Eric Lavallée

Magnet Releasing have made the first true pre-Sundance Film Festival pick-up grabbing the rights to Jason Eisener's directorial debut film which already looks to be one of the highlights in the Park City at Midnight section. Hobo With A Shotgun receives a Midnight section of Sundance on January 21 and will surely be found at SXSW before a theatrical release.

Dominic Murphy, the uber-talented filmmaker who blasted onto the scene with the Sundance/Berlin debut feature film White Lightnin', a pic I'm sure a very small percentage of our readers have seen, will next direct another relationship-themed film in Cassandra at the Wedding.

As Rodrigo Garcia is currently readying himself for the Albert Nobbs shoot, Fox Searchlight is readying the Mother & Child director to perhaps next work from a Jose Rivera-penned adaptation of an Oscar-nominated Short Subject documentary La Corona. Julie Lynn, who's been producing alongside Garcia since Nine Lives, will produce.

Next week is when hopeful screenwriters who've had one of their scripts circulate the respective production houses are hoping that their screenplay gets a couple of extra bites. Now in it's sixth year, it'll also be a time when curious onlookers such as film executives, development people, agents and hardcore cinephiles take a gather at a list that emphasizes quality and original writing. blcklst.com has been all spruced up for the occasion --- so you should definitely check back there to see what 2010 will reveal -- and if you're like us and like to revisit Best of Lists of the previous years. Last year over 300 executives contributed their opinion to make up a Black List that had a Muppet Movie (not the Jason Segel project) in the number one spot and The Social Network at number 2.

It's always comes as a surprise to look back on some of the bottom-feeders on some of these Black Lists. In 2007, Oscar winner for Best Picture Slumdog Millionaire (Simon Beaufoy) had six votes, Robert Siegel's The Wrestler had five, an untitled Pharmaceutical script (later known as Love & other Drugs) by Charles Randolph would get four, with John Patrick Shanley's Doubt and Jon Lucas & Scott Moore's Hangover receiving three votes and Tony Gilroy's Duplicity receiving a pair. It's worth mentioning that those who received the least amount of votes could have simply not have been seen by enough eyes --- the Black List isn't perfect science.