Basically, Google would really like it if there were more movies about computer scientists that weren’t just a collection of every nerd cliché. Can you write good? Google will actually pay you to write a good script.
Google is teaming up with The Black List to grant up to $US15,000 ($19,227) for three people to write three scripts — one film and two TV pilots — that will help change the usual pop culture image of computer science and scientists. So no broken glasses and asthma, presumably. But also no hilarious Hollywood hacking, I hope. Actually, it’s part of a Google initiative to bring women and people of colour into computer science — so I guess these movies also have to make computer science look open and welcoming, and not like a white-bro paradise. Best of luck, everyone.
The submission process starts now and ends July 15, with the lucky grant winners getting their money in spring. The grant winners will keep the rights to their scripts, but they will also have to explain to Google how the money they got was used to execute the project. I wonder if “It kept me fed and housed me while I wrote the script” will be enough.
[Deadline]
Image: Still from 1999’s The Net / Columbia Pictures