THE AUSSIE LIST

5 OCTOBER 2018

W arner Bros, The Black List, and Veerhuis Pictures are pleased to present the "Aussie List", featuring the ten scripts short-listed for the Inaugural Australian Script Writing Opportunity.

Warner Bros, The Black List, and Veerhuis Pictures are pleased to present the "Aussie List", featuring the ten scripts short-listed for the Inaugural Australian Script Writing Opportunity.

Over 400 scripts were submitted to the opportunity during the opt-in period, which was open from June 14th to September 13th 2018. The short-listed scripts displayed an exceptional overall standard, with stories coming from many different genres and with writers coming from very diverse backgrounds. A reminder of the threshold for eligible writers can be found below this year's list.

THE AUSSIE LIST - IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

MARMALADE - Keir O'Donnell

In order to escape jail and reunite with the love of his life, a small town simpleton narrates the colourful tale of a romantic bank heist to his cunning cellmate.

6 MILES - A.J. Carter

Taxi Driver for the Uber generation. A rideshare driver wrestling with his grasp on reality, and disgusted by the shallowness of modern-day society, drugs and kidnaps passengers so he can disseminate his own dark social justice.

DIE WELL - Maziar Lahooti & Steven McCall

An old, dying and retired crooked detective teams up with a young street level criminal to find his decades since exiled, and estranged son, to find some semblance of contrition before his time is up.

SERPENTINE - Anya Beyersdorf

A minibus full of village girls on their way to a group wedding are kidnapped by Guerrillas to serve as "camp wives."

SWEDISH LESBIAN VAMPIRE WONDERLAND - Scott Robert Chamberlain

To save his career, an over-sexed footy star enters an experimental rehab facility but becomes trapped in a castle of machismo-draining lesbian vampires.

REDGUM - Addam Duke

To investigate the disappearance of his estranged brother, a rootless traveller must journey to Redgum, an insular town in the Australian mountains, where he unearths an ancient supernatural horror.

REYNOLDS' CARGO - Carrie Anderson

As Singapore falls in WWII, Australian MI6 assassin William Reynolds teams with a Chinese insurgent to save a group of women and children set to perish at the hands of a barbaric Japanese commander. One of history's great true stories, 'Reynolds' Cargo.

ANY GIRL WHO LOVES THE BEATLES IS BOUND TO BREAK YOUR HEART - Nick Pollack & Ryan Hayward

On the opening night of the Sydney Festival, a cynical writer desperate to start a new life spends his last 24 hours in the city falling for the charms of a touring musician who teaches him how accept his past and love again. Adaptation of writer's novel.

ARI VS. RAJ - Miriam Rahimi-Cholensky

Ari, a bubble-gum vendor in Varanasi (India), goes on the mission to find his kidnapped sister in time before the World Cup cricket finals.

TWO DAMAGED - Kryz Woodhouse

A bitter wheelchair-bound war veteran saves a troubled teenage girl from a street fight. However, when she becomes determined to help him re-engage with the living, he suddenly can’t get her out of his life.

The short-listed writers have been contacted, and are now eligible for consideration in a two-step blind deal with Warner Bros.

In an exclusive with IF Magazine, Leonard [Franklin Leonard, The Black List founder] says: “The Black List has long believed that exceptional storytelling has no national borders, especially in a world increasingly connected by technology. The world’s embrace of Australia’s extraordinary narrative tradition is yet further evidence of that. We’re enormously proud to be partnered with Warner Bros and Veerhuis Pictures to help identify the next generation of talent that will carry that legacy forward in new and exciting ways.”

Chris Veerhuis tells IF that he has been impressed by the diversity of the scripts on the short list – they cover a variety of genres, themes and potential budget ranges.

“There’s actually something in there for everybody,” he says. “The one constant was the quality of the writing.”

Any writer selected by WB will be required to write a new script. Therefore, as Veerhuis points out: “None of these scripts are exclusive to The Black List or to Warner Bros. The industry is free to read the scripts, approach the writers, find out what the current status of the script is, and talk to those writers about getting involved in their projects.”

See the IF Magazine article here

A reminder of the threshold - Eligible writers must be at least 18 years old, be either a legal Australian citizen or a permanent resident of Australia (with the intent to remain a resident), and have received writing credits on no more than one feature film or up to three hours of broadcast television (or a combination of both).

A number of the short-listed scripts for the Warner Bros / Veerhuis Pictures Australian Script Writing Opportunity will be available to view and / or download for industry members on the Black List website after logging in, along with thousands of other scripts hosted within the Black List database. Interested industry members who do not already have an account on blcklst.com can apply for membership at blcklst.com/register

Congratulations to all the writers who made the list, and good luck with your journey going forward!

This opportunity was proudly run in association with Screenwest.