and that is the last Monday of the year

before Hollywood typically heads off

on vacation for the winter holidays.

And obviously this year by vacation I mean stay at home,

and if you do leave the house please wear a mask.

It is also as it has been

for the last 16 years, Blacklist day.

And for those of you who don't know who I am

or what the Blacklist is,

my name is Franklin Leonard.

I am the founder of the Blacklist,

an annual list of Hollywood's

most liked unproduced screenplays.

And since its origination in 2005,

we've grown to be an organization

that identifies and celebrates great screenwriting

and the people who do it,

wherever we can find them.

If you want to know more about us, check out our website,

it's blacklist.com with no vowels, that's blcklst.com.

We're gonna kick off very soon,

but before we start,

I'm actually gonna ask for three favors.

The first of which is,

you know, give some love to screenwriters.

Literally without them,

Hollywood has nothing to do.

Directors have nothing to direct.

Actors have nothing to say.

Producers have nothing to produce.

You get the point.

So when you see the movie that you love,

when you see a TV show that you love,

find out who wrote it.

Internet is good for this.

Find them on social media,

and show them some love.

They made something you love and only seems fair.

The second thing is that it's been a weird year, right?

And normally, when there's not a pandemic,

the night after the blacklist comes out we throw a party,

for all of the writers on the list.

But obviously this year we can't do that

and we will survive the absence of that party.

But the reason we throw it every year is to raise money

for an organization called Young Storytellers.

It is arts organization that brings Hollywood professionals

into, under resourced Los Angeles public schools,

and helps kids tell their story.

So, if you could make a donation to Young Storytellers,

it's youngstorytellers.com/donate, check out their website.

$10, $20, $10,000 and $20,

whatever you can for kids that need.

And more importantly,

deserving arts education

and deserve to know that their stories deserve to be told.

So, youngstorytellers.com/donate.

And the last thing also on the pandemic,

you know it's no secret that,

it's had a real impact on the film industry.

Things are changing and they're changing pretty rapidly.

I'm obviously an advocate for as many great movies

as from as many great perspectives as possible.

And, I also love going to movie theaters.

There is nothing quite like walking into a room

with a bunch of people you don't know.

And having the lights go down,

and watching the story about what it means to be human.

Which is fundamentally what movies are.

So, when this is all over,

when it is safe to do it again,

find the theater, find a movie and enjoy the show.

And to that point,

I wanna share, one of my favorite answers

from the Blacklist podcast this year.

Yes we have a podcast on Luminary.

And it's too a question that we ask of all of our guests,

the last question we asked.

And we always ask,

if logistics not withstanding,

if you could screen a movie

for every single human being on earth,

what movie would you screen?

And this is not answered.

But it feels so good.

And it's so cathartic and just to watch.

It's very rare to be in the movie theater

and actually experienced a movie with the whole theater.

Like you're all clapping and you're hooting

and you're cheering and everyone like you go see,

like every now and then you'll see

on Twitter that people recorded the audience reactions

to that scene and I feel like you don't...

Right now it's like things

are kind of weird right now in 2020.

And we need something like we don't have any experiences

where we can sit in a room with a group of people

and have that connection like we had at that moment.

And I would love to just somehow be able to recreate

that for the whole world right now in 2020,

because we kinda need it.

- So some of you will recognize

that voice as that of Desus Nice.

Which means that you also know we're

about to kick things off.

Like I said, it's been a wild year,

so we wanted to do something a little fun this year.

We gave these two the titles and authors

and log lines of a few of the scripts a little bit early,

and let them do what they do.

You will see all of the titles and authors

of the scripts throughout the video,

and we've got two special guests.

Some award-winning screenwriters themselves.

But without further ado,

they are the hosts of Showtimes Desus and Mero.

The authors of the New York times best-selling book,

God-Level Knowledge Darts: Life Lessons from the Bronx.

Their interview with president Barack Obama aired

just last night on Showtime.

So, I guess they figured they had

to step up the game somehow.

And I'm calling it now.

They're going to be the host of the Oscars someday.

I don't know when,

but I have a feeling let's make it happen.

Desus Nice and The Kid Mero.

- Okay I see, got it.

- Aight it's your boy Desus Nice.

- And I'm The Kid Mero and here is category one (laughs)

- That's right.

Category one, biopics and annual blacklist.

First we got Bikram, Bikram, Bikram.

- Is it Bikram, yes

- Bikram okay.

- Bikram which is hot yoga, you know what I'm saying?

by Silpa Kovvali. - That's right.

You know what I mean?

- It's an unbelievable true story

of young wife catapulting the yoga guru

to the heights of fame.

That's why you see it everywhere when you're in LA

in New York, you see him saying hot yoga, you're like

shall I do that and your body is like no.

- No don't do that.

You're, a man of a certain age.

You can't be doing that.

You're gonna fart in the middle of the class.

You know what I'm saying?

- And the best part of the script,

we find out not only how it got to the top,

but how it came spiraling down.

- Wow!

- Wow! - Damn.

- Got to watch the whole day bro.

- Every empire must fall.

Think about it, you know what I'm saying.

It's wild. - That's deep.

- Yo, you know what I'm saying? That's what we're

trying to get, we're trying to get deep on yo.

You know what I'm saying, This is the Blacklist.

You know what I'm saying?

And speaking of-

That's right, it's big and getting deep.

We're going back for a little history,

for the 1950s, we're enemy from within by Casco.

(yells)

You know what I'm saying. - That's right.

Cos it's about - Joseph McCarthy yo.

- McCarthyism, the red scare, you know what I mean?

Things like, you communist, you communist,

your grandmother's communist, your baby's communist.

You know what I'm saying? That baby is a communist.

You know what I'm saying, everybody is a communist.

- Everyone do the communist.

(dancing joyfully)

No, no it's about - You know what am saying.

- How him and his people just ran through,

you know, America just disrespecting democratic norms.

Like you know. - Who cares, communist.

- If you can even imagined a time

when people didn't respect democracy.

- Wow! That was so long ago, wow! Is the 50s, Wow!

I can't believe it.

- Wow. - You know what I'm saying?

Enemies within, yo.

(explosion mimic sound)

- Up next we got Excelsior, you know what I mean?

- By Alex Convery.

It's the true story of the meteoric rise

and subsequent fall of Marvel comics

and the star cross creators behind the panel,

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

You know what I'm saying? - That's right.

- You hear Stan Lee, Jack Kirby,

you think they was all like buddy buddies and stuff,

but they had little drama on inside.

You know what I'm saying? - That's right.

- Wow!

It's like love for hip hop.

- With two or one two... - All my comic people.

Shout out to my comic people enjoying this

and just to make things spicy.

Marvel was better than DC .

Yeah I said it

I said what who wants more - (screams)

- Say Oh,

- Oh.

(laughs)

- Up next we got Frenemy.

- Whoa! by Ariel Sayegh yeah, you know what I'm saying?

A Chronicles of the infamous Lindsay Lohan,

Paris Hilton feud of 04, 06 - What?

over who would be Britney Spears' best friend.

That's a very important topic of 04.

You know what I'm saying?

Who's Britney's bestie?

- Everyone watching this, cos you know, you're watching it.

You're like who cared about,

who wanted to be Britney Spears best friend.

So we all did.

We all did, even I did, okay. - Yes.

- Don't act like- That is what we did.

- You wasn't there.

You know what I'm saying? - You wasn't there.

How dare you.

Up next week, we got Gusher, oh oh

(mumbles)

by Abigail Briley Bean.

- Yeah, this is base star.

Anna Nicole Smith

you remember her from on the cover of Playboy magazine

little thing. - That's right.

- You know what am saying.

- She was young. - You know what am saying.

- She's was from Texas,

as she went on to marry a billionaire.

And it was true love. - Yes.

- Except for the fact that he was wild old.

And by wild old, I mean 89.

- Yes, like yo, I'm digging my own grave old.

You know what I'm saying? - Yes

- And everybody thought she was a gold digger,

but it was true love.

Or was it?

I'm saying you don't know. - Guess we gonna find out.

- Okay you gotta watch it gonna be kidding me.

- Okay.

Up next to me we got Plush,

You know what I'm saying.

- By Alexandra Skarsgard.

It was based on the true story of Ty Warner.

The enigmatic entrepreneur behind the 90s Beanie Baby Craze.

They spoke madness murder and a billion dollar empire.

You know what I'm saying?