Fancy a trip to the multiplex to catch a satirical take on the making of Star Wars as seen through the eyes of Chewbacca? Or perhaps an offbeat drama about a grief-stricken man who indulges in a flamingo figurine crime spree after his wife leaves him? Both stories could find their way into cinemas after they were included on the annual "Black List" of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood.

The list was released yesterday by film executive Franklin Leonard, who has been compiling it since 2005. It consists of 71 screenplays that producers have voted their favourite scripts yet to make it into production. In the past, the list has been responsible for bringing Oscar-winning films such as Juno, Slumdog Millionaire and The King's Speech to the attention of studios. Leonard says more than 120 Black List scripts have been made into feature films, grossing more than £7bn at the box office and winning more than 20 Oscars.

Several of this year's scripts have already been picked up by Hollywood, including The Imitation Game, which topped the list after being named by 133 executives. Described as the story of British wartime cryptographer Alan Turing, who cracked the Enigma code and later poisoned himself after being criminally prosecuted for his homosexuality, Graham Moore's script was bought by Warner Brothers in October with Leonardo DiCaprio set to play the lead.

In second place was When the Street Lights Go On by Chris Hutton and Eddie O'Keefe, which picked up 84 votes. Set in the early 1980s, it's about a town suffering through the aftermath of the brutal murder of a high-school girl and a teacher.

Third spot went to Chewie, by Evan Susser and Van Robichaux, a satirical behind-the-scenes look at the making of Star Wars through the eyes of 7ft 3in English actor Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in George Lucas's space-opera saga. A drama rather than a mockumentary, its makers have admitted that the screenplay will have to get past the famously litigious Lucas if it is to have any chance of being made. "We hope that it's a loving enough portrayal of him and the making of the movie that they'll get onboard," Robichaux told Entertainment Weekly. "So we're kind of waiting to hear if he says, 'I like this, this is OK,' or, 'How dare you make me a character in a film!' We think it's a very loving portrayal of a guy we really look up to. So we hope he likes it." The only other problem the screenwriters face is that their only apparent interaction with Mayhew so far has been at a five-minute encounter at a signing session at Comic-Con.

Elsewhere on the list, there was a marked trend towards screenplays that take an offbeat approach to tried and tested genres such as horror or post-apocalyptic existence, while a number of scripts delved into the alternate history oeuvre. Maggie sees a farm family help their eldest daughter come to terms with her infection as she slowly becomes a flesh-eating zombie, while Bethlehem is about a group of people struggling to survive a zombie apocalypse who make an alliance with a vampire. Grace of Monaco sees Grace Kelly brokering a deal to save her adopted principality from losing its tax-haven status, while The Knoll sees a rookie cop and his love interest go on the run from the authorities after witnessing the shooting of John F Kennedy. In the Event of a Moon Disaster, meanwhile, examines what might have happened if the Apollo 11 mission had crashlanded on the surface of the moon.

Among the more unlikely titles of scripts to make the list is Bastards, about two brothers who set out on a road trip to find their biological father after discovering their mother slept with many powerful and famous men in the 1970s, and Jurassic Park, not a remake, but a drama about a high-school couple and two of their friends who ditch school to catch a special preview screening of Steven Spielberg's dinosaur-themed blockbuster.

Click here for the full 2011 Black List.