Hollywood's Black List Launches New Fee-Based Site

NEW YORK - The Black List, an annual ranking of Hollywood’s best unproduced scripts, will introduce a new fee-based online service, the Wall Street Journal  and New York Times  reported.

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The Black List

In the past, the list was only distributed as an e-mailed PDF.

Based on an algorithm similar to Netflix's recommendation service, Blcklst.com will now give industry folks the chance to search for screenplays and view the recommendations of others. Members need to go through a screening process and will pay a $20 monthly fee, the reports said.

The Times highlighted that Slumdog Millionaire, Juno and The King's Speech are among projects that started on the Black List, which launched in 2005 and is compiled based on votes of Hollywood powerbrokers.

The list is named after the period in the late 1940s and 1950s when Hollywood had a ban on writers, actors and directors believed to sympathize with communists.

The Black List surveyed more than 300 entertainment executives last year, and the Web site will open up the voting process to actors, directors, agents and others, the Times said. It added that broadening its potential reach has advantages, but also poses the risk that the list could lose its underground appeal.