The Black List
I enjoy reading The Black List which is an annual posting of favoured unproduced screenplays based on a survey of Hollywood film industry executives.
Films like Slumdog Millionaire, Argo, The King’s Speech and Passengers are movies that have appeared in a Black List and gone on to be produced.
From these, I have listed the ones from the last few years that have appealed to me in some way. From what I’ve picked it looks like those involving time travel, aliens, or Daniel Radcliffe tickle me. Perhaps next year they’ll combine all three! What appeals to you?
2023
Bad Boy
Travis Braun
A rescue dog suspects his loving new owner is a serial killer.
The Getaway
Mario Kyprianou and Becky Leigh
A couple on the brink of divorce sets off on a romantic getaway to save their marriage, but when they find they have inexplicably travelled back in time, they decide to team up to stop their younger selves from ever getting married.
Toxoplasmosis
Andrew Nunnelly
The classic story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl… boy forms unexpected bromance with girl’s cat, who may actually be an intergalactic emissary sent to save humanity from itself.
Boxman
Adam Yorke
After a botched bank heist leaves nineteen people locked inside a state-of-the-art vault, the FBI recruits the world’s foremost box-man from federal prison so he can break them out before they suffocate inside.
2022
Vitus
Julian Wayser
In 1518, a dancing plague overtook the city of Strasbourg in the holy Roman empire. Hundreds of people danced themselves to death over the course of a summer and no one knows why. Encircling medieval medicine, the uncanny, and the origins of mass hysteria, Vitus is a wildly visual exploration of a crucial (but little-known) moment of European history.
Better Luck Next Time
Kristen Tepper
Two best friends run a successful underground service taking womens’ toxic ex’s on humiliating dates, but their friendship is put to the ultimate test when an old mark plots his revenge.
Below
Geoff Tock and Greg Weidman
Fresh out of a spell in prison, a man attempts to set his life right by working a mysterious job that requires him to seek out life forms hidden amongst us.
2020
Headhunter
Sophie Dawson
A high-functioning cannibal selects his victims based on their Instagram popularity, but finds his habits shaken by a man who wants to be eaten.
The Boy Who Died
Monisha Dadlani
A young girl creates a robot version of Harry Potter while her father simultaneously is treating Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe for a terminal disease.
Cosmic Sunday
MacMillan Hedges
A small percentage of the population is stuck in a time loop and have had to create a society that functions within the same day, repeated day in and day out. One man struggles to find himself for the first time in ages amidst a society clinging to a sense of normalcy.
High Society
Noga Pnueli
A depressed, progressive woman stuck in a conservative small Texas town starts micro-dosing the entire town with marijuana to make them all get along.
Trespasser
Gabe Hobson
A father and daughter living in remote isolation must fight for survival after aliens arrive seeking revenge for killing one of their own.
2019
The Repossession
Megan Amram
Twenty years after a failed exorcism, a meek young woman becomes unlikely friends with the foul-mouthed demon that possessed her as a child.
2018
Harry’s All Night Hamburgers
Steve Desmond, Michael Anthony Sherman
A down-on-his luck high school senior discovers that the old roadside diner outside of town is secretly a hangout for parallel universe travellers. He sets off on a mind-bending adventure across the multiverse that takes him beyond his wildest dreams.
Kill the Leopard
Mattson Tomlin
A henchman-turned-terrorist has a bone to pick with an idolised vigilante. When he takes control of a city skyscraper, the hero known as the Leopard comes to the rescue - but when both the terrorist and the Leopard are overtaken by the hostages, a kangaroo court evolves as the hostages navigate their complex histories with the vigilante.
2017
Where I End
Imran Zaidi
In a world where your life can be saved, uploaded to a computer, and restarted in the case of your untimely demise, a husband returns from the dead, suspecting his wife may have been involved in his death.
2016
Contingency Protocol
Mark Townend
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.
2015
Pale Blue Dot
Brian C Brown, Elliott DiGuiseppi
Twelve months after returning from a space mission, decorated astronaut Laura Pepper is arrested for the
attempted murder of a fellow astronaut.
The Shave
Thomas White, Miles Hubley
A dirty cop, exonerated in the murder of a high school honour student, visits the boy’s father at his barbershop and, while receiving a straight razor shave, listens to him recount the story of his son’s life.
The Wretched Emily Erringer
Chris Thomas Devlin
Gleefully terrifying her small town as a serial killer known as “The Misfit Butcher,” 13-year-old Emily Derringer becomes annoyed when a new killer comes to town and residents begin attributing his sloppy murders to the Misfit Butcher. In a macabre coming of age story, Emily must deal with her competition while also taking on the other trials and tribulations of junior high school life.
Morningstar
David Birke
The war is over. A bitter and uneasy truce has been reached with an invading alien race, and a new cold war has begun. Fuelled by suspicions of an alien spy in their ranks, the United Nations Intelligence Division entrusts their top agent, Martin Webber, with finding the mole.
Great Falls
Andy Friedhof
After negligently killing a hunter with their patrol car, an alcoholic Sheriff’s Deputy and her superior officer must decide what to do with the only witness to their crime - a death row inmate only days from execution.
2014
Erin’s Voice
Greg Sullivan
A deaf computer genius’ world is thrown into turmoil when he meets a troubled coffee shop waitress whose voice turns out to be the only thing he can miraculously hear.
2013
Sovereign
Geoff Tock, Greg Weidman
A man goes to space to destroy the ship that, upon going sentient, killed his wife.
Capsule
Ian Shorr
A young man’s life is turned upside down when he mysteriously begins to receive metallic capsules containing messages from his future self.
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