Latest in Franklin Leonard

EXCLUSIVE: The Black List and Sony Pictures Animation announce Fredrick Leach as the first-ever Writers Program Fellow. He will spend the next six months as an in-house writer for Sony Pictures Animation, where he will craft dialogue for custom animation pieces, dive into scripts on the development slate…

EXCLUSIVE: Talk show reunions, heartland justice, stateside backlash to the 1970s Iranian hostage crisis, and faith vs a child's transgender identity are among the stories that make up the second annual Muslim List. The collaboration between The Black List, the Muslim Public Affairs Council Hollywood Bureau and…

The CAA Amplify summit will make its in-person return on June 22 featuring speakers across entertainment, sports, media, technology, and social justice. The summit brings together a diverse group of key influencers and industry decision-makers to explore the role business plays in advancing culture and justice for…

EXCLUSIVE: Back for a third year, the Latinx List has added some significant streamer sinew for 2022. Netflix has now come on board with the scriptwriting initiative to offer WGA minimum script deals to two selected scribes. With five original feature films and five original pilot scripts to be chosen, the submission…

MGM and The Black List have selected Jennifer Grand as the second recipient to receive a two-step guild minimum blind script deal. As part of the partnership, Franklin Leonard and Scott Silver are on board to produce Grand's script for the studio. The third opt-in period of the partnership, whose mission is to…

In collaboration with CAPE, The Black List today announced the ten scripts selected for the third annual CAPE List, highlighting scripts centered on diverse Asian and Pacific Islander characters and experiences from writers from Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Eligible writers were able to submit their scripts…

When Franklin Leonard took to Twitter on Tuesday night to decry a recent film casting, Ben Stiller shot back in a spirited conversation about whether people got Hollywood gigs on the basis of their abilities or if nepotism played a role. The Black List founder commented on a casting story Deadline broke about Hopper Pe…

EXCLUSIVE: Six New Zealand screenwriters have been chosen to participate in the inaugural Black List New Zealand Project. The project, stemming from a partnership between the Black List and the New Zealand Film Commission, is a professional development workshop and mentorship series. Bolstered by the presence of…

The Black List founder Franklin Leonard kicked off the virtual Sundance panel “ARRAY 10: A Decade of Disruption” by chatting with ARRAY founder and Emmy-winning Ava DuVernay, President Tilane Jones and VP of Public Programming Mercedes Cooper about the origin of the narrative change collective which puts shine on…

Continuing its effort to bolster stories from historically underrepresented communities, The Black List is teaming with MGM to launch a two-year feature film script writing partnership to discover new voices. The initiative is committed to identifying new writers who want to tell original stories with universal appeal…

American Cinematheque chairman Rick Nicita said Monday that producer Stephanie Allain, WME partner Esther Chang and Black List founder Franklin Leonard will serve as new board members at the organization. The AC also said that Ken Scherer, who had been a consultant to the board during the sale of the Cinematheque’s…

EXCLUSIVE: James Schamus has committed to direct College Republicans, a fact-inspired Dirty Rotten Scoundrels-style coming of age story about top Republican operatives. Logan Lerman has been set to star as a young Lee Atwater, Asa Butterfield as Karl Rove and Kristine Froseth to play Kate King — a composite character…