Had a conversation with this guy Ryan Coogler on behalf of @theankler.com youtu.be/4IZ8xJUEhlQ?...

Had a conversation with this guy Ryan Coogler on behalf of @theankler.com youtu.be/4IZ8xJUEhlQ?...

Great news, writers: We’re partnering with Tubi to discover a NEW HORROR SCRIPT to be produced and distributed by Tubi! Read more about the program, exclusively @deadline.com. deadline.com/2026/02/tubi...

Great news, authors: The 2026 Unpublished Novel Award is now OPEN for submissions! Four writers will receive a $10,000 grant to support their manuscript on its journey to publication. Learn more here: blcklst.com/programs/202...

I’ve seen the videos of kids throwing snowballs at NYPD officers in Washington Square Park. Officers, like all city workers, have been out in a historic blizzard, keeping New Yorkers safe and cars moving. Treat them with respect. If anyone’s catching a snowball, it’s me.

It’s publication day for Isabel Booth’s THEN HE WAS GONE, the first manuscript to be published after being discovered on blcklst.com! Grab your copy here: bookshop.org/p/books/then...

Unreal press conference strategy from new IOC president Kirsty Coventry where she repeatedly turns to her PR team off stage and personally blames them for not making her aware of various Olympics controversies, saying that “maybe someone needs to be dismissed”

Once a math team captain, always a math team captain.

Once a math team captain, always a math team captain.

It happened again. variety.com/2026/film/gl...

I am obsessed with this woman.

Oops we did it again.

🚨 DEADLINE REMINDER 🚨 Playwrights, we know three months seems like an AWFULLY long time from now, but as we know, deadlines have a way of sneaking up on us all! Submit your play for consideration in our ongoing collaboration with TRW here: blcklst.com/programs/the...

Is it getting a little...close in here? Or is that just a few of our Featured Projects for February creeping up on you? This month, our Featured Projects are all CONTAINED THRILLERS! Scroll down to learn more about this month's offerings, which you can read right now on blcklst.com.

If you’re in Los Angeles on February 17, come through. If you know someone who will be in Los Angeles and enjoy being around other writers, tell them to come through.

RIP Catherine O'Hara, a true comedic titan.

I was wrong, and I apologize. It more then tripled Melania’s windfall. My bad.

The real box office story of the weekend is the self distributed and self financed horror film that more than doubled Melania’s windfall despite a production budget less than one fifteenth its size.

Sorry, y’all, it’s DEI Settlement now

📣 NEW SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT: The Black List Founder and CEO @franklinleonard.bsky.social! STATE OF THE STORY CONFERENCE WGA Theater March 22, 2026, 10am-5pm 🎟️Tickets & line-up: Storytelling360.com LIVE&VIRTUAL💻 LEARN, NETWORK, GET INSPIRED #screenwriting #screenwriter #scriptsky #writingcommunity

It appears that this legend owns a little bookstore — and you can order books from him instead of Bezos. Link in next post.

Alex Pretti was a 37 year old ICU nurse who put his body between ICE and a woman they were physically assaulting. They sprayed chemical irritants into his face, beat him, and then shot him to death.

Congratulations to everybody getting off their first “it could have been me” tweets today.

37 year old white male citizen with a lawful permit to carry a firearm, says the Minneapolis Police Department.

If you’re gonna run around on the internet talking about Oscar snubs, you have to say who you’d swap out. Those are the rules. We live in a society (barely.)

16 Oscar nominations later… open.substack.com/pub/franklin...

Anyway…

I share some thoughts on an article by Black List founder - and friend - @franklinleonard.bsky.social about the resurrected commercial spec script market, breaking into Hollywood today, and whatever "selling out" means. If you're an aspiring screenwriting, this one's for you.

Want to know more about what The Black List team is watching, reading and listening to this winter? Open this: blcklst.substack.com/p/open-tabs-...

Tired: Committing fraud, getting a Trump pardon Wired: Committing fraud again, getting a Trump pardon again www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

Read part two of "The Moral Case for Selling Out" from Black List founder and CEO @franklinleonard.bsky.social on our Substack now: blcklst.substack.com/p/the-moral-...

The book-club-ready PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE follows a widow on the other side of tragedy, but it's a hopeful story about art and love. @theblcklst.bsky.social said it has "strong commercial appeal" in the vein of THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY and THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE. #bluepit 📖 #Q #SP #WF #A

Read part one of "The Moral Case for Selling Out" from Black List founder and CEO @franklinleonard.bsky.social on our Substack now: blcklst.substack.com/p/the-moral-...

More from @franklinleonard.bsky.social. "Fundamentally, your job when you’re talking about your script is to lead the horse to water and convince it to drink. You don’t have to explain the chemical composition of water and why it’s good for mammals." franklinleonard.substack.com/p/the-moral-...

If this were anywhere close to accurate, how could my white privilege allow me to brush past the fallacy of your premise to be stupefied by your spelling of “ma’am”

I wrote a sequel, if only because I find the irony hilarious. open.substack.com/pub/franklin...

Question 1 (of 9) every screenwriter should ask themselves before writing FADE IN if they want to write a commercial screenplay. franklinleonard.substack.com/p/the-moral-...

If I posted the best parts of this I'd just be posting the whole thing. So go read it, then read it again. An absolute must for anyone working in film or publishing. Brilliant.

I could keep posting brilliant quotes from @franklinleonard.bsky.social's post today, or you can all just go and read it. franklinleonard.substack.com/p/the-moral-...

This man speaks TRUTH. I teach at USC and I encounter so many minds already poisoned by the false dichotomy this lays bare. It’s just as true for games, but in a different way. In games we’ve confused who we think our audience is for who our audience COULD BE, and that audience wants THIS.

"[Write] a script that when it lands on a desk at 11:48 pm makes the reader finish it... because they’re a human being and they absolutely have to find out what happens next, and how it ends, even though their kids are going to wake them up in a few hours... "That’s what commercial actually means."

Katey Rich asked all her past Prestige Junkie podcast guests one simple question: What's the best thing that happened to Hollywood this year? For @theblcklst.bsky.social @franklinleonard.bsky.social, the triumph of 'Sinners' was an obvious choice prestigejunkieafterparty.substack.com/p/what-was-t...

We haven't seen an Indiana squad turn back an Alabama offense this decisively since Antietam

Ten years ago, families gathered around their televisions to bid a fond farewell to the Crawley family as DOWNTON ABBEY wrapped its television run in a special finale episode.

Is the English media rigging the narrative against Black superstars? In this episode, we sit down with "The Black List" founder @franklinleonard.bsky.social to discuss the uncomfortable reality of English football culture. 🍎 : tinyurl.com/4pbpaupy 🟢 : tinyurl.com/hneyy7hn 📺 : youtu.be/59e0qAgU-Qs

One of my all-time favorite clips of Rob Reiner, from his Friars Club Roast in 2000, as he reads aloud Roger Ebert's infamous scathing review of his movie North. The man had an amazing sense of humor about himself. RIP.

Hiring a Black woman: “identity politics” Hiring a white guy for a job that has been held disproportionately by white guys, because he is a white guy: “subverting” identity politics! (The author of this sentence is Dylan Byers; you will not be surprised to learn that he is a white guy.)