WIGS, a leading digital studio and a FOX series incubator for female-targeted scripted drama, has partnered with script site The Black List on an initiative to identify one writer to develop a series. Founded by Jon Avnet ("Black Swan," "Fried Green Tomatoes," "Risky Business"), Rodrigo Garcia ("Albert Nobbs," "In Treatment," "Big Love") and Jake Avnet, WIGS is the first digital studio to make a deal with the screenplay database.
As part of this novel partnership, The Black List will solicit teleplays to be evaluated by its community of industry professionals and readers, sharing with WIGS a short list of five writers for consideration for a digital series script deal.
Interested writers can submit material starting today at www.blcklst.com/WIGS. The submission window will be open through Tuesday, May 6. The site includes a complete list of rules, additional information and submission guidelines.
The Black List is an online community where content creators can find scripts to make, and writers can find producers, studios and networks to produce their scripts. Since launching in October 2012, The Black List has hosted more than 11,000 screenplays and teleplays and completed more than 14,000 script evaluations. Dozens of writers have found representation, sales and options, via the site since its launch. At any given time, The Black List hosts more than 2,200 screenplays and teleplays for perusal by thousands of film and television industry professionals, ranging from agency assistants to studio and network heads.
Launched in May 2012 by writer/director/producers Jon Avnet, Rodrigo Garcia and Jake Avnet, WIGS has created over 150 episodes of scripted content, including 15 high-end original series, seven short films and 10 documentaries, all starring female leads. Popular series from WIGS include BLUE, starring Julia Stiles as a single mother trying to protect her son from the consequences of her secret career as an upscale escort.
"We're very excited to
Leverage The Black List to open up our development process to a new group of writers, and hopefully discover our next great series creator," said WIGS Chief Operating Officer Jake Avnet.
"The business of scripted entertainment is changing rapidly, and it's a great joy to be partners with one of the great success stories of that change thus far," said The Black List founder Franklin Leonard. "Developing a series for this award-winning and quickly expanding multi-platform drama studio is an enormous opportunity for experienced and relatively new screenwriters alike, and we're incredibly excited to be facilitating something like this with such a forward-thinking partner, particularly one targeting an audience typically underserved in the digital space."
In addition to WIGS, The Black List is currently partnered with the Writers Guild of America, East; the Writers Guild of America, West; the
Sundance Institute; Warner Bros. Pictures;
TNT and TBS.
About WIGS:
WIGS is breaking new ground with award-winning scripted dramas for the digital age with more than 77 million multi-platform views to date and more than 1.6 million total subscribers.
In addition to BLUE, popular WIGS series include LAUREN, which explores the consequences of dealing with sexual assault in the military, starring Troian Bellisario, Jennifer Beals and Bradley Whitford; SERENA, a story of lust, temptation and
Forbidden love, starring Jennifer Garner and Alfred Molina; and SUSANNA, about a career-minded woman who must adapt to motherhood overnight, starring Maggie Grace and Anna Paquin.
Select series are available on
Hulu and Hulu+, and all series are currently available at watchwigs.com.
In February of 2013,
FOX Broadcasting Company (FOX) entered into a multi-year pact with WIGS. The programming, marketing and distribution partnership is designed to expand the breadth of offerings through the WIGS studio, and test and nurture dramatic concepts and talent in the digital realm.
Additional WIGS offerings include actors
America Ferrera, Stephen Moyer, Allison Janney, Virginia Madsen, Dakota Fanning, Alison Pill, Jimmy Wolk, Walton Goggins, Maura Tierney, Michael C. Hall, Sarah Jones, Jason Isaacs, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Messina, Lois Smith, Gary Cole, Jena Malone, Gary Dourdan, Sarah Paulson and Eric Balfour. Writers and directors include Paul Brickman, Betty Thomas, Lesli Linka Glatter, Rose Troche, Mitch Albom, Ami Canaan Mann, Scott Turow, Amy Lippman, Neil LaBute, Leah Rachel, Mattie Brickman, Patricia Cardoso, Mykelti Williamson and Lee Toland Krieger.
About The Black List:
The Black List is an online community where moviemakers find scripts to make and writers to write them, and screenwriters find moviemakers to make their scripts and employ them.
Begun in 2005 as an annual survey of several dozen executives' favorite unproduced screenplays, The Black List has grown to survey over 500 executives each year (virtually 100% of Hollywood's studio system's executive corps). Over 250 Black List scripts have been produced into films grossing over $18 billion in worldwide box office. Black List scripts have won 30 Academy Awards - including three of the last five Best Pictures ("Slumdog Millionaire," "The King's Speech" and "Argo") and seven of the last 12 screenwriting awards ("Juno," "Slumdog Millionaire," "The King's Speech," "The Social Network," "The Descendants," "Argo" and "Django Unchained") - from 180 nominations.
In October 2012, The Black List launched an online database of every screenplay circulating Hollywood and all those submitted by English language screenwriters from around the world. Since its launch, it has hosted more than 10,000 screenplays and completed more than 14,000 script evaluations. More than 40 writers have found representation at major agencies and management companies and more than 30 writers have sold their screenplays as a direct result of introductions made via the site.
At any given time, more than 2,200 screenplays are actively hosted for perusal by thousands of film industry professionals, ranging from agency assistants to studio and network heads.
