I want my Splinter Cell movie, too, please. Calling George Clooney…

Anyhow, the blacklist is list of the favorite screenplays written in Hollywood by a body of people who generally read them – assistants, script readers, cover folks, etc.

It's essentially a popularity contest — in a good way — that was started by the aforementioned type of people. Lower end folks who read script for a living or its part of their jobs, but now the Blacklist is taking on a life of its own and isn't as "pure" as it once was (people practically vie to become part of it now).

Her's the official site for more context.

http://www.blcklst.com/

But in short, half the big projects announced this year, Due Date, The Social Network, The Sitter (david gordon green, jonah hill), 30 Minutes Of Less (Danny McBride, Zombieland director and Aziz Ansari), Butter, The Oranges, etc. are blacklist scripts.

about 8 out of 10 times — at least this year — if a relatively "unknown" script gets greenlit, if you do a quick google search, it's often a Blacklist script.

Getting on that list has been a good way to get a movie started these days so its important in that sense.

Hope that helps.