The best of British

Ever heard of Matt Greenhalgh? How about Adrian Hodges? No? Yet the films they have written have had audiences flocking to them and their latest work has made a secret industry shortlist of the UK's best unproduced scripts.

The Brit List comprises the most recommended screenplays by UK and Irish writers that are yet to be put into production. It is a showcase for new and established talent, and it has executives buzzing on both sides of the Atlantic. This year's fare ranges from a biopic of John Lennon, Nowhere Boy, to a London council estate under attack from aliens, Attack the Estate, by Adam and Joe's Joe Cornish.

The list was launched to bring attention to the best new works and adaptations which, either for timing or financial reasons, or due to plain under-exposure, have not been picked up.

The script that has most excited the industry this year is Nowhere Boy. It is a look at John Lennon's troubled teenage years, after he was abandoned by his mother and brought up by his aunt, and his first steps on the road to stardom. The movie has been heavily pushed by the UK Film Council.

It was written by Greenhalgh, who was catapulted into the limelight after picking up a Bafta for the acclaimed movie Control that charted the last years of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. With this second work, Greenhalgh is being touted as the next big thing of UK scriptwriting. Since the list was put together, the project has been picked up and is scheduled for shooting early next year, with video installation artist Sam Taylor-Wood directing, in what will be her first feature-length film.

Tanya Seghatchian, head of the UK Film Council's development fund, says: "I'm so glad Nowhere Boy was at the top, it's a project I care passionately about. Matt is a great example of one of the new talents emerging in the industry." She backs the UK list, saying: "Anything that brings good scripts to the attention of the industry is positive. There's a good selection of good material this year."

She adds that this year's screenplays are among the "most distinctive new voices" in the UK. The authors range from Matthew Vaughn, the producer of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, to two UK comedians – Cornish and Simon Pegg – and first-time novelist Tom Rob Smith, whose crime thriller Child 44 was on the long list of The Man Booker Prize this year.

The Brit List is in its second year. It is the UK's equivalent to the Black List, set up in America by Franklin Leonard, a creative executive at Leonardo DiCaprio's production house Appian Way after he started asking his colleagues to recommend the best unmade works. The talent agent who put together the UK version, who did not want to be named ("the whole point is that it's anonymous"), says: "In answer to and inspired by our peers in the US and their wonderful Black List, the UK and Irish film community have taken it upon themselves to compile their own list."

The criteria for a screenplay to qualify are that it is unproduced, did not feature on the previous year's list and has been recommended by at least two executives. Despite being called the Brit List, all non-US writers can qualify, although the list is largely kept to British and Irish nationals.

Scripts are then ranked by the most number of votes cast by producers, sales agents and senior executives at talent agencies and public film bodies, all of who vote anonymously. Nowhere Boy tops this year's list with 11 votes.

Despite being in its infancy, the Brit List is already gaining traction. The agent who created it says: "In the first year there was real interest, this year is just crazy. I have had so many calls." She adds: "It gives those that make the list a real chance of getting made."

It is not just UK producers who have been hitting the phones. One young British writer says: "It's certainly of interest to the industry in the US. I first heard about being on the list from a producer in LA, not London."

Robert Bookman, a motion picture literary agent at major agency CAA and the man who represents four of the writers on the list, says: "If a lot of people anonymously say something is good, it takes on a life of its own. I think it's a matter of degree or intensity. Something that may have been neglected or under-estimated gets a second look it otherwise might not get."

While it is too early for the scripts on the first list to be released, the writers themselves have become much in demand. Peter Straughan, whose script topped the first list, has since been tapped to write by George Clooney and Fight Club director David Fincher.

Straughan's adaptation last year of Jon Ronson's novel The Men Who Stare at Goats, about the US army's experiments in psychological warfare, is currently shooting for the BBC. It was his fourth project to be put into production, including the adaptation of Toby Young's How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, which was released this month starring Pegg.

Coincidentally, Pegg has a script that made this year's list. Written with his regular collaborator Nick Frost, Paul follows the story of two comedians travelling across America. There are reports that Pegg was forced to pull out of Quentin Tarantino's new movie Inglorious Bastards because of a clash with the movie.

Alex Garland, the author of The Beach, is another more celebrated name with his adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. His previous scripts have been for Trainspotting director Danny Boyle, and both were thrillers, comprising Sunshine and zombie flick 28 Days Later.

The Brit List can help act as an "aide memoire" for scripts with the more celebrated authors attached, according to the Film Council's Seghatchian, or they can prompt hesitant production houses into approving projects. But it is for the young writers that the list becomes so important.

She says: "There's a sense of buoyancy about the new voices that have emerged. People are always looking for the next big thing, and it's great to see some of these names on the list. It's not a question of having a big name, what's on the page tends to speak for itself."

She picked out some of the best newcomers on the list. Michael Lesslie is not yet 25, and yet he has adapted two books for the big screen; the second – Chris Ayres' War Reporting for Cowards – is on the list with seven votes. The true story about The Times' West Coast journalist being posted to Iraq was highly lauded, with Young calling it a "rip-roaring tale of adventure and derring-don't". Lesslie has already been nominated for a Bafta for a short film, Heavy Metal Drummer, adapted a movie for Colin Firth and been taken under the wing of playwright Patrick Marber.

Other exciting newcomers with work on the list include Toby Finlay for Canyonland; also Dennis Kelley, whose Blackout is on the list; and Omid Nooshin, who wrote Last Passenger with Andrew Love.

Nooshin said the script making the list was great news for Last Passenger. "My first thought was that the timing couldn't have been better. Right now there are several companies interested in the movie, so getting on the list could help us seal a deal and put us on the path to production. That's where my mindset is: how to get the movie made. As a writer-director I don't see the script as the end product: the movie is the end product."

Nooshin is a rising star and has recently signed to CAA, which has prompted meetings with M Night Shyamalan, the writer of The Sixth Sense and fan of Last Passenger, and Ridley Scott.

Over in Hollywood, the Black List has already started seeing results, with Juno being named best original screenplay at this year's Oscars, beating competition from Lars and the Real Girl. Both films were on the 2005 Black List.

Hugh Hudson, director of Chariots of Fire, is a big supporter of the Brit List, having seen a "brilliant" David Lean script for Nostromo disappear without trace. He says: "This is an incredibly positive idea. I support anything that helps great scripts get made."

Camera friendly: UK film-makers on their way to Los Angeles

We Need to Talk about Kevin - Lynne Ramsay

Lynne Ramsay has written and directed two movies, 'Ratcatcher' and 'Morvern Callar' and picked up a Bafta for Best Newcomer in 2000. She was slated to direct the film version of Alice Sebold's 'The Lovely Bones', which fell through and is now to be directed by Peter 'Lord of the Rings' Jackson. Ramsay's script on the list is being developed with BBC Films and is an adaptation of Lionel Shriver's award-winning novel of the same name.

Attack the Estate - Joe Cornish

Joe Cornish is one half of comedy duo Adam and Joe, who won Royal Television Society Best Newcomer in 1998. Cornish has recently spread his wings, moving into films and landing the job of adapting the comic-book character 'Ant Man', with Edgar Wright, who directed 'Shaun of the Dead'. His 'Attack the Estate' received five votes on the list, in what has been described as an alien attack on hoodies in a council estate in Peckham, south London.

Nowhere Boy - Matt Greenhalgh

'Control', detailing the final troubled years of Joy Division front man Ian Curtis, was Salford-born Matt Greenhalgh's debut big screen script. His adaptation of Deborah Curtis's book 'Touching from a Distance' landed Greenhalgh the Carl Foreman Award for Most Promising Newcomer at the Baftas. He has written for television with the BBC3 series 'Burn It', an episode of 'Cold Feet' and the television film 'Legless'. 'Nowhere Boy' is his second film script, and follows the adolescence of John Lennon and his journey towards fame.

My Week with Marilyn - Adrian Hodges

Adrian Hodges ventured into writing in 1991. He came to prominence with his portrayal of TS Eliot's marriage to his first wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood, in 'Tom and Viv', starring Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson, who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role. Hodges also wrote the screenplay for the BBC/HBO crossover 'Rome'. He is on the Brit List for 'My Week With Marilyn', taken from the memoirs of Colin Clark, who was friends with Marilyn Monroe for a week.

Put Together - Tom Rob Smith

Tom Rob Smith wrote the thriller 'Child 44', the tale of a serial killer in Stalin's Russia, which was on the Man Booker Prize long list. The rights have been snapped up by Ridley Scott ('Alien', 'Gladiator'). Smith is half Swedish, half English and was brought up in London. He studied in Cambridge and Italy.