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Exclusive: Good Universe, the upstart shingle run by former Mandate men Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane, have acquired an untitled pitch from Sascha Penn. It’s described as an action-heavy film that pits the criminal organizations the Yakuza and the Mafia against one another in a winner-take-all battle. Oasis Media’s David Lonner and Ben Rowe will produce and Nicole Brown is overseeing for Good Universe. Penn is creator and exec producer of Secret Lives Of Husbands & Wives, a pilot for Jerry Bruckheimer and NBC that is a candidate for a fall series pickup and stars Martin Henderson, Jesse L. Martin and Perry Reeves. He’s also writing a sci-fi project for Andrew Adamson’s Strange Weather and sold his feature sci-fi action thriller The Ditch to Warner Bros with Madhouse Entertainment producing. Penn is repped by CAA and Madhouse.

There is either a couple of football fans or Jerry Maguire/Moneyball with this year’s most liked unproduced screenplay. Close to 300 hundred film executives provided with the Black List creators a top ten of their favorite screenplays of the year and the consensus first overall pick (with 65 votes) comes from the recently featured in Variety (10 Screenwriters to Watch 2012) tandem of Rajiv Joseph & Scott Rothman and their drama which has nothing to do with enlisting in the armed forces. Draft Day – about the day in the life of a fictitious Buffalo Bills Gm appears to currently be in turnaround — which only means I expect to see this greenlight perhaps a little later than sooner – worth noting: top spot almost guarantees that the film will indeed go into production (2006, 2010 and 2011 are the exceptions.) Among the more alluring logline subjects we find on the list, I’d be keen on reading the...

The 2011 Black List, the Top Unproduced Screenplays of the year has been released. The best unproduced screenplays from The Black List 2011 is compiled by votes from over 300 “execs, agency guys, and high-level assistants. Titled The Black List, the compendium highlights both established screenwriters and up-and-comers, and has served as a launching pad in the past for projects like Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, and (500) Days of Summer. Last year’s list included Margin Call, Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Hunger Games, and Snow White and the Huntsman.”

Regarding the validity of The Black List, things to keep in mind:

some of these screenplays have already been acquired and are already in development, though…none will have entered principal photography by December 31, 2011. Also worth pointing out is that, as in previous years, there have been rumors that some of the participants have been accused of using the Black List to promote their own clients or friends.

[1] Last year saw the debut of The Viewfinder List [2], which aims to do for aspiring filmmakers what The Black List does for screenwriters. Compiled from a poll of "studio executives, producers, and creatives," The Viewfinder List reflects the most-liked shorts, commercials, and/or music videos of the year. The inaugural list in 2010 included such up-and-comers as Patrick Jean, whose Pixels is due out in 2013, 47 Ronin director Carl Erik Rinsch, and, um, Alejandro González Iñárritu. This year's list has Dan Trachtenberg's Portal: No Escape on top, along with a few other videos you may recognize if you've been paying attention to /Film for the past year. Or even if you haven't -- that adorable Super Bowl Volkswagen ad with the little Darth Vader kid also made the cut, as did Chris Marrs Piliero's video for The Black Keys. Check out the full 2011 Viewfinder List -- with video! -- after the jump.

For the seventh annual year a list of the top unproduced screenplays written in the past 12 calendar months has been made. The Black List is the most recognized and celebritized compilation for screenwriters and unknown movie ideas to be heard. While some prior Black List scripts have gone on to be made (like Juno or 500 Days of Summer), most scripts do not. However, what being on The Black List can do is to give a big push of credibility to a screenwriter hoping to carve out a career in Hollywood.

The Black List recepients are chosen by a committee of 300 individuals working in Hollywood: agents, writers, producers, managers and the like. They read the screenplays that float around the showbiz ecosystem; some are bought and are already in development while others are still seeing the interest of talent of financial backers.

The makers of The Black List are good to...

The 2011 Black List has arrived online and there are a bunch of the hottest scripts in Hollywood. Some have already been picked up by studios, while most are still unproduced. Here is the press release: The Black List was compiled from the suggestions of over 300 film executives, each of whom contributed the names of up to ten of their favorite scripts that were written in, or are somehow uniquely associated with, 2011 and will not have begun principal photography during this calendar year.

This year, scripts had to receive at least six mentions to be included on the The Black List.

All reasonable effort has been made to confirm the information contained herein. The Black List apologizes for all misspellings, misattributions, incorrect representation identification, and questionable 2011 affiliations.

It has been said many times, but it's worth repeating:

The Black List is not a "best of" list. It is, at best, a "most liked" list.

[1] Each December since 2004, studio executive Franklin Leonard has compiled the best unproduced screenplays of the year, as voted by hundreds of execs, agency guys, and high-level assistants. Titled The Black List, the compendium highlights both established screenwriters and up-and-comers, and has served as a launching pad in the past for projects like Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, and (500) Days of Summer. Last year's list included Margin Call, Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Hunger Games, and Snow White and the Huntsman. It should be noted that the headline is somewhat misleading -- some of these screenplays have already been acquired and are already in development, though according to Leonard none will have entered principal photography by December 31, 2011. Also worth pointing out is that, as in previous years, there have been rumors that some of the participants have been accused of using the Black List to promote their own clients or friends.

Exclusive: Here’s the new Viewfinder List, the entertainment industry survey which polls studio executives, producers and creatives for their top 10 short films, commercials and/or music videos. Much like The Black List, the Viewfinder List recognizes short form video content and the up and coming helmers responsible for it. Several helmers on last year’s list got feature jobs; how will this year’s helmers fare? The list was created by Jeff Schroeder (Brillstein Entertainment Partners), Aaron Schmidt (Langley Park Pictures) and Patrick Chu (The Montecito Picture Company). Here is the website for the full list: http://www.viewfinderframes.com/category/viewfinder-list-2011/ 24 Votes: Portal by Dan Trachtenberg (Short) Agents: Harley Copen, Emile Gladstone, Marc Helwig, George Ruiz / ICM. Managers: Ben Rowe / Oasis 17 Votes: Bubble Boy by Kealan O’Rourke (Short) Agents: Chris Smith Trevor Astbury / Paradigm; Manager: Jairo Alvarado / 3 Arts 13 Votes: Rosa by Jesus Orellana (Short) Agent: Bryan Besser...

Kailey Marsh is a co-founder and literary manager/producer at Faction M with her business partner Nima Maleki. Kailey graduated from the Art Institute of California-Los Angeles and interned for Ozla Pictures (the company behind The Grudge movies, among others) and then worked as an assistant for Steven Jay Schneider, producer of Paranormal Activity. She was an assistant at the management/production company Circle of Confusion before becoming a manager in her own right.

Faction M has most recently been involved in producing the feature film The Day, currently in post-production. Check out the Facebook page for all the details about the film and the teaser.

With the advent of The Black List, a collection of the top unproduced screenplays making the rounds in Hollywood, Kailey invented The Blood List, which compiles the best unproduced horror scripts. She was recently included in a Hollywood Reporter article examining this listing phenomena.