The Black List founder Franklin Leonard and cofounder/CTO Dino Sijamic announced today the launch of a paid service that allows any screenwriter, amateur or professional, to upload their script to The Black List's database. The script will be evaluated by professional script readers, and, depending on its evaluation(s), read by as many as 1,000 film industry professionals who are currently a part of the membership site.
Aspiring screenwriters will pay $25 a month to have their scripts hosted on The Black List's website, accessible only by a closed community of Hollywood professionals. They can further pay $50 for evaluations by anonymous script readers hired by The Black List. Every read by industry professionals generated by those evaluations is entirely free. Moreover, The Black List will not claim a commission, finder's fee, or producer credit on business generated by their service. "Writers retain all rights to sell and produce their work and are free to negotiate the best deal they can get. All we ask is an email letting us know of their success," added Leonard.
"For years people have been asking me how to get their scripts to Hollywood. Short of endless rounds of unanswered query letters and screenplay competitions that may, in the best case scenario, attract the notice of a few people, I never had a good answer," said Leonard. "We built this to provide one. It's essentially a screenplay competition with rolling admission, as many prizes as there are good scripts, and instead of a check, you may be rewarded with a career as a professional screenwriter. But it's also more than that: we're delivering the best scripts directly to the hundreds of people who can help get them bought and made."
Leonard and Sijamic claim to have "an ironclad 'do no harm' policy. A script's evaluation will only be made public if a writer wishes to make it so. Moreover, the only time an industry professional's attention will be drawn to a script is if it's been evaluated positively or if our algorithm believes they personally will like it," added Leonard.
Over 200 scripts that have appeared on the annual Black List of most liked unproduced scripts have been produced and released for the domestic market, making over $16B in worldwide box office and earning 148 Academy Award-nominations and 25 victories. This includes two of the last four best pictures (THE KING'S SPEECH and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE) and five of the last 10 screenwriting Oscars (JUNO, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, THE KING'S SPEECH, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, and THE DESCENDANTS.
The Black List began as a survey of several dozen executives' favorite unproduced scripts. The 2011 edition surveyed over 300 executives, which comprise over 60% of Hollywood's studio system corps.
Notable Black List scripts include 21, 3:10 TO YUMA, 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, ADVENTURELAND, BABEL, BLACK SNAKE MOAN, CEDAR RAPIDS, CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY, DUE DATE, EASY A, FANBOYS, FROST/NIXON, HANNA, IN BRUGES, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, INVICTUS, JUNO, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST, NO STRINGS ATTACHED, ORPHAN, RECOUNT, RENDITION, SALT, SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, THE SOURCE CODE, STATE OF PLAY, SUPERBAD, THE BLIND SIDE, THE BUCKET LIST, THE FIGHTER, THE HANGOVER, THE IDES OF MARCH, THE KITE RUNNER, THE QUEEN, THE TOWN, THE WRESTLER, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, UP IN THE AIR, WE ARE MARSHALL, and ZOMBIELAND.
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