The 2024 lineup of the Brit List, the U.K.’s Black List-esque platform for unproduced scripts across film and TV, has been revealed, with a 1980s-set crime series from NBCUniversal topping the pile.
Now into its 16th edition, the list is compiled from recommendations by British production companies, talent agencies, sales companies, financiers, distributors and broadcasters. Since 2020, it has featured both film and TV scripts, while this year a minimum of 10 recommendations were needed for inclusion. A total of 13 made it onto the 2024 list.
“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,” said founder and director of The Brit List, Alexandra Arlango.
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“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.”
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See the 2024 list below
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: 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: 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 Sister,” 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.”
