Tubi Partners with The Black List to Discover Five Unproduced Film Scripts from Underrepresented Writers
Submissions are open now for Tubi and The Black List’s “To Be Commissioned” project.
The exclusive content that Tubi boasts is already impressive, and growing more so every month. Just last week, for example, the free streaming platform announced a deal with the NBA to offer a lineup of exclusive G League games each season, bringing live sports to Tubi for the first time since the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Now, the Fox-owned free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service has announced a new ambitious project with The Black List to produce five scripts that had not yet been purchased.
- Tubi is partnering with The Black List for what is being dubbed the “To Be Commissioned” project.
- This project will select five publicly submitted movie pitches to be produced and distributed by Tubi.
- The submission process is open to writers at every level, whether associated with the Writers Guild of America or not.
What is Tubi’s New ‘To Be Commissioned’ Venture with The Black List?
To add to its impressive and growing list of exclusive titles, Tubi is partnering with the storytelling platform The Black List to produce five movies through a project dubbed “To Be Commissioned.” It allows writers to submit a movie script no matter what level of skill or experience they have, and regardless of affiliation with the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
Come April 1, 2024 the number of submissions will be narrowed to 50 finalists. Tubi will contact these finalists for a resume and personal statement, and on May 15, the list will be whittled down again to 25. From there, Tubi and The Black List will select the final five movies that will be greenlit, produced, and distributed on the Tubi platform.
The submission site says that Tubi is most interested in scripts for science fiction, faith-based, romance, and comedy movies from the LGBTQ+, Black, Latino, and AAPI communities. Users are welcome to submit scripts outside these categories, but they’ll all be lumped into the Wild Card category. Submissions for the project will be open until March 15, 2024.
Is Tubi the Best Platform for the To Be Commissioned Project?
Tubi is an excellent ally for The Black List in its attempts to get movies from seldom-heard voices made. The service has 74 million monthly active users, which means it has an instant and vast distribution network to offer these movies once they’ve made it through the production process and are ready for audiences.
Tubi’s new search function, powered by RabbitAI will also aid in users finding the new movies once they’re available to stream. The function gives audiences the ability to use hyper-specific search questions to more quickly and accurately find the content they want to see. If one of the To Be Commissioned projects is an LGBTQ+ comedy, for example, Tubi users can ask to be shown all LGBTQ+ funny-bone ticklers and be taken instantly to that movie and others like it.
Branded FAST channels are becoming more and more popular on platforms like Tubi, so this effort to ensure it creates content not affiliated with a major studio is a good way for the streamer to ensure it maintains a high level of independent content. Users can submit their scripts to the To Be Commissioned Initiative any time between now and March 15.
Tubi
Tubi is a free video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 200,000+ movies and TV episodes - more than any other streaming service. Its ad breaks are shorter and less frequent than most free services. Fox executives have called their service “TV on steroids.”