Eric Lavallée

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.

What I like most about the annual Black List is that there isn't any favoritism according to the projected financial size of a screenplay. For fun, you could scan down any list since its inception and you'll find equal parts indie/Sundace/small budget and studio/multiplex/limitless budgets. If you look at the price tag for 2007's top screenplay (Recount) and say picks #14 and #15 which have a budget that range somewhere between 50 to 100 times more.

Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly IONCINEPHILE profile (read here), we ask the filmmaker the incredibly arduous task of identifying their top ten list of favorite films. We cap off the year with Ry Russo-Young, whose Sundance Film Festival selected and Gotham Award winner YOU WONT MISS finally receives a December 10th release followed by a nationwide roll out.