The Black List Unveils Hollywood’s Favorite Unproduced Scripts of 2023
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The Black List announced the top unproduced screenplays of the year on Monday, December 11.
The “most liked” scripts include 76 feature screenplays by 80 writers, selected by more than 375 film executives. In the 19th edition of the annual list, the topics range from a Tom Hanks meta satire to a time-traveling couple who try to fall out of love. The making of ill-fated Broadway production “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” a Patsy Cline biopic, and the true story behind the feud between Elia Kazan and Arthur Miller are also among the selected scripts.
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After Todd Haynes helmed The Black List alum Samy Burch’s “May December” script, leading to multiple Golden Globe nominations, this year’s crop of best scripts is all the more essential following the writers strike.
“This year, the industry was defined by a debate about the value of writers within it, and I think it’s inevitable that this year’s Black List means more than it has in the past,” The Black List founder Franklin Leonard said. “I’ve been saying that writing is the lifeblood of the industry for almost twenty years now, and I’ll continue saying it until the industry actually starts acting like it. Now that the strikes are over, I look forward to these and other great scripts getting made so I can watch them as an audience member myself.”
The number one script on the 2023 Black List is “Bad Boy” by Travis Baum about a rescue dog that suspects his loving new owner is a serial killer.
The Black List is behind multiple Best Picture Oscar winners, including “Spotlight,” “Argo,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The King’s Speech,” and “I, Tonya.” The Black List was founded in 2005 and has seen more than 440 of its selected screenplays produced. A 2019 Harvard Business School study found that The Black List scripts were “twice as likely to be made into films, with 30 percent of them produced, compared to 15 percent of non-listed scripts.” Additionally, The Black List screenplays “did better at theaters with movies of the same budget generating 90 percent more revenue at the box office.”
Overall, The Black List films have won 54 Academy Awards from 273 nominations, including four Best Picture Oscars and 11 Best Screenplay Oscars since 2007.
This year’s illustration to honor the 2023 selections is crafted by artist Mitch Blunt to honor the foundational role of the writer’s pen in the film industry and the Black List’s celebration of those who wield it following the WGA strike.
See the full list of screenplays below, as separated by genre. Language comes courtesy of The Black List.
TRUE STORIES, OR AT LEAST TRUE ENOUGH
THE ADULTS IN THE ROOM by Jake Disch
On November 1, 2022, FTX was valued at $32 billion. On November 11, 2022, it filed for bankruptcy. This is the incredible true story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic fall of FTX and its enigmatic founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.
BOY FALLS FROM SKY by Hunter Toro
An anxious playwright finds himself tangled in a web of deceit, injury, and intellectual property as he adapts his first Broadway musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Inspired by a true story.
DICKENS VS. ANDERSEN by Henry Oscar Thaler
Clumsy, awkward Hans Christian Andersen invites himself over to the country home of his idol, Charles Dickens… and overstays his welcome.
DIDIER by Jackson Kellard
The inspiring true story of international soccer icon Didier Drogba and his efforts to end a bloody civil war in his home country of Ivory Coast; not just with the skill of his feet, but also with the power of his voice
IMMUNE by Daniel Persitz
The story of Dr. Maurice Hilleman, the brilliant father of modern vaccines, who by deftly negotiating corporate politics, prevented a deadly pandemic and created the groundbreaking vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox and many others that still save eight million lives a year worldwide.
KAZAN by Chris Parizo
The story of the tumultuous relationship between Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan – born out of the success of DEATH OF A SALESMAN and destroyed when Elia Kazan named names to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, resulting in two of the greatest works of the 20th century: THE CRUCIBLE and ON THE WATERFRONT.
OUR MAN IN MIAMI by Ozzy Inguanzo
A Miami construction contractor transforms into a notorious sports agent when he hatches a high-stakes scheme to steal Fidel Castro’s most prized assets — Cuban baseball players — for the New York Yankees. Based on the wild true story.
PATSY by Filipe Coutinho
The untold and unfiltered true story of legendary country singer Patsy Cline, from her humble beginnings in Virginia to her untimely death at the height of her fame
PERSONAL BEST by Ryan Hoang Williams
Based on the true story of James Hogue, a talented student and long-distance runner who was admitted to Princeton University under the false identity of “Alexi Indris-Santana” — an orphaned, self-educated, teenage ranch hand.
THE PROFIT by Andrew Ferguson
The astonishing true story of how an unknown, evangelical Christian immigrant, Bill Hwang, suffered the greatest loss of wealth in American history, gambling away his $35 billion fortune and jeopardizing the entire financial system in under forty eight hours.
THE STRATFORD WIFE by Sarah E Sinclair
Anne Hathaway, a rebellious woman who has a way with words, weds William Shakespeare, an aspiring actor ten years her junior. They form a plan to sell her plays anonymously. But when William travels to London, Anne is stunned to learn he takes all the credit for himself, leaving her to forever live in the shadow of the greatest playwright to ever live.
WHAT’S MY AGE AGAIN by Jackson Kellard
The true story of Kansas teenager Jack Bergeson’s meteoric rise and fall after he discovered a loophole in the state’s constitution that allowed him to run for governor, inciting a statewide youth movement that changed politics forever.
ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS ARE HARD
BETTER HALF by Gaelyn Golde
A codependent woman unravels when her best friend gets a boyfriend.
BEYOND THE GRAVE by Maximiliano Hernández
A woman, suffocated by motherhood, has an affair with a man she hasn’t seen since high school… only to discover he has been dead for years.
DISPLACEMENT by Chiara Atik
What’s worse than a cruise? Being a twenty seven year old single woman chaperoning your ninety something grandparents on one, right after a crippling break-up.
FISTMAS by Jack Waz
In order to propose to the girl of his dreams, a lovestruck guy must first survive her hometown’s annual Christmas fighting tournament.
THE GETAWAY by Mario Kyprianou, Becky Leigh
A couple on the brink of divorce sets off on a romantic getaway to save their marriage, but when they find that they have inexplicably traveled back in time, they decide to team up to stop their younger selves from ever getting married.
HIT ME, BABY by Kurt McLeod
After Liv, a world-class hitwoman, breaks up with her boyfriend, Martin, he puts out a massive contract on his own life to get her attention. What Martin doesn’t realize is that it’s an open contract with a 48-hour expiration, so now every assassin in the western hemisphere is coming after him. Liv makes a deal to keep him safe until the contract expires, if he pays her out the full bounty. With the clock ticking, the two must elude some of the world’s most prolific killers.
IF I HAD YOUR FACE by Ran Ran Wang
When Jo’s best friend, Rina starts dating a white man, she begins transforming into something different: a white woman. Through it all, Jo can’t seem to convince anyone that there is cause for concern. But when three unidentifiable white women turn up dead, Jo realizes that they had all been Asian women who dated the same man, and now that he has Rina in his sights, it’s up to Jo to save her before she becomes his next victim.
ROSES by Evan Twohy
A married man takes his girlfriend on a romantic getaway to a villa. There is a swimming pool.
TOXOPLASMOSIS by 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.
U.P.S.E.T by Ben Bolea
Two border cops in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula find themselves in the crosshairs of Canadian biker gangs, international drug cartels, and shady government agents after intercepting a drug deal gone bad — all the day after an awkward one-night stand.
SPORTS (AND SPORTS-ADJACENT) STORIES
BACKCOUNTRY by Kevin Sheridan
Once the future of extreme skiing, Brooks Provence is approached to ski the mountain that nearly ended his life two decades ago — this time alongside a young skier on the brink of stardom. But when disaster falls, Brooks must overcome his past and accomplish the impossible in order to save the lives of those he loves most.
DIDIER by Jackson Kellard
The inspiring true story of international soccer icon Didier Drogba and his efforts to end a bloody civil war in his home country of Ivory Coast; not just with the skill of his feet, but also with the power of his voice.
FISTMAS by Jack Waz
In order to propose to the girl of his dreams, a lovestruck guy must first survive her hometown’s annual Christmas fighting tournament.
HARNESS by Leigh Janiak
In the violent world of underground horse racing, a wannabe female jockey and her trainer brother-in-law become entangled in an illicit relationship full of blood, sweat, and sex that pushes the limits of their bodies and the law.
OLD TIME HOCKEY by Kevin Jakubowski
A forty-three-year-old snowplow driver decides to get his high school hockey team back together to play a state championship game.
OUR MAN IN MIAMI by Ozzy Inguanzo
A Miami construction contractor transforms into a notorious sports agent when he hatches a high-stakes scheme to steal Fidel Castro’s most prized assets — Cuban baseball players — for the New York Yankees. Based on the wild true story.
PERSONAL BEST by Ryan Hoang Williams
Based on the true story of James Hogue, a talented student and long-distance runner who was admitted to Princeton University under the false identity of “Alexi Indris-Santana” — an orphaned, self-educated, teenage ranch hand.
POLO by Nika Burnett
When a young woman returns home from the Navy, she joins a local water polo team and finds herself fighting a new battle.
WE GOT NEXT by Aaron Goldberg, Alex Goldberg, Michael Goldberg
The true story of how one daring executive beat the odds to launch the longest-running league in women’s sports: the WNBA.
THE WOLF IN CHIEFS CLOTHING by Adam Christopher Brest
A lovable loser from a family of criminals becomes the Kansas City Chiefs’ most famous superfan. His newfound status is expensive, so he teams up with his imaginary friend – an anthropomorphic version of the team’s wolf mascot – and goes on a bank-robbing spree.
MALEVOLENT FORCES OF QUESTIONABLE ORIGIN
AMERICAN DREAMS by Tricia Lee & Corey Brown
In the not-so-distant future, an Asian-American woman works at a company where you can hire
people to write your dreams. When one of her clients mysteriously dies, she realizes that those
who have the power to write your dreams, also have the power to write your nightmare.
BLASPHEMOUS by Luke Piotrowski
An inexperienced priest and a charismatic possessed woman form a dark and dangerous bond while on the run from sinister forces within the Catholic church.
CHAPERONES by Sarah Rothschild
A single dad tries to bond with his teenage daughter by chaperoning her field trip, only to have to save the world (and possibly her virginity) when an ancient evil is unleashed.
THE CROWD by Jack Heller
In a claustrophobic race against time, a woman must unravel the mystery behind a malevolent crowd before she succumbs to their relentless pursuit.
THE LIGHT AT THE END by Arun Croll
When a solar event fills the sky with endless light that kills everything it touches, a young woman must find a way to escape the house where she is trapped with a doomsday cultist.
LURE by Nick Tassoni
When a park ranger ventures into the wilderness to find a missing hiker before a storm, she finds herself lured into the woods by a dangerous, unearthly predator mimicking her dead daughter.
PLEASE COME BACK by Mike George
A young couple who perform rituals to raise people from the dead get more than they bargained for when they attempt to re-animate a young girl who doesn’t remember how she died.
RETURN TO SENDER by Russell Goldman
When a woman experiences delivery scams that grow increasingly personal and strange, she becomes hellbent on discovering her anonymous sender.
SUNDOWN by Nick Hurwitch
Monsters that roam in daylight keep a small, rural family confined to a nocturnal lifestyle. But when their son starts to question the monsters’ existence, his parents must see how far they’re willing to go to keep him safe.
UNNIE by Lynn Yu
In the cutthroat world of K-POP, a group’s debut is threatened when someone begins to violently attack its members.
ANIMALS AND INSECTS ATTACK (SOMETIMES)
BAD BOY by Travis Braun.
A rescue dog suspects his loving new owner is a serial killer.
DOWN CAME THE RAIN by Katie Found
When a woman gives birth to a spider, she begins to question her unraveling reality and the psychological and arachnid horrors of postpartum motherhood.
HARNESS by Leigh Janiak
In the violent world of underground horse racing, a wannabe female jockey and her trainer brother-in-law become entangled in an illicit relationship full of blood, sweat, and sex that pushes the limits of their bodies and the law.
LOVE AND WAR AND GUERNICA by Sam Zvibelman
Against the backdrop of a present-day, war-torn, America, Love and War and Guernica is a dark comedy about Neil Mudd, a reporter for the Union who is suffering from writer’s block ever since his break-up, and his engaging with a mysterious horse following him through war-torn Los Feliz, California. When the Union recruits Neil for a top secret mission, he and the horse go on an epic journey that, emotionally, serves as a metaphor for the war going on inside Neil’s heart.
RACEHORSE by Justin Piasecki
A racetrack veterinarian who runs an off-the-books ER for criminals finds his practice and life in jeopardy when he’s recruited for his patient’s heist.
TOXOPLASMOSIS by Andrew Nunnelly
The classic story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl… boy forms an unexpected bromance with girl’s cat, who may actually be an intergalactic emissary sent to save humanity from itself.
CORPORATE ESPIONAGE
HEAD GAMES by Colin Liddle
A corporate spy poses as a personal chef to the disgraced founder of a neuroprosthetics firm in order to steal his seismic-shifting new invention from his secluded villa in Greece.
HOT MESS by Shanrah Wakefield
Sandy was once a formidable investigative reporter until a bungled story destroyed her credibility and forced her into the soul-sucking world of tabloid gossip – now her days are spent covering hot mess celebrity Margot Ford. When a disillusioned Sandy is called to Fiji to follow Margot’s latest hijinks, she discovers a surprise about Margot’s real identity, which sends her on an adventure she never imagined, as the two must team up to take down a massive, sinister corporate plot with global implications, all taking place at a luxury island resort.
OUR MAN IN MIAMI by Ozzy Inguanzo
A Miami construction contractor transforms into a notorious sports agent when he hatches a high-stakes scheme to steal Fidel Castro’s most prized assets — Cuban baseball players — for the New York Yankees. Based on the wild true story.
PALETTE by Zach Strauss
A woman who discovers she is suffering from severe synesthesia gets recruited into the secretive, cult-like industry of color design by a mysterious corporation but then uncovers the bloody, dark, and twisted reality of what it really takes to make the world’s next great hues.
THE PENTESTER by Jesse Quiñones
When a pentester with a perfect track record for breaching his clients’ security systems takes an unusually high-paying job, his success proves to be in vain as he finds himself in the middle of a deadly conspiracy where the only way out is forward.
HEISTS
BOXMAN by 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.
FEROCIOUS by Marc Bloom
A team of financially desperate hotel employees embark on a deadly treasure hunt to recover priceless diamonds from a wrecked yacht in the middle of “The Red Triangle,” the world’s most dangerous hunting ground for great white sharks.
OUR MAN IN MIAMI by Ozzy Inguanzo
A Miami construction contractor transforms into a notorious sports agent when he hatches a high-stakes scheme to steal Fidel Castro’s most prized assets — Cuban baseball players — for the New York Yankees. Based on the wild true story.
RACEHORSE by Justin Piasecki
A racetrack veterinarian who runs an off-the-books ER for criminals finds his practice and life in jeopardy when he’s recruited for his patient’s heist.
HOLLYWOOD PLAYS ITSELF
BOY FALLS FROM SKY by Hunter Toro
An anxious playwright finds himself tangled in a web of deceit, injury, and intellectual property as he adapts his first Broadway musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Inspired by a true story.
THE GREAT PRETENDER by Kirill Baru, Eric Zimmerman
When Tom Hanks, the nicest guy in Hollywood (and someone who looks a lot like him), gets kidnapped, his doppelgänger must step in to save him. In a world of make-believe, it’s hard to know who to trust.
KAZAN by Chris Parizo
The story of the tumultuous relationship between Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan – born out of the success of DEATH OF A SALESMAN and destroyed when Elia Kazan named names to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, resulting in two of the greatest works of the 20th century: THE CRUCIBLE and ON THE WATERFRONT.
SPOILER by Jordan Rosenbloom
After passing on a hot new screenplay, a studio executive finds himself trapped as the protagonist inside the film and must regain control before the credits roll.
KILLERS
8 HABITS OF HIGHLY MURDEROUS PEOPLE by Michael Boyle
Psychologist Dr. Martin Park specializes in working with clients trying to curtail extreme violent urges. However, when a series of brutally murdered bodies are discovered in his small New England hometown, it’s up to Martin to figure out which of his patients is responsible.
HIT ME, BABY by Kurt McLeod
After Liv, a world-class hitwoman, breaks up with her boyfriend, Martin, he puts out a massive contract on his own life to get her attention. What Martin doesn’t realize is that it’s an open contract with a 48-hour expiration, so now every assassin in the western hemisphere is coming after him. Liv makes a deal to keep him safe until the contract expires, if he pays her out the full bounty. With the clock ticking, the two must elude some of the world’s most prolific killers.
MOLEPEOPLE by Nathan Elston
When an unhoused teen turns up brutally murdered, his estranged brother searches for answers in the underworld of New York City and uncovers a series of horrifying crimes hiding deep in the abandoned subway systems.
THE NEST by Aaron Benjamin
Confined to “the nest,” a Secret Service Sniper gets a strange call on the radio from a deranged mastermind who’s holding his family hostage in a box suite during America’s biggest game — the Super Bowl.
THE LITERARY CANON’S LEGACY
DICKENS VS. ANDERSEN by Henry Oscar Thaler
Clumsy, awkward Hans Christian Andersen invites himself over to the country home of his idol, Charles Dickens… and overstays his welcome.
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH by Charlie Polinger
A grotesquely hilarious dark comedy based on Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death.”
THE STRATFORD WIFE by Sarah E Sinclair
Anne Hathaway, a rebellious woman who has a way with words, weds William Shakespeare, an aspiring actor ten years her junior. They form a plan to sell her plays anonymously. But when William travels to London, Anne is stunned to learn he takes all the credit for himself, leaving her to forever live in the shadow of the greatest playwright to ever live.
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT, POLITICAL EDITION
OUR HOUSE by Will Youmans
When she wins an essay competition, Leila Moseley is brought to Capitol Hill to be honored by the United States Congress, but her luck runs out when the ceremony intersects with a violent insurrection, and she must team up with a group of aides, interns, and nepo babies to battle for survival against a legion of protesters and a secret society.
WHAT’S MY AGE AGAIN by Jackson Kellard
The true story of Kansas teenager Jack Bergeson’s meteoric rise and fall after he discovered a loophole in the state’s constitution that allowed him to run for governor, inciting a statewide youth movement that changed politics forever.
MONEY GONE
THE ADULTS IN THE ROOM by Jake Disch
On November 1, 2022, FTX was valued at $32 billion. On November 11, 2022, it filed for bankruptcy. This is the incredible true story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic fall of FTX and its enigmatic founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.
THE PROFIT by Andrew Ferguson
The astonishing true story of how an unknown, evangelical Christian immigrant, Bill Hwang, suffered the greatest loss of wealth in American history, gambling away his $35 billion fortune and jeopardizing the entire financial system in under forty eight hours.
WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME
OUR HOUSE by Will Youmans
When she wins an essay competition, Leila Moseley is brought to Capitol Hill to be honored by the United States Congress, but her luck runs out when the ceremony intersects with a violent insurrection, and she must team up with a group of aides, interns, and nepo babies to battle for survival against a legion of protesters and a secret society.
THE LAST TOWER by Aaron Sala
When a disaster strikes, a family is trapped in their high-rise Miami hotel. With danger closing in fast, they’re left with only one way to go: Up.
THE GREATER KANSAS CITY/TOPEKA METROPOLITAN AREA
WHAT’S MY AGE AGAIN by Jackson Kellard
The true story of Kansas teenager Jack Bergeson’s meteoric rise and fall after he discovered a loophole in the state’s constitution that allowed him to run for governor, inciting a statewide youth movement that changed politics forever.
THE WOLF IN CHIEFS CLOTHING by Adam Christopher Brest
A lovable loser from a family of criminals becomes the Kansas City Chiefs’ most famous superfan. His newfound status is expensive, so he teams up with his imaginary friend–an anthropomorphic version of the team’s wolf mascot–and goes on a bank-robbing spree.
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