The best of this year's Black List

By Sarah Sluis

For those interested in the kind of screenplays that are getting passed around Hollywood, The Black List offers a peek at the best unproduced scripts of the year, voted on by a select group of Hollywood executives. The list is influential, both because it has contained screenplays that went on to be nominated and win Oscars, and because it can help the careers of the screenwriters who make the list.

I looked through the 2011 list and picked out the projects that most intrigued me.

When the Street Lights Go On. This screenplay gets my pick not only because of its haunting description, but because it received the second-highest number of votes: 84. The Black List's summary: "In the early 1980s, a town suffers through the aftermath of a brutal murder of a high school girl and a teacher." I love the slightly retro setting, small-town feel, and the obvious implication of the murder: an affair gone sour, or discovered.

Just today, there came news that Drew Barrymore picked up the movie to direct. More details about the plot were revealed, and it sounds intricate. It's told from the perspective of a fifteen-year-old boy and amateur filmmaker who finds the bodies. Two of his classmates are suspects, and all three have a crush on the dead girl's younger sister.

How to Disappear Completely. From the Black List: "A child prodigy tries to take control of his life away from his demanding parents." The idea of overbearing parents is all the rage right now, with high-profile magazine articles examining the negative effects of pushing kids, and outrage over the "Tiger Mom." This kind of controversy, along with any potential audience members' lingering questions or resentment about how they were raised (and isn't everyone a genius in their own way?) make me think topicality could bring this project over the top.

The Outsider. Black List summary: "In post WWII Japan, an American former prisoner of war rises in the yakuza." A historical gangster story that's doesn't have the oft-used mise-en-scene of Prohibition-era America? Please! Those that have read current bestseller Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand know that Japanese POW camps could be brutal places. Violations of international law governing such camps were commonplace. If so, how could someone end up on the other side? That kind of question could give the protagonist a better arc than most such stories.

Of the dozens of screenplays with a spot on the Black List, only a small percentage will end up being produced--or in the running for awards season. I've made my bets, now I only have to wait a few years to see if any of the scripts end up in production--or any good in their finished form.