The annual Black List of most popular unproduced scripts in Hollywood has been released, and the most popular are Recount, a script about the Florida election recount and Farragut North, a political thriller written by Beau Willimon. The number three script on the list was a sci-fi film called Passengers, about a guy who wakes up on a spaceship after a long, cryogenic sleep. Keanu Reeves may be circling that one. Also in the top five is a Martin Luther King biopic script called Selma. A much talked-about dramedy called The Way Back, which I've been hearing about for a long time, is also in the top ten. Also appearing on the list, but much lower down, is Diablo Cody's horror script Jennifer's Body and the script for Max Brook's World War Z, which everyone keeps talking to me about.

A new update on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is also on the list, as is the new Clash of the Titans which I've been hearing about forever and that script for the film about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. The Black List gets its data from a poll of about 150 people in the Hollywood development chain. The scripts are tallied by the number of votes each one gets. The leader, Recount, got mentions from 44 different people in Hollywood, so no matter what your political inclinations, this might be one you should watch out for when it finally comes out. The town clearly loves it. As for me, I'm most looking forward to Jennifer's Body -- I've heard the premise and a few details and it sounds like it's going to reinvigorate the horror comedy genre.

Seems like every week we have news of a new Shawn Levy project, but the director's Night at the Museum follow-up is absolutely, definitely going to be ... a "smaller" comedy for Fox Searchlight called The Way Back. (Probably one of those wistful coming-of-age things that probably has something to do with summer camp or defeating a bully or learning how to properly remove a girl's bra without acting like a dork.) According to The Hollywood Reporter the script (as penned by Jim Rash and Nat Faxon) is about a kid who withstands those growing pains during one fateful summer spent in a beach house during in his fifteenth year.

The cynic in me seems to think Levy snagged this smaller (quicker) project while the wheels start turning on that Tom Cruise / Ben Stiller comedy he's set to direct, but that cynic is just remembering how Shawn Levy subjected me to movies like The Pink Panther, Cheaper By the Dozen and Just Married and is still a little cranky about it. Fox Searchlight production chief Claudia Lewis seems pretty ebullient about the whole thing: "He brings such vim and vigor to his comedies ... And this project really hearkens back to some of his earlier work." So it's a coming-of-age comedy that hearkens back to ... Big Fat Liar? Or are we hearkening back as far as Levy's work on Animorphs?

On the plus side, these Rash and Faxon guys have done a lot of work with the Broken Lizard and Reno 911 folks, so they could definitely be very funny guys. There's something positive to focus on.