Screenplay for Channing Tatum’s Project Makes the 2008 “Black List”
One of the things I truly love about doing this site is that I get to learn a lot about the entertainment industry and how it works. I also like to pass that knowledge along to CTU readers. I figure a little knowledge never hurt anyone.
In today's Hollywood 101 lesson, we all get to learn about "The Black List". This is not your mother or your grandmother's Hollywood Black List from back in the 40's, and it's not the critically-acclaimed HBO documentary series. I'm refering to the list that was started two years ago by a young executive at Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, Appian Way.
THE PAST
The exec asked 90+ peers to send him their 10 favorite new, unproduced screenplays to read over the holidays. The underground list was then e-mailed around and quickly became a Hollywood phenomenon. To give you an idea, the top three entries of the 2005 list included screenplays for Halle Berry's 'Things We Lost in the Fire', Ellen Pages' 'Juno', and Ryan Gosling's 'Lars and the Real Girl'.
THE PRESENT
Fast forward to 2008 and this year's list was compiled by polling 250 (up from last year’s 150) development executives and high-level assistants. It contains a ranking of the hottest screenplays making the rounds in Hollywood.
The rules are that the screenplays had to be written in, or are somehow uniquely associated with, 2008 and will not be released in theaters during this calendar year. This year, scripts had to receive at least four mentions to be included on the list.
If you're interested, you can CLICK HERE to get more details on the top ten scripts on the list from Entertainment Weekly.
THE FUTURE
At this point, I'm sure you're asking what this has to do with Channing Tatum...
This year, Chan's new agency, UTA, has bragging rights to the most screenplays on the list and one of those screenplays is tied to one of Chan's upcoming projects.
Writer/producer Doug Jung ("Big Love") wrote a screenplay that's currently called "Untitled Channing Tatum Project" and with 4 mentions, it's earned a spot on this year's Black List.
As I previously reported last year, Fox Atomic (a division of Fox Searchlight that produces and acquires genre films for teen and young adult audiences) picked up the script and will become the first Hollywood group to produce a studio movie in South Korea.
Channing is not only starring in the film, he's also going to be one of the film's executive producers (along with two of his managers Peter Kiernan and William Choi from Management 360), which is why Chan is currently learning how to speak Korean.
In the film, Chan will play a Los Angeles cop who escorts a Korean gang leader back to South Korea. When the gang leader escapes, killing the cop’s partner in the process, he teams with a young Korean gangster in a bloody pursuit of revenge that takes them through the dangerous and exotic underworld of Seoul.
Well, that's it for today's lesson. Hopefully, like me, you've learned a little something new about the entertainment world!!!
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