The Brit List 2011

As in previous years, the UK and Irish film community have compiled a list of their most liked and recommended unproduced screenplays.

In order to qualify for the Brit List, a screenplay had to:

• receive 3 or more votes
• be unproduced (not shooting) at the time of the list’s circulation
• be written by any writer who is non US (by birth), and
• not have featured on previous Brit Lists

Where known, producers have been named alongside the screenplays.

Every effort has been made to supply accurate information, and apologies are made in advance for any inaccuracies or misspellings.

10 Votes

THE CALL UP by Charles Barker
A group of online games are invited to try a state-of-the-art virtual reality sim, but soon find out the stakes raised to fatal levels.
Status: Being developed by Stigma Films.

8 Votes

ORDINARY THUNDERSTORMS by William Boyd
Details the story of an innocent man on the run across London trying to avoid both the police and a hitman sent to kill him.
Status: Being developed by David Thompson / Origin Pictures.

7 Votes

LILTING THE PAST by Hong Khaou
A bereaved mother tries to make sense of her son’s death.
Status: Dominic Buchanan attached to produce.

OLIVIA AND JIM by Henrietta Ashworth, Jessica Ashworth
Kept under wraps.
Status: Being developed by Forward Films.

6 Votes

TUSK TUSK by Polly Stenham
The story of three children left to fend for themselves in a London flat as things start to spiral out of control.
Status: Being developed by David Thompson / Origin Pictures and Film4.

X+Y by James Graham
Follows a teenage math prodigy’s quest to find the formula for love.
Status: Being developed by Origin Pictures, BBC Films and the British Film Institute.

MAN UP by Tess Morris
Logline kept under wraps, but billed as a romantic comedy.
Status: Being developed by Big Talk Productions and Studio Canal.

5 Votes

SECOND IS NOWHERE by William Davies
Logline kept under wraps.
Status: Being developed by BBC Films.

4 Votes

BAGHDAD WEDDING by Hassan Abdulrassak
Logline kept under wraps.
Status: Being developed by Focus Features.

BAD TRAFFIC by Jay Basu
Follows a former Chinese police officer and an undercover British cop as they try to take down a criminal responsible for the death of the Chinese cop’s daughter.
Status: David Gerson, Nick Wechsler and Rory Gilmartin attached to produce.

TESTAMENT OF YOUTH by Juliette Towhidi
An adaptation of the classic First World War memoir by Vera Brittain, which tells the personal story of how one woman faces the tragedy of war and rises above it.
Status: Being developed by Heyday.

BURNTHAVEN by Sebastian Foster
A Federal Marshall tracks his best friend’s murderer through the Utah badlands only to find him holed up at an outlaw stronghold with 23 of the most lawless fugitives in the land.
Status: Being developed by Cloud Eight Films.

LIKE A VIRGIN by Catherine Shepherd
Story follows a contemporary and unvirginal Mary who finds out she’s going to give birth to the next Messiah.
Status: Available.

3 Votes

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN by Abi Morgan
Story follows the secret mistress of Charles Dickens.
Status: Available.

OUR KIND OF TRAITOR by Hossein Amini
The lives of a young couple are changed forever after a chance encounter with a charismatic Russian oligarch. Adaptation of the John LeCarre novel.
Status: Being developed by Ink Factory and Potboiler Productions.

A MOST WANTED MAN by Andrew Bovell
An enigmatic figure arrives in Hamburg and sweeps an embittered spy, a British banker and an idealistic young lawyer into a thrilling and moving mystery about his identity. Adaptation of the John LeCarre novel.
Status: Anton Corbijn attached to direct, with Ink Factory and Potboiler Productions.

MISS YOU ALREADY by Paul Andrew Williams, Morwenna Banks
Logline kept under wraps.
Status: Available.

THE BUCCANEERS by Heidi Thomas
Unable to gain acceptance in the WASP-y East Coast society, three wealthy American girls are taken by their English governess to hunt for titled husbands in her home country. Adaptation of the novel by Edith Wharton.
Status: Being developed by Ruby Films.

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD by David Nicholls
Adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel.
Status: Being developed by DNA Films.

I MACROBANE by Ben Wheatley
Kept under wraps, but billed as a black comedy.
Status: Being developed by Big Talk.

AVAILABLE LIGHT by Amber Trentham, Thomas Carty
A young ex-gardener, paralyzed in a bike accident, is abducted by a brutal brothel owner to service the voyeurism of a perverse client.
Status: Available.

THE CHINESE BUSKER by Trevor Preston
Dumas is a man without a history; a ghost operating in that no-man’s land between legal and criminal; a genius at providing unscrupulous corporate raiders with devastating information plucked from the air.
Status: Available.

THE GOOD PEOPLE by Nicholas Horwood
An American writer moves to rural England to escape his demons, only to find himself haunted by a very real danger instead.
Status: Available.

THE SLACKFI PROJECT by Howard Overman
A hapless and broken hearted barrista is visited by two bad-ass soldiers from the future who tell him mankind is doomed and he alone can save them.
Status: Being developed by Sony.

TAKING OFF by David F Shamoon
A funny and truthful road movie about a 50-something couple whose failing marriage is driven to its limits as they cross the US to get to their son’s wedding.
Status: Available.

WALKING ON SUNSHINE by Joshua St Johnston
Set in the sun drenched Mediterranean, mother and daughter unwittingly fall for the same guy.
Status: Being developed by Vertigo.