"Black List Table Reads" podcast launches diverse season two of "movies for your ears"

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Nov 19, 2015, 02:26 ET

CINCINNATI, Nov. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- From a heartwarming holiday story to a serious coming-of-age tale about a homosexual teenager seeking the answer to whether he's contracted HIV, "The Black List Table Reads" podcast offers an intriguing tale for every type of movie fan in season two, which launches today.

The first episode of season two, "Three Months," by Jared Frieder, is available beginning today on iTunes, Wolfpop.com or the Howl apps for iOS and Android. "Black List Table Reads" season two will include seven more full-length script performances — also known by its fans as "movies for your ears" or "ear movies" — through early 2016.

The podcast, produced by Wolfpop, takes the best and most exciting screenplays Hollywood hasn't yet made and turns them into movies for listeners' ears, read by a rotating cast of talented actors. For the new season, notable actors include Anne Heche, Haley Joel Osment and Ashley Greene. Wolfpop is part of Midroll Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP).

Each movie in season two will be released as a full-length screenplay to provide a more cinematic, immersive listening experience. The season also includes bonus episodes between movie releases, featuring interviews with members of the Hollywood screenwriting community.

Host Franklin Leonard is the founder of the Black List, the sought-after annual list of Hollywood's most popular unproduced screenplays and a full-fledged company aimed at supporting the writing community. Leonard was formerly a film executive for Will Smith, Universal Pictures, Sydney Pollack & Anthony Minghella and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Representing a diverse selection of stories, characters and writers, the season includes the following six screenplays. Two more will be announced later in the year.

Episode one — Nov 19: "Three Months" by Jared Frieder. After being exposed to HIV the weekend of his high school graduation in 2011, a young gay man from Miami must survive the three months it takes to get tested for the disease in this coming-of-age black comedy. Cast includes Frances Fisher and Obba Babatunde. The script won the Austin Film Festival Feature Screenwriting Prize in 2014.

Episode two — Dec. 3: "Celeritas" by Kimberly Barrante. When a missing astronaut crash lands 40 years after he launched and hasn't aged a day, his elderly twin brother helps him escape the NASA scientists hunting him. As the government closes in, it turns out that neither brother is who he claims to be. The script was on the 2014 Annual Black List. Cast includes Jake Abel, Justin Chatwin and Alexandra D'Addario.

Episode three — Dec. 17: "The Winter King" by Brian Depetris and Mickey Fisher (creator of television series "Extant," starring Halle Berry). When a sorceress queen and her evil henchman Jack Frost threaten to enslave the inhabitants of a pre-Santa North Pole, it's up to two ordinary elves and their rag-tag band of Christmas all-stars (think snowmen, reindeer and tough-talking donkeys) to lead the resistance. Cast includes Haley Joel Osment, Mae Whitman and Jason Ritter.

Episode four — Jan. 14: "Angel's Flight" by Jill Isaacs. In 1941 Los Angeles, an ambitious, smart-assed Mexican-American private eye solves a mystery about who is secretly shutting down mass transit in Southern California. A Latin-flavored "Chinatown." Cast includes Anne Heche.

Episode five — Jan. 28: "Jody" by Chris Kyle and Jason Wilborn. On the eve of the Super Bowl, Deadspin.com obtains a gay sex tape involving Jody Thorensen, the star quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles. In the present, the scandalous videotape reveals Jody's infidelity to his wife, Mina, while the past reveals how Jody and David Battle, an Eagles wide receiver, came to fall in love in the last bastion of the alpha male: the National Football League.

Episode six — Feb. 25: "Loose Women" by Jeff Belanger. In this darkly comic western, a gang of outlaw women must fend for themselves after murdering their chauvinistic leader.

The first episode of season two of "Black List Table Reads" is now available to subscribers via iTunes, Wolfpop.com or streaming on-demand at Howl.fm or via the Howl app for iOS and Android. New Howl subscribers can use the promo code BLACKLIST to receive one month of free and unlimited Howl Premium access. To redeem the coupon, visit Howl.fm and enter the code BLACKLIST at checkout.

About Scripps
The E.W. Scripps Company serves audiences and businesses through a growing portfolio of television, radio and digital media brands. Scripps is one of the nation's largest independent TV station owners, with 33 television stations in 24 markets and a reach of nearly one in five U.S. households. It also owns 34 radio stations in eight markets. Scripps also runs an expanding collection of local and national digital journalism and information businesses, including podcast industry leader Midroll Media, over-the-top video news service Newsy and weather app developer WeatherSphere. Scripps also produces television shows including The List and The Now, runs an award-winning investigative reporting newsroom in Washington, D.C., and serves as the long-time steward of the nation's largest, most successful and longest-running educational program, the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Founded in 1878, Scripps has held for decades to the motto, "Give light and the people will find their own way."

SOURCE The E.W. Scripps Company