Just from a scroll-down, I can only identify about a half-dozen female names out of 76 scripts. Less than 10 percent. There are a couple gender-neutral names that might bump that number up. But it just seems to me that as wide-ranging as the topics/themes are, that there doesn't appear to be much diversity in writers. I could be wholly wrong. Just what I noticed from the info provided.


Kinda bums me out a little, being female and older. What are my chances of getting read based on info from this list? Just wondering. I know it's tough for anyone. So many pre-pro writers out there with the limited spec market.

januaryfire: There is no getting around it - males dominate the ranks of working screenwriters. Lots of factors. The three top genres -- Comedy, Action, Thriller -- in combination tend to draw more male writers. Most studio execs: male. Most directors: male. Perhaps that influences their choices in who to work with, either consciously or unconsciously, per gender.

How about looking at the situation this way: Since the odds against success are already hugely against anyone breaking into the business, does the gender divide really matter all that much? Any screenwriter who writes a script on spec, professional included, is on a Quixotic quest. If you have the courage to type FADE IN and begin that journey, I don't know about you, but my attitude is "damn the odds, I'm writing a great story they must respond to."

So you raise an important point about gender in screenwriting. And we'd all be dumb not to be aware of it. But on the other hand, those half-dozen females who made The Black List, they beat the odds. How? By writing a great script.

Which is always what it comes back to.

The first comment on Deadline's story makes an interesting observation:

What do we learn from this list that we discovered last year?

1- Circle of Confusion has a way to stack the list, hence so many titles on the list

2- Circle of Confusion is incredibly unable to get their films made. None of their titles from last year has gotten made and it looks the same for this lot.

Circle of Confusion- perhaps the worst managers available?

I'm hard-pressed to disagree, as I read COLLEGE REPUBLICANS and can't see it being "the best" unproduced script. It's not terrible, but I'm rather shocked it even makes an appearance on this list.

Isn't it a little presumptuous to put "3D" in the title of your script?

@TBSR: Interesting. In a town like Hollywood where, as they say, perception is everything, that would seem to apply to The Black List especially with the increased politicking that has gone on the last few years per voting. However perception does not a movie make. Or at least a good one. You need a good story for that. So perhaps some math genius will go through TBL (2005-2010) lists and figure out some sort of chart that correlates TBL scripts and their position on the list to movies actually made and how they did re revenues.

It's funny how many scripts in the top spots are politics related meaning not much mass appeal and also not that low budget which makes them pretty unprofitable.

I'm surprised how highly all you need is kill placed, an adaptation of an anime book with a very anime premise. I wonder if this means that script in particular is just that good or if anime adaptations an anime influenced scripts are going to become hot very soon. I know Warner brothers has a few big anime properties they've bought up the rights to.

Also strange is how many scripts about secret agents, assassins, and the CIA are in the top spots. I mean look how identical these two loglines sound that are just two ranks apart:

FAMILY GETAWAY by Jeremiah Friedman & Nick Palmer
“A man whose family doesn't know he's an assassin must protect them during a cross-country car chase when rival killers show up.”

GRAY MAN by Adam Cozad
“American operative Court Gentry, also known as the Gray Man, races against time and teams of government assassins in an effort to save his family.”

Lastly as others have pointed out it's kinda dumb how many scripts with producers already attached are on this list. This seems to be completely discordant with what Franklin Leonard said was his motivation for creating the list in that video you posted a little while ago.

Well anyways I hope the list is still doing some good and I suppose I'd still like to get on the list someday.

@bitter script reader: That was my first reaction as well. Not a noteworthy script AT ALL besides its premise.

Also, wasn't the point of this list to show unproduced screenplays that need love? Most of these projects have producers and some have already are ready for release in 2011 (i.e. "Crazy Stupid Love")

"The Black List" has been compromised. Long live "The Black List"

With so many production companies involved, how can these be the best "unproduced" scripts? Does that now mean they aren't the best overlooked scripts, but the best scripts in the pipeline? Or does WOM that you are being considered for the Black List now automatically get you a production deal these days even before the list is officially released?

@Annika W: Years before The Black List, the WGA put out something that truly was the best unproduced scripts in Hollywood. I believe I saw the list in Written By. We're talking scripts that have been around, at least some of them, for 20 or more years.

The Black List has changed, but that's to be expected. Agents and managers are sales people. They know as well or better than anyone that buzz is important to getting projects going. And even from the one LAT's article I posted earlier today, The Black List does generate buzz. So I'm sure people involved do whatever they can to influence the numbers.