EXCLUSIVE: The Love List is back this Valentine’s Day with another round of picks for the 12 best unproduced, romance-centered screenplays and pilots of the year.
The list was read and curated by a group of anonymous readers, in addition to its co-founders, writer Lindsay Grossman and Olive Bridge TV exec Madison Jones. This year marks an exciting milestone for The Love List, as the program’s first produced script How to Lose a Popularity Contest just premiered on Tubi in January.
“The crop of scripts was really top-notch,” Jones told Deadline. “And with romances like Heated Rivalry and The People We Meet on Vacation becoming water cooler conversation this past year, we feel like our annual list is serving a real purpose in the business. Spoiler alert: people really like romance!”
Added Grossman: “This may be our best year yet. Each of this year’s scripts feel hyper-specific and original. From high-concept features like The Last First Date to more internal stories like Just Around the Corner, these scripts really represent all the crazy and cool places romance-centered stories can take audiences!”
Below are this year’s scripts in no particular order:
THE HYPOCHONDRIAC by Nate Stein (Feature Rom-Com) – A romantic comedy about a hypochondriac who falls in love with a woman after diagnosing her with something he thinks the doctor missed.
Agency: United Talent Agency; Agent: John Kaiser
Management Company: Heroes & Villains; Manager: Aaron Lipsett & Henry Huang
RIVALRY by Laura Stoltz (Feature Rom-Com) – In a family where everything—from weddings to births—revolves around the North Carolina Tarheels, a fiercely loyal UNC basketball fan must choose between a lifetime of expected loyalty and a forbidden romance with her most hated rival: the injured star player for Duke.
Agency: Creative Artists Agency; Agents: Drew Leffler and Shannon Smith
Management Company: Heroes & Villains; Manager: Aaron Lipsett; Production Company: Star Thrower
UNFUCKABLE by Anna Thorup (Feature Rom-Com) – A wheelchair-using college freshman enlists the help of a charming frat bro to learn how to finally become “fuckable.”
Managers: Sydney Blanke & Antoni Kaczmarek
Production Company: Roth/Kirschenbaum Films
THE NEXT BEST THING by Zoie and Michael Wightman (Feature Rom-Com) – A grieving, young widow is haunted by the ghost of her recently deceased husband, who has returned to be her wingman and help her move on with her life and find love again. (Ghost x Hitch)
Management Company: Fourth Wall Management, Prime Talent Media
Managers: Claire Jennings & Avi Gilbert, Dustin Doty
Producer: Greg Cohen
Director attached: Bill Holderman
THE WEDDING MACHINE by Savannah Kopp (Half-hour Rom-Com Pilot) – Fiancés Phoebe and Theo pretend to be single and get jobs at the Whit, an all-inclusive wedding venue, in the hopes of combining their employee discounts to afford their dream wedding. They’ll have to “fall in love” again, this time for show — but that’s no easy feat when their new coworkers have other romantic setups in mind.
Management Company: Kinetic Management
Manager: David Baird
INDEPENDENT STUDY by Brad Beideman (Feature Rom-Com) – After finding evidence his high school crush might have been bi, a gay graduate student starts a thesis project to prove his crush liked him back.
No reps or attachments.
MISCHIEF & MATCHMAKING by Emma Alban (Hourlong Historical Romantic Drama Pilot) – BRIDGERTON meets THE PARENT TRAP, about two debutantes who team up in 1857 to get their widowed parents together, instead of finding husbands themselves, and end up falling into a surprising romance all their own. Meanwhile, back in 1835, the second son of an earl and the daughter of a viscount hatch a plan to get their friends together, knowing they themselves can’t possibly fall in love… It’ll all go perfectly to plan, of course.
Based on the novel, “Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend,” by Emma R. Alban.
Management Company: Intellectual Property Group
Manager: Larry Becsey; Attorney: Wayne Alexander at Alexander, Lawrence, Frumes & Labowitz, LLP
Publishing: Writers House; Agent: Stacy Testa
THE LAST FIRST DATE by Marissa Dow (Feature Rom-Com) – A thirty-year-old control freak, fed up with unserious men, is ready to quit romance altogether until she’s forced to go on one last date with a guy who appears laughably wrong for her. Even worse it turns out to be the last night on earth…and they’re stuck together.
Management Company: M88
Manager: Khalid Jordan
Attorney: Marcie Cleary at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
RED ENVELOPE by Emily Ting (Feature Rom-Com) – When a Taiwanese food influencer’s scathing review torpedoes an Italian chef’s career, fate throws them together again in São Paulo, where she offers him a shot at redemption by enlisting him to cook at her family’s exclusive Lunar New Year banquet — and discovers that, like pasta and dumplings, the best pairings can come from worlds apart.
Agency: Verve Talent
Literary Agency Agent: Parker Davis
Production Companies: RAIN Productions, Reckless Pictures
Producers: Jonathan Baruch, Christine Wu, Michael Goldstein, Alex Coscas
Director: Emily Ting
SO HAPPY FOR YOU by Di Gettinger & Monica Hewes (Half-hour Rom-Com Pilot) – Marrying (pun intended) the comedic heft of BRIDESMAIDS with the acerbic tone of FLEABAG, SO HAPPY FOR YOU is an ongoing ½ hour comedy series that sees disaster unfold over the course of a single fateful day, when a group of wedding guests gather to celebrate the happiest day of someone else’s life. In a race to find out who caused this marital mayhem, emotions will be high, inhibitions will be low, and everyone will have access to an open bar.
Management Company: Heroes & Villains
Managers: Benjamin Blake and Krista Sipp
Production Company: Fremantle
JUST AROUND THE CORNER by Mazie Hyams and Jordan Hunt (Feature Rom-Com) – Autumn in New York brings falling leaves, crisp air, and new beginnings when uninspired writer Max walks into Samantha’s struggling bakery. When Max’s friends push him to write an article on Samantha and her business, they challenge each other to face their fears and develop a connection neither of them expected.
No reps or attachments.
HEARTBREAK HILL by Charlotte Lillie Balogh (Half-Hour Rom-Com Pilot) – After being dumped by her high school sweetheart, a headstrong college senior impulsively signs up for the Boston Marathon to prove she’s stronger than her heartbreak (and maybe also—her ex). But as she trains, she discovers new love in unexpected places: with her friends, her family, herself…and her annoyingly charming new training partner.
Agency: Kaplan Stahler Agency
Agent: Jillian Davis
English (US) ·