The Black List, an annual ranking of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays, has unleashed its 2021 edition — a smattering of delicious pop biopics, true crime and even a psychodrama about Mickey Rourke appearing on “The Masked Singer.”
Founded in 2005 by Franklin Leonard, the list surveys top studio and development executives asking them to share the scripts they adored but haven’t yet greenlit. The rankings are then cross-referenced, and popularity is calculated by the frequency a title appears (the “mentions”).
The top script on this year’s list is “Cauliflower,” an intense drama from writer Daniel Jackson.
“Under the cruel guidance of a mysterious coach, an ambitious high school wrestler struggles to become a state champion while battling a bizarre infection in his ear that both makes him dominant in his sport and threatens his sanity,” the synopsis reads. The script was mentioned 32 times across rankings. Jackson is repped by UTA and Bellevue. The film has Fuller Media attached as a producer.
Other notable titles include: “The Villain,” which exposes the rise and fall of notorious “Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli by Andrew Ferguson; Thomas Aguilar and Michael Ballin’s “The College Dropout,” about young Kanye West’s quest to make his first game-changing album; and a biopic of Canadian chanteuse Shania Twain from Jessica Welsh.
Our favorite entry by far is “The Masked Singer” from writers Mike Jones and Nicholas Sherman. In the script, Oscar nominee and comeback kid Mickey Rourke “loses his mind after he’s forced to take a gig on television’s highest rated show: ‘The Masked Singer.’”
Read the full 2021 Black List, interspersed with videos announcing the projects:
“Cauliflower” by Daniel Jackson: Under the cruel guidance of a mysterious coach, an ambitious high school wrestler struggles to become a state champion while battling a bizarre infection in his ear that both makes him dominant in his sport and threatens his sanity.
Agency: UTA (Jessica Kantor, Grace Rover, Michael Sauvage)
Managers: Bellevue Productions (John Zaozirny, Zack Zucker)
Producer: Fuller Media
Mentions: 32
“See How They Run” by Lily Hollander: A blind mother moves into a remote farmhouse with her young daughter, but the mystery of the home’s previous inhabitants intrudes upon her attempts to repair their relationship.
Agency: Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston (Jim Ehrich)
Manager: Sydney Blanke (Russell Hollander, Jon Huddle)
Producer: Fourth Wall Management
Mentions: 25
“Divorce Party” by Rebecca Webb: Patricia Ford feels pretty good about trading her South Boston roots for a “perfect” life on New York’s Upper East Side, until everything falls to shit and her raucous girlfriends throw her a Divorce Party at the home she’s about to lose. As the night goes from wild to totally insane, Patricia takes back control of her life.
Manager: 42 (Alexandra Kordas, Josh Varney)
Producer: 42
Mentions: 23
“Killer Instinct” by Lillian Yu: After a Hollywood assistant is publicly fired for admitting while on a conference call that he’d love to kill his boss, he finds his boss dead in the office the next morning and goes on the lam to figure out the real culprit, all while being hunted by his boss’s assassin.
Agency: UTA (Gregory McKnight, Max Michael)
Manager: 360 (Marc Mounier, Clifford Murray, Daniel Rappaport)
Producer: Maximum Effort
Mentions: 21
“The Villain” by Andrew Ferguson: The completely outrageous and completely true story of “Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli — from his meteoric rise as wunderkind hedge fund manager and pharmaceutical executive to his devastating fall involving crime, corruption and the Wu-Tang Clan — which exposed the rotten core of the American healthcare system.
Manager: Writ Large (Michael Claaseen)
Producer: Mandalay Pictures
Mentions: 19
“Ultra” by Colin Bannon: When an ultramarathoner learns he is one of ten contestants chosen to take part in a secret race known as “the hardest race on Earth,” he is forced to confront his past when he realizes there are deadly consequences for breaking the rules.
Agency: Verve Talent and Literary (Parker Davis, Adam Levine)
Manager: Sugar23 (Sukee Chew)
Financier: TriStar Pictures
Producer: Sukee Chew
Mentions: 19
“Wait List” by Carly J. Hallman: A troubled millennial from small-town Texas will do anything to get into her top-choice law school, including murder.
Manager: Empirical Evidence (Derrick Eppich, Daniel Seco)
Mentions: 19
“Mercury” by Stefan Jaworski: When a first date takes a dangerous turn, down-on-his-luck Michael risks everything to save his newfound love from her past. Little does he know, the night — and his date — are not what they seem. Michael soon finds himself on a high-octane cat-and-mouse race across the city to save himself and uncover the truth, armed with nothing but his wit, his driving skills, and a 1969 Ford Mercury.
Manager: Lit Entertainment Group (Adam Kolbrenner, Kendrick Tan)
Producers: ACE Entertainment, Lit Entertainment Group
Mentions: 18
“In The End” by Brian T. Arnold: In the near future, terminal patients are given the opportunity to go out with a bang with personalized VR “perfect endings.” But when the best Transition Specialist gets far too close to a patient, he finds himself questioning everything in his life.
Agency: APA (Halle Mariner, Adam Perry, Sheryl Petersen)
Manager: Bellevue Productions (Kate Sharp, John Zaozirny)
Producer: Sister
Mentions: 17
“Mr. Benihana” by Chris Wu: When a short Japanese kid from post-war Tokyo decides to make it big in the US of A, he discovers a winning recipe of exploiting his heritage with good old-fashioned American entertainment, to the great shame of his traditionalist father. This is the larger-than-life immigrant story of the OG daredevil playboy tycoon: the one-and-only Rocky Aoki.
Agency: Kaplan-Stahler (Michael Kolodony)
Manager: Bellevue Productions (John Zaozirny)
Producer: Bellevue Productions
Mentions: 16
“Worst. Dinner. Ever.” by Jack Waz: An estranged father and son have to survive terrorists, explosions, and, most terrifying of all, dinner with each other.
Manager: Fourth Wall (Russell Hollander)
Mentions: 16
“Grizz” by Connor Barry: A car accident strands a young paramedic in the rugged Pacific Northwest where she is hunted by a ravenous grizzly bear.
Agency: Gersh (Jonathan Martin, Danny Toth)
Manager: Sugar23 (Sukee Chew)
Producer: Sukee Chew
Mentions: 15
“Homecoming” by Murder Ink (Brandon Broussard, Hudson Obayuwana, Jana Savage): Ten years after graduation, one of New York’s most eligible bachelors and his eccentric wanderlust wingman try to pull their recently divorced friend out of his rut by taking him back to Howard University’s legendary Homecoming for the best weekend of their lives.
Agency: APA (Halle Mariner, Adam Perry)
Financier: Lionsgate
Producer: Get Lifted, Mandeville Films, Murder Ink
Mentions: 15
“Whittier” by Filipe Coutinho, Ben Mehlman: While looking into a client’s murder, a Los Angeles social worker stumbles on a political conspiracy in the wake of the 1987 Whittier earthquake.
Manager: Mazo Partners (Matt Rosen)
Mentions: 15
“Weird” by Augustus Schiff: An autistic kid tries to do normal college things — making friends, figuring out if girls like him, getting over his mom’s death — while seeing life in his own “musical” way.
Manager: Heroes and Villains Entertainment (Aaron Lipsett)
Producer: Automatik
Mentions: 14
“Air Jordan” by Alex Convery: The wild true story of how an upstart shoe company named Nike landed the most influential endorsement in sports history: Michael Jordan.
Agency: UTA (Ramses Ishak, Jordan Lonner, Michael Sheresky)
Manager: Grandview (Zac Frognowski, Faisal Kanaan)
Producers: Mandalay, Skydance Media
Mentions: 13
“The College Dropout” by Thomas Aguilar and Michael Ballin: A young Kanye West’s intimate journey to create his seminal first album that reinvented hip hop music.
Agency: APA (Mike Goldberg, Kyle Loftus, Adam Perry)
Manager: New Wave (Matt Ocacher, Michael Pelmont)
Financier: Columbia Pictures
Mentions: 13
“Hot Girl Summer” by Michelle Askew: After witnessing a drug deal gone wrong, thirteen-year-old (and exceptionally awkward) Beatrice accidentally finds herself in the middle of an underground drug ring…and on the perfect route to having a proper hot girl summer.
Manager: Fourth Wall (Bella Bagatelos, Russell Hollander)
Producers: Davis Entertainment, Paul Foley, Alexis Ostrander
Mentions: 13
“Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel” by Michael Shanks: A man wakes up trapped in a mysterious hotel room. All alone in a mind-bending prison, his only chance for escape is teamwork: with himself.
Agency: WME (TJ Bernardy, Perry Weitzner)
Manager: Grandview (Adam Klein, Matt Rosen)
Mentions: 13
“Loud” by Whit Brayton: A famed experimental musician finds himself embroiled in the race to solve Earth’s primary existential threat: A deafening sound that never stops, forcing all of humanity to survive in silence.
Manager: Grandview (Tracy Kopulsky)
Producer: Star Thrower Entertainment
Mentions: 13
“Rabbit Season” by Shanrah Wakefield: Supernatural horror about a woman stalked through a dark city park by the most monstrous manifestation of manhood during her walk home from her high school reunion.
Agency: CAA (Bryant Barile, Olivia Blaustein)
Manager: Grandview (Tracy Kopulsky)
Producers: Ghost House Pictures
Mentions: 13
“Lady Krylon” by Brandon Constantine: Two rival graffiti artists engage in a series of street battles, culminating in an otherworldy duel after the art starts bleeding into the real world.
Agency: Paradigm (Melissa Baloglu, Ethan Neale)
Manager: Housefire (Jon Hersh)
Producers: Stampede Ventures
Mentions: 12
“The Masked Singer” by Mike Jones and Nicholas Sherman: Mickey Rourke loses his mind after he’s forced to take a gig on television’s highest rated show: The Masked Singer.
Agency: Verve (Parker Davis)
Mentions: 12
“Michael Bay: The Explosive Biopic” by Sean Tidwell: Packed with enough C4 to split an asteroid in two, this tell-all Michael Bay origin story reveals the explosions that defined him, the fire that ignited his little heart, and the fate that sealed his Hollywood destiny.
Agency: Verve (Kyle Jensen)
Mentions: 12
“Symphony of Survival” by Daniel Persitz: The incredible true story of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich writing an epic symphony during the deadly World War II siege of Leningrad — a work of art so powerful it would save him and his family, all while helping to unite his people with the Allies.
Agency: APA (David Saunders)
Mentions: 12
“Believe Me” by Hannah Mescon and Dreux Moreland: An absurdist biopic chronicling the many rises and falls of Donald Trump, culminating with that fateful night at the 2011 Correspondent’s Dinner.
Agency: WME (Eric Darnell, Olive Uniacke)
Manager: Sugar23 (Alexa Creasia)
Producer: Baha Productions, Paradox
Mentions: 11
“Candlewood” by Jason Benjamin and Jessica Granger: In 1992 a seaplane crash in a lakefront community sparks a relationship between three young sisters and the mysterious, injured female pilot.
Agency: UTA, ICM (Jenny Maryasis, Larry Salz, Melissa Orton)
Manager: Artists First (Allen Fischer, Casey Neumeier)
Producer: Washington Square Films
Mentions: 11
“Indigo” by Ola Shokunbi: An art thief who takes priceless objects from museums and private collections and redistributes them to their original countries of ownership is tracked by a dogged FBI Agent across the globe.
Agency: CAA (Jon Cassir, Darian Lanzetta, Begho Ukueberuaw)
Producer: Goddard Textiles
Mentions: 11
“Jellyfish Days” by Matthew Kic and Mike Sorce: A young woman and her devoted boyfriend’s lives are dramatically altered by a medical procedure that could potentially quadruple their lifespans.
Agency: WME (CJ Fight)
Manager: Cavalry Media (Jared Ceizler, Ari Zudkewich)
Producer: Temple Hill
Mentions: 11
“Wheels Come Off” by Kryzz Gautier: In the year 2065, a fiery teenager with a wild imagination, her paraplegic mom, and their clueless robot struggle to navigate the post-apocalypse; but when the mother’s wheelchair breaks, the trio must venture out into the dangerous “outside” for a chance to survive.
Agency: CAA (Christina Chou, Stephanie Smalling)
Manager: Mazo Partners (David Clark, Matt Rosen)
Producer: Ohco
Mentions: 11
“Yasuke” by Stuart C. Paul: The true story of the first and only African Samurai in feudal Japan who rose from being a slave for the Jesuits to fighting as a Samurai in the unification of Japan.
Agency: Paradigm (Ethan Neale, Matt Snow)
Manager: Circle of Confusion (Julian Rosenberg)
Producer: 1.21, Recorded Picture Company
Mentions: 11
“Abbi and the Eighth Wonder” by Matt Roller: When a misogynist explorer meets his sudden (and violent) end, his long-overlooked understudy seizes the moment and embarks on an adventure that will earn her a place in the annals of history.
Manager: 360 (Eryn Brown, Marc Mounier)
Financier: Tristar
Mentions: 10
“Cruel Summer” by Leigh Cesiro and Erica Matlin: During the summer of 1998, five camp counselors accidentally kill a stranger in the woods.
Manager: Grandview (Tracy Kopulsky)
Mentions: 10
“Follow” by Michael Kujak: When a social media influencer meets a fan at a meet-and-greet, she’s so taken with her cleverness and vulnerability that she invites the fan to intern with her for the summer. At first, they’re an unstoppable team, but soon, the influencer is forced to wonder who she has let into her life.
Agency: WME (CJ Fight)
Manager: Bellevue Productions (John Zaozirny)
Producer: 21 Lappes, Bellevue
Mentions: 10
“Mimi” by Scarlett Bermingham: A successful illustrator finds herself friendless after her best friend gets engaged, forcing her to embark on an epic quest to “date” for new girlfriends — as an adult.
Manager: Cavalry Media (Jared Ceizler)
Producer: Big Cat, Canary House
Mentions: 10
“Operation Milk & Cookies” by M. Miller Davis: After their house is threatened with repossession, a mismatched group of foster kids set out on an adventure to summon Santa Claus to save their home and end up on the run from a crew of angry bank robbers.
Agency: APA (Kyle Loftus, Adam Perry)
Manager: Gotham Group (Peter McHugh, Charlie Scully)
Producer: Jennifer Todd, Rachel Rovner
Mentions: 10
“Sandpiper” by Lindsay Michel: Still reeling in the wake of her husband’s death, master thief Viola Crier signs on to a risky, last-minute job set to take place inside a man-made time loop, but as the number of loops increases, the job begins to spiral out of control.
Agency: WME (Connor Armstrong)
Manager: Bellevue (Kate Sharp)
Producer: Madriver Pictures
Mentions: 10
“Shania!” by Jessica Welsh: Eilleen Edwards rises from an impoverished upbringing in rural Canada to transform into 90’s global country-pop superstar Shania Twain, only to face her greatest challenge yet: putting her life and career back together after losing her voice.
Agency; CAA (Norris Brooks, Stevee Jo Eads, Brian Kend)
Manager: Bellevue (Kate Sharp)
Financier: Sony
Producer: Montecito Picture Company
Mentions: 10
“Skeleton Tree” by Paul Barry: When an accident sinks their boat, two teenaged boys must learn how to survive the wilds of the remote Alaskan coastline, endure one another, and to come to terms with a long-held life-altering secret.
Manager: Writ Large (Michael Claassen)
Producers: 3FIFTY Films, 87 North
Mentions: 10
“Challengers” by Justin Kuritzkes: Framed around a single tennis match at a low-level pro tournament, three players who knew each other when they were teenagers — a world-famous grand slam winner, his ambitious wife/coach, and their old friend who’s now a burnout ranked 201 in the world — reignite old rivalries on and off the court.
Agency: CAA (Sue Carls, Kevin Lin, Jiah Shin)
Manager: MGMT (Dianne McGunigle)
Producer: Pascal Pictures
Mentions: 9
“Chicago For One” by Madeleine Paul: Based on Robbie Chernow’s hilarious viral solo adventure, a newly heart-broken groomsman takes Chicago by storm celebrating a solo Bachelor Party Weekend after the rest of the party — including the groom — get stuck over 700 miles away.
Manager: 360 (Marc Mounier)
Producers: Entertainment 360
Mentions: 9
“Fiendish” by Edgar Castillo: While meeting her boyfriend’s dysfunctional family at their ancestral manor, a young woman finds herself entangled in a bizarre and terrifying mystery when the family’s patriarch claims to have been cursed by a demon.
Agency: Kaplan-Stahler Agency (Varun Monga)
Manager: Schemers Entertainment (Gavin Dorman)
Mentions: 9
“Hard to Get” by: Dan Schoffer: After Amanda is seemingly ghosted by the man of her dreams, she’s delighted to discover he’s actually been kidnapped — and takes it upon herself to be his rescuer, going on an adventure of epic proportions along the way.
Manager: Authentic Talent & Literary (Bob Sobhani)
Producers: Wall Fly, Weed Road Pictures
Mentions: 9
“Idol” by Tricia Lee: The true story of American Idol viral sensation, William Hung.
Producers: Happy Canvas, Motor Content
Mentions: 9
“It Was You” by William Yu: With the future of Manhattan’s Chinatown at stake, a stubborn store clerk battles against an innovative CEO’s expansion plan, while both are unaware they’ve been falling in love with each other on a new, anonymous dating app.
Agency: APA (Halle Mariner)
Manager: Bellevue (Zack Zucker)
Producer: Electric Somewhere Co.
Mentions: 9
“Ballast” by Justin Piasecki: A naval engineer and her crew find themselves trapped in a deadly game on a shipping vessel in the middle of the Atlantic when they learn a series of car bombs are hidden amongst the thousands of vehicles on board.
Agency: Paradigm (Ethan Neale, Mark Ross, Matt Snow)
Manager: Zero Gravity (Jeff Belkin)
Producer: Love and Squalor, Thunder Road
Mentions: 8
“Barron’s Cove” by Evan Ari Kelman: When his young son is viciously murdered by a classmate, a grieving father with a history of violence kidnaps the child responsible, igniting a frenzied manhunt fueled by a powerful politician — the father of the kidnapped boy.
Manager: Tact Media (Cory Thompson)
Financier: Mandalay Pictures
Mentions: 8
“The Devil Herself” by Colin Bannon: When an elite assassin is sent to the haunted Harz Mountains in Germany on an extraction job she intends to be her last, she quickly learns that the local legends about witchcraft are true and must face a sinister supernatural threat.
Agency: Verve (Parker Davis, Adam Levine)
Manager and Producer: Sugar23 (Sukee Chew)
Mentions: 8
“The Fire Outside” by Yumiko Fujiwara: Peter, a seventeen-year-old painter, lives with his controlling mother in a lonely house in the wilderness. When he meets a mysterious stranger, he begins to question the reality he was raised to believe, gathers the courage to leave his mother, and unveils the sinister truth behind his upbringing.
Manager: Writ Large (Lauren Dineley, Greg Shephard)
Mentions: 8
“Four Assassins (And a Funeral)” by Ryan Hooper: The adoptive daughter of a legendary assassin returns home for his funeral… and finds herself in the crosshairs of her four highly trained, highly dangerous siblings.
Agency: Paradigm (Mark Ross)
Manager: Industry (Andrew Deane)
Producer: Thunder Road
Mentions: 8
“From Little Acorns Grow” by Laura Kosann: After a woman becomes one of the first female presidents of a 1950s publishing house in New York, she draws a former college classmate into her orbit, who soon finds her literary empire is not what it appears to be.
Manager: Heroes and Villains (Chris Coggins)
Producer: B For Effort, Innis Free
Mentions: 8
“Go Dark” by Josh Marentette and Spencer Marentette: A team of black-ops soldiers use an experimental technology to travel into the afterlife and rescue their dead teammate.
Agency: UTA (Jordan Lonner, Michael Sauvage)
Manager: Kaplan/Perrone (Alex Lerner, Ben Neumann)
Financiers: Miramax
Producers: Unique Features
Mentions: 8
“Hello Universe” by Michael Golamco: When a bully’s antics land a timid boy in the bottom of a well, his self-proclaimed psychic friend and unknowing crush team up to find him. Based on the 2017 book by Erin Entrada Kelly.
Agency: CAA (Jon Cassir, Albert Lee)
Manager: Manage-Ment (Dan Halsted, Nathan Miller)
Producer: Significant Productions
Mentions: 8
“A Hufflepuff Love Story” by Sophia Lopez: Unpopular Hogwarts student Finn blames everything bad in his life on being sorted into Hufflepuff rather than Gryffindor with Harry Potter and the cool kids. So when he discovers a chance to go back in time and fix that, he takes it — only to discover things aren’t quite as simple as he’d imagined.
Agency: Verve (Matthew Doyle, Sara Nestor)
Manager: Bellevue Productions (John Zaozirny)
Mentions: 8
“A Nice Indian Boy” by Eric Randall: When Naveen brings his fiance Jay home to meet his family, his traditional Indian parents must contend with accepting his white partner and helping them plan the most fabulous same sex Indian wedding the Bay Area has ever seen.
Agency: Verve (Melissa Darman, Parker Davis)
Manager: Rain Management Group (Jonathan Baruch)
Producers: Levantine Films
Mentions: 8
“St. Mary’s Catholic School Presents The Vagina Monologues” by Hannah Hafey and Kaitlin Smith: Frustrated by the conservative curriculum at her high school, a rebellious teen girl decides to stage the school’s first ever production of The Vagina Monologues. Which is going to be a challenge, as no one else at St. Mary’s can even bear to say the word ‘vagina’ out loud . . . Based on Flynn Meaney’s “Bad Habits.”
Agency: Gersh (Eric Garfinkel)
Manager: The Arlook Group (Jack Greenabaum)
Financier: Amazon Studios
Producer: Di Novi Pictures
Mentions: 8
“Apex” by Jeremy Robbins: When an adrenaline junkie sets out to conquer a menacing river, she discovers that nature isn’t the only thing out for blood.
Agency: UTA (Charlie Ferraro, Michael Sauvage)
Manager: Fourth Wall (Russell Hollander, Jon Huddle)
Producer: Ian Bryce Productions
Mentions: 7
“Bella” by Chris Grillot: A young college student is forced to confront her family’s dark past when a mysterious stalker appears, derailing her life and sending her spiraling into a web of anxiety and paranoia.
Agency: CAA (Bryant Barile)
Producer: Di Novi Pictures
Mentions: 7
“Blackpill” by Alexandra Serio: Awkward and lonely, Jared is only able to find a community online — until the day he realizes that his favorite Youtuber lives nearby. Desperate for a connection, he becomes determined to find a way into her life… whether she wants it or not.
Agency: Verve (Jenna Block, Sara Nestor, Jessica Zou)
Manager: Bellevue (John Zaozirny, Zack Zucker)
Mentions: 7
“Carriage Hill” by Emi Mochizuki and Carrie Wilson: A pregnant couple hoping to start their family in the suburbs find themselves embroiled in a decades long mystery which threatens to shatter their American dream.
Manager and Producer: Sugar23 (Sukee Chew)
“The Dark” by Chad Handley: When stranded on the far end of Manhattan by a mysterious city-wide blackout, a group of inner-city middle schoolers must fight through seemingly supernatural forces to make their way back to their parents in the Bronx.
Manager: Redefine Entertainment (Tony Gil)
Financier: Picturestart
Producer: Get Lifted
Mentions: 7
“Dennis Rodman’s 48 Hours in Vegas” by Jordan VanDina: Before Game 7 of the NBA finals, Dennis Rodman tells Phil Jackson he needs 48 hours in Vegas. What follows is a surreal adventure with his skittish assistant GM that involves a bull rodeo, parachuting out of a Ferrari and building a friendship that neither one of them ever thought was possible but will end up solving both of their problems.
Agency: UTA (Alex Rincon)
Manager: 3 Arts (Ari Lubet)
Financier: Lionsgate
Producer: 3 Arts, Lord Miller, Nothing to See Here
Mentions: 7
“False Truth” by Thomas Berry, Isaac Gabaeff, and Nathan Gabaeff: The life of a cynical San Francisco criminal lawyer at the top of his career unravels when he agrees to represent a father accused of killing his infant son in an extraordinary case that challenges widely accepted medical beliefs, a biased justice system, and his own personal worldview. Based on true events.
Agency: CAA (Praveen Pandian)
Manager: Grandview (Zac Frognowski, Faisal Kanaan)
Mentions: 7
“The Family Plan” by David Coggeshall: A former top assassin living incognito as a suburban dad must take his unsuspecting family on the run when his past catches up to him.
Manager: Writ Large (Bash Naran, Noah Rosen)
Financiers: Skydance
Producer: Skydance Media
Mentions: 7
“An Ideal Woman” by Laura Kosann: Set in American suburbia during the Cuban Missile Crisis: A 1960s ex-actress and housewife finds her house-of-cards world begin to tumble as she continues to be pitted against two identities.
Manager: Heroes and Villains Entertainment (Chris Coggins)
Mentions: 7
“Killers and Diplomats” by John Tyler McClain and Michael Nourse: The true story of the murder of four American churchwomen in El Salvador in 1980 and the low-level American diplomat who teamed with his most dangerous informant to smoke out their killers. Based on Raymond Bonner’s work for The Atlantic.
Manager: Heroes and Villains (McClain), Anonymous Content (Nourse)
Producer: Paper Clip
Mentions: 7
“Lift” by Daniel Kunka: A female master thief and her ex-boyfriend who works for the FBI team up to steal $100M worth of gold bullion being transported on a 777 passenger flight from London to Zurich.
Agency: Verve (David Boxerbaum, Melissa Fried)
Manager: Lit Entertainment Group (Adam Kolbrenner)
Financiers: Netflix
Producers: 6th and Idaho, Genre Films, Hartbeat Productions
Mentions: 7
“Max and Tony’s Epic One-Night Stand” by Thomas Kivney: A disastrous Grindr hookup goes from bad to worse when a meteor unleashes a horde of aliens on New York and the two ill-matched men must depend on each other to make it through the night alive.
Manager: Kaplan/Perrone (Michael Wilson)
Mentions: 7
“Sleep Solution” by Ted Caplan and Jenni Hendricks: Two former thieves are having a hard enough time with their fussy newborn baby when a mishap draws them back into their old lives, forcing them to recover a priceless jade bangle, escape their boss’s murderous son and, toughest of all, get their baby to sleep through the night.
Agency: UTA (Anna Flickinger, Mary Pender)
Manager: Kaplan/Perrone (Ben Neumann, Hannah Ozer)
Mentions: 7
“Thicker Than Ice” by Tara Tomicevic: Inspired by the true story of Hannah and Marissa Brandt, adoptive sisters and hockey players who put their relationship to the test as they vie for Olympic glory… on different teams: top-ranked Team USA and Korea’s first ever unified team.
Manager: Lit Entertainment Group (Kendrick Tan)
Producers: Lit, Sugar23, Time
Mentions: 7
“The Unbound” by Sam West: Disillusioned with life in the wake of a personal tragedy, Rachel goes on a mountain retreat with her friends in search of an escape, only to find themselves stumbling into the depths of horror and madness.
Producer: Room 101, Tetrad Studios
Mentions: 7
“The Way You Remember Me” by Geoffrey Roth: Following the death of her vivacious, entrepreneurial, thirtysomething son Ben, Laurie learns that he had frozen some of his sperm before his passing. As she embarks on an unconventional journey in search of someone who may bear Ben’s child, Laurie forges an unexpected friendship with a woman, who, in turn, starts to fall for the memory of him.
Manager: 3 Arts (Luke Dillon, Luke Maxwell)
Mentions: 7
“Ways to Hide in Winter” by Jenny Halper: A woman in rural Pennsylvania falls in love with a stranger from Uzbekistan, then finds out he may be responsible for war crimes. Based on Sarah St. Vincent’s acclaimed debut novel.
Agency: CAA (Darian Lanzetta)
Manager: Untitled Entertainment (Liza Zusman)
Producers: Shani Geva, Jenny Halper