Nowhere in the world are lists more devoured, scrutinized and feared than in Hollywood.
Studio heads, agents and assistants all quake in anticipation of the annual "Top 10" or "100 to Watch" breakdowns, wondering who's officially hot and who's not.
So it's no surprise that when an email known as the Black List hit inboxes around town recently, it was treated like the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Black List is a compilation of the "most liked" scripts that were circulated in 2005. ("Best" apparently is too judgmental a term.)
The doc's anonymous auteur claims to have polled more than 90 "film executives and high-level assistants" about their favorite scripts of the year.
But, in 2005, "most liked" didn't necessarily mean most liked by deal-makers: Many of the 300 "most liked" scripts remain unproduced.
So development execs set out to correct this oversight. (Who said Hollywood people are unscrupulous?) Orders went out to get copies of the scripts -- pronto! Execs vowed to get in business with these writers -- even more pronto!
The state of play of this year's top five is as follows:
1. "Things We Lost in the Fire," by
Allan Loeb. (Set up at DreamWorks, which is in the process of moving to Paramount.)
2. "Juno," by
Diablo Cody. (Shooting begins in the spring;
Brad Silberling is directing and Mandate Pictures is producing.)
3. "Lars and the Real Girl," by
Nancy Oliver. (Not set up.)
4. "The Only Living Boy in New York," also by Loeb. (Set up at Sony with producers
Ron Yerxa and
Albert Berger.)
5. "Charlie Wilson's War," by
Aaron Sorkin. (Universal paid seven figures for Sorkin to adapt from
George Crile's book in 2003, but so far no movement.)
Well, no one said that popularity ensured a deal.
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