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The Brit List, the UK lineup of unproduced film and TV scripts by emerging British screenwriters, has unveiled its 2024 edition. Scroll down for the list.
Spearheading the list this year with 28 recommendations is TV crime-drama The Rubber Faced Men by Faebian Averies (repped by Curtis Brown). The NBC Universal project is set in West Wales, 1983, and follows a man and his teenage stepson who go about taking down an international drug smuggling ring after uncovering a secret bunker on the beach.
This year a minimum of ten recommendations was needed for inclusion on the list. 13 scripts by 15 writers made the cut. The selection was revealed tonight at an industry event in central London.
Projects are compiled from recommendations by British production companies, talent agencies, sales companies, financiers, distributors and broadcasters. Previous projects include The King’s Speech, Paddington, Lion, The Favourite, and Emmy winner Responsible Child, while most recently Bring Them Down (formerly known as Shepherd), got a 2024 BIFA nomination.
Organizers say that nearly one in four scripts that have appeared on the list have gone on to be produced, and multiple projects have won Oscars, Golden Globes and BAFTAs.
Founder and director of The Brit List, Alexandra Arlango, commented: “It’s been fantastic to see, over the last year, the great success of past Brit List alumni – from Chris Andrews’ recent BIFA nomination, for Bring Them Down (which appeared on The Brit List in 2018 as Shepherd), to last year’s Brit List writer, Karla Marie Sweet’s work with our sponsor, Audible, on her book, Another Life, which was released as an Audible Original in September, to name but a few.
“This year 40% of The Brit List scripts are feature films, more any other years since the list became a platform for both TV and Film. This continues a trend we saw beginning last year, and I’m delighted that feature scripts seem to be flourishing.”
The Brit List 2024:
TWENTY EIGHT RECOMMENDATIONS
The Rubber Faced Men by Faebian Averies (Curtis Brown)
Producers: NBC Universal
Form: TV Genre: Crime
Summary: West Wales, 1983. One man and his teenage stepson go about taking down an international drug smuggling ring after uncovering a secret bunker on the beach.
TWENTY FOUR RECOMMENDATIONS
Chika by Jenny Takahashi Stark (Curtis Brown)
Producers: Fable Pictures
Form: TV Genre: Drama Comedy
Summary: CHIKA is a coming-of-age comedy drama about a working-class Oxbridge student who deals drugs to fund her Dad’s desperately needed heart surgery, and her adventures with her best friend as she discovers herself in an elitist, patriarchal establishment.
TWENTY TWO RECOMMENDATIONS
Conflicts by Christina Sweeney-Baird (Curtis Brown)
Producers: Euston Films
Form: TV Genre: Crime Drama
Summary: Millie, a criminal barrister, is assigned to the defence team of the man she thinks killed her sister, twelve years before. He’s killed again: but is he guilty? And if she ensures he’s convicted for this crime, will another killer go free?
TWENTY ONE RECOMMENDATIONS
Behave Yourselves by Richard Tahmasebi & Christopher Vernon (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Big Talk
Form: Feature Genre: Comedy
Summary: Craig is desperate to impress Dallas, his charismatic work-Dad at a Brooklyn-based digital marketing / probably-something-to-do-with AI company. The lengths he is willing to go to are tested when their company ski-trip to a run-down New England resort goes off the rails after a member of the IT department dies in mysterious circumstances on the first night.
TWELVE RECOMMENDATIONS
Catch A Butcher by Cassiah Joski-Jethi (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Tedium Entertainment
Form: Feature Genre: Psychological horror
Summary: In 19th Century India, a naive English nurse arrives at an isolated maternity hospital on a quest to continue her father’s legacy of “caring for” the mixed-race babies born from British soldiers and Indian women. But soon, the nurse discovers a sinister force lurking inside not just the hospital, but also herself…
Night Movers by Jakob Lancaster (Curtis Brown)
Producers: Available
Form: TV Genre: Thriller
Summary: Night Movers is a darkly comic, crime thriller centred around two siblings who run an undercover “night movers” business. It’s a 6 x 45’ returning series that draws influence from shows like GUILT and BAD SISTERS; as well as from classic film noirs like SUNSET BOULEVARD and DOUBLE INDEMNITY.
Counting Cards with My Father by Lydia Rui Huang (The Agency)
Producers: Arenamedia
Form: Feature Genre: Drama
Summary: Sick of bouncing around from home to home, troubled teen Lisa seeks out their estranged poker-playing father, Sammy. After hunting him down at the casino, Lisa manages to convince a reluctant Sammy to become a team for the upcoming tournament. However, Lisa must face whether or not gambling is really in their blood when they find themselves going all in.
ELEVEN RECOMMENDATIONS
Heart of the Earth by Jon Champion (Curtis Brown)
Producers: Available
Form: TV Genre: Drama
Summary: A grief-stricken college freshman is presented with an opportunity to bring his brother back from the dead but must find someone else to take his place in the afterlife.
The Grip by Ross Dunsmore (Casarotto)
Producers: New Regency / Morenike Williams
Form: TV Genre: Noir Thriller
Summary: A twisty, youthful noir thriller set in Glasgow, The Grip is a contemporary tale played out in a heightened world of razor sharp dialogue and grey morality. All the noir elements are here, obsession, desire, fate, all the classic characters, visual keys and thematic threads, but reimagined, remade to explore one central question – will the youth of today cave in to conformity, or turn the world on its head?
Troops by Rory Gibson (The Haworth Agency)
Producers: Silverprint Pictures
Form: TV Genre: Dark Comedy/Thriller
Summary: Rankin, a jewel thief on the lam from a vengeful employer, is drawn into running a dysfunctional rural scout troop. He propels the troop to new heights but in sticking his head above the parapet his past catches up with him. Only now he has much more to save than himself.
TEN RECOMMENDATIONS
Hungry Joe by Paul Holbrook & Sam Dawe (United Agents / unrepresented)
Producers: Studio Pow
Form: Feature Genre: Thriller / horror
Summary: An impoverished single mother struggles to hold on to her sanity as she’s forced into extreme measures to satisfy her son’s insatiable, inhuman appetite.
Lovesong by Sarah Morgan (Casarotto)
Producers: The Imaginarium
Form: Feature Genre: Folk horror
Summary: Grieving for the loss of his husband, an elderly goth is struck by an overwhelming fear of death – til he meets a mysterious hag living in the woods, and an unlikely friendship blossoms with the spring. A love story about horror, and a horror story about love.
Lucy Negro by Azuka Oforka (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Available
Form: TV Genre: Historical Drama
Summary: An ill-fated love story set in turbulent Elizabethan England, inspired by the controversial theory pertaining to Shakespeare’s Dark Lady of the Sonnets.
