Netflix is constantly putting out new content, both TV show and exciting movie titles. Those with a Netflix subscription were recently treated to Leah McKendrick's Voicemails for Isabelle, which has folks laughing and crying in equal measure. While the movie is trending on the streaming service, it turns out it was on the Black List of movie scripts for quite some time. So what happened?Critical response to Voicemails for Isabelle has been positive, so it might surprise folks to learn that it had such a hard time getting green lit. But it turns out that McKendrick's script was originally put on the Black List, with major changes eventually happening to its setting, cast and more. Let's break it all down. Voicemails For Isabelle's Writer/Director On The Movie Being Trapped In The Black ListThe Voicemails for Isabelle script was part of the 2019 Black List of screenplays, thanks to its apparent inability to be produced. Given how popular it's been on Netflix, this is somewhat surprising, but the film industry can be a fickle place. Leah McKendrick spoke about her surprise that it landed there, telling Deadline: To me, the Black List was something that happened to the big writers, like the fancy writers, the real writers, and I’ve always kind of viewed myself as an actor that writes, a singer that writes, and so I think I had a lot of imposter syndrome surrounding that. The Black List is something that comes together every year, often featuring ambitious scripts that are too difficult to produce for one reason or another. Perhaps it was Voicemails for Isabelle's uncomfortable secret or the movie's mixture of comedy and drama, but McKendrick's screenplay ended up among those ranks. Later in the same interview, the director/writer/actress spoke more about how she felt about its initial reception, offering: But I also knew that I had written straight from my heart, and I knew I had written the film I wanted to see. It was so pure and so authentically me and my sister. Maybe that’s just how it works, maybe people could just pick up on that. It was my first rom-com I’d ever written, [it] was always the one that got away. It was always the one I couldn’t let go of, because it was so dear to me, and it was the first feature I ever sold, and had so much of my own DNA in it.Audiences have had a strong emotional reaction to the new Netflix title, and the same can clearly be said for Leah McKendrick. So while she would go on to direct and write the movie Scrambled, she was still proud of her script that ended up on the Black List. Luckily it ended up being produced by the streaming juggernaut. So What Changed?While Voicemails for Isabelle might not be one of the best rom-coms of all time, it's got heart and comedy in spades. Later in the same interview, McKendrick shared some of things that changed when Netflix got involved with the movie, saying: Everything I write has to be very personal for me to really be able to latch on, and I want a city that could be a character the way that it is in a lot of these rom-coms, like Sleepless in Seattle. Seattle is a main character, there’s a gloominess to it, a wistfulness to it. When [Netflix] didn’t want L.A. and New York, two towns that I know I was like, ‘Oh geez, can I get my hometown?’ I was very attached to the iconic locations, such as Fisherman’s Wharf, Golden Gate Park, the bench looking over the bridge, Battery Spencer [Observation Deck], so it was a lot of logistics [to shoot.]San Francisco ended up being its own character in Voicemails for Isabelle, including the way that Jill and Wes eventually meet. So it looks like thinks ultimately shook out for the best. Of course, the movie's setting isn't the only major change that occurred on its journey to filming. Before Zoey Deutch signed on to play protagonist Jill, the role was originally going to be played by Hailee Steinfeld. And rather than being a prep cook, the character was originally a struggling TV writer. So in the end the movie ended up being quite different than the OG script that was put on the Black List. It seems things all worked out in the end, and the movie is doing very well on Netflix.Voicemails for Isabelle is streaming over on Netflix as part of the 2026 movie release list. We'll just have to wait and see what scripts Leah McKendrick brings us next.