Communiqué de presse

WarnerMedia Partners with The Black List to Launch the WarnerMedia Writer Pipeline Project

 

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WarnerMedia and The Black List, the film and television industry’s premiere screenwriting marketplace for aspiring and working screenwriters, will launch a pipeline initiative to provide visibility and feedback for aspiring professional screenwriters to identify exceptional writers for episodic content, with access to decision-makers and creatives within WarnerMedia. 

Through partner organizations, WarnerMedia will identify up to 600 writers from historically underrepresented communities and provide a voucher to use The Black List’s platform for a free month of hosting and a script evaluation from professional readers. 

The six-month program, which will begin April 1, is a philanthropic endeavor that expands upon WarnerMedia’s commitment to advance representation in the industry by supporting diverse creatives and authentic storytelling that resonates with its global audiences.

“We know that changing and growing the pipeline will take a collective effort, and this is part of our larger commitment as members of the creative community to increase opportunities for those who don’t have access through traditional means,” said Karen Horne, senior vice president, Equity and Inclusion, WarnerMedia. “It’s important that our showrunners have access to diverse storytellers and get to know them, even if they’re not staffing, to identify exceptional talent and create pipelines so they may launch their careers and flourish.”

The Black List set as its general mission to identify and celebrate exceptional screenwriting and the people who do it, wherever they are. Every December, its annual list of most-liked unproduced screenplays aggregated by the votes of hundreds of film executives working in the industry has helped provide visibility of scripts and writers who have gone on to great industry success, including Academy Award wins, as well as being part of major blockbusters. Its web-based platform has connected hundreds of writers to representation producers, financiers, and talent in the industry. 

“In addition to helping WarnerMedia find extraordinary new writing talent, this initiative will simultaneously provide all 600 writers with high-quality feedback and potentially help them find agents, managers, producers, financiers, talent, and even other studios interested in working with them,” said Black List founder Franklin Leonard. “It’s not a cure-all, but this is the kind of forward-thinking pipeline work that has been all too rare at the corporate level and can have a transformative effect both at WarnerMedia and throughout the industry." 

Script hosting and evaluations will be disbursed by WarnerMedia, The Black List and partner organizations.

About The Black List 

Since it was founded in 2005, at least 440 The Black List scripts have been produced, grossing more than $30 billion in box office worldwide. The Black List movies have won 54 Academy Awards from 267 nominations, including four of the last 12 Best Picture Oscars and 11 of the last 28 Best Screenplay Oscars. In October 2012, The Black List launched a unique online community where screenwriters can make their work available to readers, buyers and employers. Since its inception, it has hosted nearly 80,000 screenplays and teleplays and provided more than 130,000 script evaluations. The BIack List has produced two feature films COME AS YOU ARE (SXSW 2019) and BREAKING NEWS IN YUBA COUNTY, a 2018 Black List script by Amanda Idoko directed by Oscar-nominated director Tate Taylor and starring Allison Janney and Regina Hall, released by MGM Studios in February 2021. More information on The Black List is available at www.blcklst.com

About WarnerMedia

WarnerMedia is a leading media and entertainment company that creates and distributes premium and popular content from a diverse array of talented storytellers and journalists to global audiences through its consumer brands including: HBO, HBO Now, HBO Max, Warner Bros., TNT, TBS, truTV, CNN, DC Entertainment, New Line, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies and others.

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