Black List 2025 Spotlights ‘Best Seller’ as Top Unproduced Screenplay

Matisse Haddad’s ‘Best Seller’ claims the number one spot on the 2025 Black List, the annual survey of Hollywood’s most admired unproduced screenplays. The script, which garnered 48 mentions from nearly 500 film executives, centers on a New York writer whose viral tell-all article ignites a web of seduction and betrayal amid pressure from her novelist husband. Peter Rice and Jason Reitman are attached as producers for the project. Ward Kamel’s ‘Equity’ follows at number two with 35 mentions, depicting a pharma founder’s desperate fight to reclaim his company after selling shares to a billionaire.

The Black List, compiled from votes cast by studio and production company development executives, producers, and managers, highlights 74 scripts by 86 writers this year. CAA led agencies with the most mentions, while Kaplan/Perrone and Untitled Entertainment tied for top management firms. ‘Rush’ by Read Masino and Cassidy Alla secured third place with 34 mentions; the story follows two college friends infiltrating a fraternity for revenge after an assault, only to excel as pledges. Berlanti/Schechter Films is developing the thriller.

Fourth-ranked ‘Untouchable’ by Julian Silver and Reiss Clauson-Wolf earned 30 mentions for its true-crime narrative on Eliot Ness’s pursuit of Cleveland’s 1930s Torso Murderer, a serial killer who dismembered at least 12 victims. The script draws from historical records, including Ness’s unpublished memoir, to detail the Untouchables leader’s shift from Prohibition enforcement to homicide investigation. ‘Minnow,’ penned by Zach Strauss and Chris Silber, placed fifth with 27 mentions; it tracks a woman’s obsessive search for her missing sister, uncovering layers of deception in a Thunder Road and Parallel 42 production.

Siena Butterfield and Erika Vázquez’s ‘Fixation’ landed sixth at 25 mentions, exploring a therapist’s illicit affair with a client’s husband that spirals into obsession. New Regency and Made Up Stories are producing the drama. Seventh is Alan Fox’s ‘Building Bowie’ with 23 mentions, a sci-fi tale of a droid engineer crafting an AI David Bowie replica that challenges her suppressed creativity; A/Vantage Pictures is attached. Joe Ferran’s ‘Leverage’ ties for eighth with 23 mentions, focusing on a Wall Street executive framed for murder during a corporate takeover, backed by Empirical Evidence and Imagine.

Morgan Lehmann’s untitled erotic teen fan fiction movie also scored 23 mentions for ninth place, where a shy high schooler collaborates with the school quarterback to fabricate a romance novel. A24, Fruit Tree, and Ley Line are producing. Rounding out the top ten, Halil Ozsan’s ‘Alpha’ received 22 mentions for its story of an analyst’s moral descent in a cutthroat London firm; Netflix has optioned it with Taron Egerton in talks to star. Past Black List honorees like ‘Argo’ and ‘The King’s Speech’ have yielded 429 produced films, generating over $30 billion in box office. This year’s selections underscore themes of corporate intrigue, personal reinvention, and revenge, with 12 scripts from unrepresented writers.

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