The 2010 "Black List," voted on by nearly 300 Hollywood studio executives to pick the best-liked unproduced scripts in the industry, was announced today, with College Republicans--already set to star Shia LaBeouf-- topping the list at 49 votes. Right behind it was Jackie the Jacqueline Kennedy-focused drama that Darren Aronofsky was planning to make earlier this year but will probably be put on hold, both because it was set to star his estranged wife Rachel Weisz and he's, uh, got other things to focus on.
You can find the entire Black List here, and you'll find plenty of other familiar names and titles, even some movies going into production soon, including Rian Johnson's Looper (with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Wilis, and Emily Blunt), Alex Kurtzman's Welcome to People (with Elizabeth Banks and Chris Pine), Will Beall Gangster Squad (with Ruben Fleischer directing) and Snow White and the Huntsman (with both Johnny Depp and Tom Hardy offered major roles). Normally the Black List is known for supporting smaller scripts that wouldn't get any attention otherwise, but this year's lineup seems to include a lot of projects already well into pre-production-- maybe a positive sign that we'll be seeing better movies soon, but probably not all that helpful to the smaller project that could use the boost.
I've also got a quibble with list-topper College Republicans, not because I don't think it could be a good project, but because it focuses on political svengalis Karl Rove and Lee Atwater, the latter of whom is on his way to the biopic treatment from Adam McKay and In the Loop writer Jesse Armstrong. If the LaBeouf project gets made first that significantly lowers the chances of McKay and Armstrong getting theirs done, and no offense to College Republicans writer Wes Jones, but I was really dying to see what those two were going to put out.
Anyway, take a look at the Black List for yourself, pick out your own favorites, and get a look at the next few years of strong writing in the movies.
