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Rom-com and sci-fi top industry selection of hot unproduced screenplays.Scroll down for full list

Romantic comedy Matinee Idol by writer Richard Galazka and sci-fi Gateway 6 by Malachi Smyth lead this year’s Brit List, the industry selection of hot unproduced screenplays.

Both scripts recorded nine industry votes to top the list.

Rooks Nest Entertainment are producing Matinee Idol, about a cinephile who tries to win a girl’s heart by pretending to be someone he’s not, only to learn that it takes more than grand gestures to turn fantasy into reality.

Sentinel Entertainment are behind futuristic sci-fi Gateway 6, in which on a war-ravaged Earth, four soldiers man the last bastion – an outpost in a sea-covered continent.

Jay Basu’s The Pier, produced by 42, and Krysty Wilson-Cairns’ Aether, from FilmNation, followed with eight votes.

The list is compiled by a combination of UK producers, agents, distributors and sales companies.

There were 140 entries...

Genuinely fascist films made in democratic countries are agreeably scarce, although Gregory La Cava's Gabriel Over the White House (1933)—or President Jesus Hitler as a friend dubbed it—could certainly qualify, even if it does veer around a lot, almost as if a Hollywood film were trying to avoid committing itself politically. Nominations for other fascist films will be gratefully considered.

Bulldog Drummond was featured in ten novels by a pseudonymous character called "Sapper," (to sap: to slug over the head, British slang). Drummond, an ex-soldier bored by civilian life, advertises for adventure and finds it, as detailed in 1929 Bulldog Drummond with Ronald Colman. This movie largely avoids the racism and jingoistic fervor of the source novels, and seems to play the more brutal moments for laughs, as when Colman exchanges sweet nothings with Joan Bennett while cheerfully throttling Lionel Atwill.

The books' biggest influence in an indirect one:...

With the next Sherlock Holmes movie on the horizon, David looks at a few other literary heroes that deserve a fresh chance on the big screen…

Classic suspense heroes are getting a lot of Hollywood attention at the moment. Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows will be released in December, and Robert Downey Jr wants to similarly reinvent Perry Mason, while Miss Marple will apparently turn into Jennifer Garner.

Meanwhile, The Saint, as played by James Purefoy, will return to the small-screen in a TV movie called The Saint In New Orleans. With this in mind, here are a few other classic characters that could be similarly adapted.

Sexton Blake

Originally a Holmes pretender, this character evolved into a hybrid of Holmes, James Bond and Indiana Jones, going on to become the most documented fictional character in the history of the English language, with over two thousand stories and novels published.

There are Tons of new releases this past week, and as my co-host and friend Travis George said, it was going to be a hell of a time to write these up for all of you people out there who want to know about Criterion’s blossoming Hulu Plus page. And as usual, I’m elated to tell you all about these films, especially if you want to join up to the service, which helps us keep this weekly article series going. I mean, come on, there’s an Ingmar Bergman film that’s not in the collection yet! More on that at the end of the article. So let’s get right to it then.

The epic film The Human Condition (1959) has been put up, separated into three videos. Parts 1 & 2, Parts 3 & 4 and Parts 5 & 6 are there for your ease of watching, so if you have 574 minutes to kill watching the...

"Harry Potter" Producer David Barron ("Harry Potter" series of films) and his Runaway Fridge Films have joined forces with Pria Viswalingam's Fork Films to develop as well as co-produce "Bulldog Drummond." The big-budget film will be based on the British action hero created by Sapper, a.k.a. Herman Cyril McNeile back in 1920. The pic will be based on the story by Dennis Kleinman and John Collee and Phil Rymer, of Rymer Media Law will serve as an executive producer. The character of "Bulldog Drummond" was a World War II veteran who was bored with his life as a civilian and was one of the most popular literary characters of the 1920s. Character even influenced the creation of James Bond due to his British gentleman demeanor...