FILM MYSTERY

Do you feel that too many bad scripts get made while good ones languish? Here are some titles to support that view.

Some 40 film “experts” – okay, maybe they are not truly “experts", but they are people who do work in the film business as producers, agents, and so on - were recently asked to choose the best British screenplays which, for various reasons ranging from bad luck to, presumably, sabotage, have yet to be made into films.

The list is topped by Men Who Stare At Goats – chosen by more than a quarter of the “experts”. It was written by Peter Straughan, whose credits include the recent Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution (hardly a box office triumph) and “How To Lose Friends And Alienate People” which should be out soon and promises great things. Straughan has two other scripts on the list – 5 Psychopaths Go To Vancouver and Noir – which makes you wonder whether he just particularly unlucky or has a lot of family members among the experts.

Next most popular are “Scouting Book For Boys” by Jack Thorne and “Selma” by Paul Webb, which for now you will just have to imagine for yourselves.

Among the best-known writers on the list are Jeremy “Mrs Brown” Brock with the enigmatic title “Eagle Of The Ninth”, Tony “Tideland” Grisoni with “How I Live Now”, Peter “The Queen” Morgan with “Old Big Head”, William “Shadowlands” Nicholson with “Long Walk To Freedom”.

Is this list in some way definitive? No. But it does suggest that there an awful lot of interesting stories out there that are not getting made, while many naff projects are reaching cinemas. This is one of film’s ongoing conundrums.

Also such a list might just arouse the interest to attract the finance needed to get at least one of these titles made. So fingers crossed. Some genuinely inspiring British cinema may yet be arriving.