark Hogan); Flower (Alex McAulay); The One That Got Away (April Prosser); Titans of Park Row (Mitch Akselrad); Black Box (David Guggenheim); Hey, Stella! (Tom Shephard); Our Name Is Adam (T.S. Nowlin); The Killing Spree (Derek Elliott, Jack Donaldson); The Disciple Program (Tyler Marceca); and Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi).