The 12th edition of "The Black List" features 73 unproduced screenplays. Here are the first 39, indexed alphabetically, from A to L.
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Read and download all of the "Black List: 2016" screenplays. We have 73 of the 73 selected scripts from the 12th edition.
Four Your Consideration, we have the first 39 scripts listed and indexed alphabetically, from A through L, for quick access. From Mattson Tomlin's "A Deconstruction of Reality", to Flint Wainess's "Linda and Monica", and everything in between.
If you're a young writer looking for study guides, you've found the right place. These "Black List: 2016" scripts were chosen by more than 250 film-industry executives.
What is "The Black List" you ask? To find out how it all works, scroll down a little bit.
Unsure about exactly what is "The Black List"? Read on.
Consider the name ironic. This isn't a list of scripts written by those who are unwelcome in the industry. Rather, "The Black List" is a compilation of "most liked" unproduced screenplays from a certain year. Screenwriters, young and old, repped or voiceless, submit their works for consideration.
Annually, since 2005, film industry executives read hundreds of screenplays and choose which ones are their favorite. Referred to as a "mention", favored scripts with the most mentions are featured on, in this regard, the "Black List: 2016".
Some screenplays get optioned by studios and become movies. Past picks include: "Free Guy", and Oscar-winner "The King's Speech."
Written by: Mattson Tomlin
Mentions: 8
Tasked with finding a game changing take for the sixth Jason Bourne movie, Tom Milton goes deep down the rabbit hole of cracking the story. With the guidance (and abuse) of a professor from his past and Bourne himself, Tom begins workshopping scenes that begin to bleed into real life in unexpected ways.
Written by: Nick Yarborough
Mentions: 20 (10th overall in 2016)
Told through a series of letters to family members, the tragic true story of Rosemary Kennedy, a vibrant, passionate young woman and oldest daughter of Joe and Rose Kennedy. Born with a severe learning disability, Rosemary so worried her father with her erratic behavior that he believed the stigma of mental illness in the family would ruin his plans to build a political dynasty. He hid her away in convents and sanitariums and ultimately had her lobotomized.
Written by: Aaron Kandell | Jordan Kandell
Mentions: 10
In this incredible true story of love and survival, Tami Ashcraft sails into the heart of a hurricane and embarks on a harrowing 41 day odyssey against impossible odds to save the man she loves.
Written by: Devon Graye
Mentions: 6
A little girl goes missing in a small town, and the key to finding her resides with four disparate women who share nothing in common except for the young girl’s name…Allison Adams.
Written by: Dave Callaham
Mentions: 6
An R-rated action comedy, animated, revisionist history of the founding of the United States of America.
Written by: Christopher Cosmos
Mentions: 9
The true story of Deborah Sampson, a woman from Massachusetts who risked her life by disguising herself as a man and joining the Continental Army to help fight for independence during the Revolutionary War.
Written by: Mike Makowsky
Mentions: 6
The beloved superintendent of New York's Roslyn school district and his staff, friends and relatives become the prime suspects in the unfolding of the single largest public school embezzlement scandal in American history.
Written by: Rosalind Ross
Mentions: 11
Based on the true story of Boudicca, a queen and warrior of the British Celtic Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire.
Written by: Neil Widener | Gavin James
Mentions: 14
A plan to escape from Alcatraz prison turns into a battle and hostage crisis that pits armed prisoners against US Army troops for two full days.
Written by: Turner Hay
Mentions: 6
When an out-of-work divorced mother stops taking the court-ordered medication that made her feel like a zombie, her brazenly immoral, fifteen-year-old imaginary friend appears to get her life back on track.
Written by: Elyse Hollander
Mentions: 48 (1st overall in 2016)
In 1980s New York, Madonna struggles to get her first album released while navigating fame, romance, and a music industry that views women as disposal.
Written by: Mackenzie Dohr
Mentions: 8
In the near future, a heartbroken girl who hates technology participates in an experiment that allows you to program a robot into your dream man.
Written by: Matt Tente
Mentions: 7
In war-torn Afghanistan, an American mercenary team is hired to escort a 20-ton heroin seizure bound for destruction but get caught up in a botched drug deal when their leader goes rogue, forcing them to overcome various enemies who wish to steal it.
Written by: Harry Tarre
Mentions: 6
When his comic book obsessed five-year-old brother is diagnosed with cancer, Oscar Ruiz attempts to shield him from the truth by convincing him that his “treatment” is all part of a top secret program to become a superhero.
Written by: Katharine Werner
Mentions: 6
Based on true events. In post-Cuban Missile Crisis Miami, an ambitious young CIA agent receives a career making opportunity in becoming the case officer for a charismatic Cuban ambassador offering to help eliminate Fidel Castro. As their relationship grows, however, he begins to question the mission and the true motives of his superiors.
Written by: Mark Townend
Mentions: 8
When futuristic technology renders the Federal Witness Protection Program obsolete, the U.S. Government begins using Time Travel to hide high-profile witnesses in the Past. When a security breach occurs, a U.S. Marshal and her witness struggle to find their way back to the Present Day while evading assassins.
Written by: Matt Fruchtman
Mentions: 21 (9th overall in 2016)
The true story of a young stock trader who goes to work for billionaire tycoon Steve Cohen and gets involved in the biggest insider trading scandal in history.
Written by: Jay Carson | Matt Bai
Mentions: 6
After twenty years, Steven Danziger wins a $19 billion verdict against Chevron for poisoning rural lands in Ecuador. Chevron responds by hiring heavy hitter Randy Mastro determined to have the entire verdict thrown out.
Written by: Vanya Asher
Mentions: 6
Based on the author’s father’s escape from Sarajevo in 1992, the harrowing and heartbreaking tale of one man’s mission to get back to his family.
Written by: Chiara Atik
Mentions: 15
When sought after Fairy Godmother Faye is hired by a mind-bogglingly gorgeous teenage client, Kenzie, to find her true love with the hottest prince in the land, Faye finds herself facing an unfamiliar challenge when the prince starts falling for her instead.
Written by: Matt Lieberman
Mentions: 15
A bank teller stuck in his routine discovers he’s a background character in a realistic, open world action-adventure video game and he is the only one capable of saving the city.
Written by: Trey Selman
Mentions: 8
The remarkable true story of an unremarkable church-going accountant who stole $17 million in the biggest fruitcake heist of all time.
Written by: Minhal Baig
Mentions: 19 (12th overall in 2016)
When a teenaged Muslim-American girl, struggling with identity issues already, discovers her father is having an affair with a colleague, she responds by seducing her English teacher, ultimately leading to her parents’ divorce.
Written by: Zoe McCarthy
Mentions: 12
Estranged siblings pose as a married couple in the Amalfi Coast to win a cash prize.
Written by: Drew Pearce
Mentions: 6
In riot-torn, near future Los Angeles, the wrong six people become trapped for the night in Hotel Artemis – a secret, members-only emergency room for criminals.
Written by: John Tyler Mclain
Mentions: 7
A black-ops assassin’s latest mark forces her to question the truth of her identity and ultimately confront the unsettling fact that she’s more than a hired gun, she’s an entirely new breed of weapon.
Written by: John Tyler Mclain
Mentions: 14
A teenage girl is raised underground by a robot "Mother" – designed to repopulate the earth’s surface following an extinction-level event. But their unique bond is threatened when an inexplicable stranger arrives with alarming news.
Written by: Mike Makowsky
Mentions: 14
The apocalypse proves a blessing in disguise for one lucky recluse – until a second survivor arrives with the threat of companionship.
Written by: Steven Rogers
Mentions: 8
Based on the author’s irony free, wildly contradictory, totally true interviews with Tonya Harding and Jeff Gillooly.
Written by: Colby Day
Mentions: 25 (6th overall in 2016)
Explores the entire history of the universe and our species through three interwoven storylines that question the very nature of life, love, mortality, where we’ve been, and where we’re going; the past, present, and future of the human race.
Written by: Dan Gilroy
Mentions: 8
When a hard nosed liberal lawyer who has been fighting the good fight while others take the credit assumes the role of his crusading firm’s front man, he discovers some unsettling things about what they’ve done, resulting in an existential crisis that leads to extreme action.
Written by: Kate D’Angelo
Mentions: 12
A Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead take on Titanic. An overprotective mother attempts to keep her teenage daughter, young son, and rowdy sister together while sailing on the doomed voyage of the Titanic in 1912.
Written by: Evan Parter | Paul Hilborn
Mentions: 10
At the height of the Cold War, Air Force pilot Lieutenant David Steeves vanishes over the Sierra Nevada mountains in a high-value jet. Fifty-four days later, left for dead, he crawls out of the wild with an impossible tale of survival. The media and military brand him a hero, launching him to fame and fortune, only to call him into question when certain discrepancies in his story point to his being a hoax, or worse — a traitor.
Written by: Mindy Kaling
Mentions: 14
A veteran late-night talk show host comes close to losing her job after hiring the show’s first female writer.
Written by: Derek Weissbein
Mentions: 15
Based on the lives and times of Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and Pattie Boyd and the tumultuous love triangle that inspired an entire generation of music.
Written by: Carlos Rios
Mentions: 13
In the 1800s, a father desperate to care for his family finds a barrel of gold, that may be less fortune than great curse.
Written by: Dan Fogelman
Mentions: 35 (2nd overall in 2016)
A multigenerational love story that weaves together a number of characters whose lives intersect over the course of decades from the streets of New York to the Spanish countryside and back.
Written by: Flint Wainess
Mentions: 20 (11th overall in 2016)
The absolutely crazy true story of the relationship between Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp, the woman who nearly destroyed the Clinton presidency - and herself in the process.
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