Why Hollywood Can't Find Good Scripts

The Journal.

How to get discovered in Hollywood has been a decades-old struggle. For screenwriters, that game started to change when Franklin Leonard launched the Black List, an annual ranking of the “most liked” but not-yet-produced screenplays. Since 2005, more than 500 of those scripts have become feature films, including several Best Picture Oscar-winners. Ryan Knutson interviewed Leonard about how to fix some of Hollywood’s other challenges at our live show in Los Angeles.

 

Further Listening: 

- Hollywood Jobs Are Disappearing  

- Inside the Nasty Fight to Take Over Hollywood - The Journal.

- For Riz Ahmed, Life is a Spy Thriller 


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Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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How to get discovered in Hollywood has been a decades-old struggle. For screenwriters, that game started to change when Franklin Leonard launched the Black List, an annual ranking of the “most liked” but not-yet-produced screenplays. Since 2005, more than 500 of those scripts have become feature films, including several Best Picture Oscar-winners. Ryan Knutson interviewed Leonard about how to fix some of Hollywood’s other challenges at our live show in Los Angeles.

 

Further Listening: 

- Hollywood Jobs Are Disappearing  

- Inside the Nasty Fight to Take Over Hollywood - The Journal.

- For Riz Ahmed, Life is a Spy Thriller 


Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2026-06-01 22 min
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