Outstanding Scripts

[Stealth66]

Hello. Can anyone recommend a good script to read? I want to spend some time on them this evening and am looking for something you think is brilliantly executed... a must-read, not because it's your favorite movie, but because all beginners ought to study it.

[Plot Device]

Star Wars Episode IV
Breaking Away
Witness
The Mummy


And Derek will soon chime in with: "See the Screenwriting Tips sticky."

[clockwork]

My favourite screenplay is Network by Paddy Chayefsky. I think it's a superb piece that was way ahead of its time. I don't consider it a traditional script in terms of story/format - it's really all over the place in that regard - but it has an undeniable charm I can't shake.

The last script I read was War of the Worlds by David Koepp. Commerical, Hollywood, Spielberg but undeniably readable.

[odocoileus]

:e2headban http://www.simplyscripts.com/wga_top_101_scripts.html (http://www.simplyscripts.com/wga_top_101_scripts.html)


http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/casablanca.pdf


http://www.weeklyscript.com/Chinatown.txt


http://www.weeklyscript.com/Godfather,%20The.txt


http://www.weeklyscript.com/All%20About%20Eve.txt


http://www.aellea.com/script/anniehall.txt


http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/sunset_bld_3_21_49.html (http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/sunset_bld_3_21_49.html)


http://www.aellea.com/script/somelikeithot_script.txt (http://www.aellea.com/script/somelikeithot_script.txt)

[Stealth66]

Thanks for the suggestions. Looks like I've got a good start here.

[dpaterso]

I'm surprised you didn't specify which genre you're most interested in.

If it's action then I'd maybe kick off with stuff like:

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Hellboy.html
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/xXx.html
http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/killer.shtml
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Army-of-Darkness.html
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/El-Mariachi.html

...even tho' the last 2 are shooting scripts with numbered scenes, just look at how they move.

If it's just damn good reads you want, look no further than:

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Chinatown.html ?? not found ??
Try http://members.aol.com/rwsmittjr/scripts/chinatown.txt
:e2smack: odocoileus already linked this, http://www.weeklyscript.com/Chinatown.txt
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/L.A.-Confidential.html
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Mulholland-Drive.html

David Mamet (http://www.imsdb.com/writer.php?w=David Mamet) has written some great scripts, I loved State & Main and Wag the Dog, they made me smile constantly as I read 'em. Mamet writes characters you actually want to meet. Or... avoid.

Love him or hate him, Quentin Tarantino (http://www.imsdb.com/writer.php?w=Quentin Tarantino) writes a damn good script full of unusual characters, snappy dialogue and often violent action. Script structure can sometimes be hard to fathom but the character interplay is first class. (I'd ignore Four Rooms.)

I also like Kevin Smith (http://www.imsdb.com/writer.php?w=Kevin Smith) who writes some seriously funny sh!t that can suddenly move you without warning.

Each to their own tastes, we're all different.

-Derek

[Rainy Night]

Last good one I read was Stranger Than Fiction.

[Stealth66]

I'm surprised you didn't specify which genre you're most interested in.

Well, I didn't want to miss out on the greatest action script ever written by insisting on reading only horror, which is the genre I'm most interested in. I need to step out of horror for awhile anyway. Besides, many aren't that well written. The dialogue can be quite lame. Talk about on the nose.

Anyway, thanks for the links. I'm putting my script away for a while and am using the time to read as many screenplays as possible. I have a nice list going now.

Love him or hate him, Quentin Tarantino (http://www.imsdb.com/writer.php?w=Quentin Tarantino) writes a damn good script full of unusual characters, snappy dialogue and often violent action.

Sounds right up my alley. ;) I especially need to study some good ol' snappy dialogue.

Rainy, thank you. I'll add Stranger than Fiction to the list.

[nmstevens]

Well, I didn't want to miss out on the greatest action script ever written by insisting on reading only horror, which is the genre I'm most interested in. I need to step out of horror for awhile anyway. Besides, many aren't that well written. The dialogue can be quite lame. Talk about on the nose.

Anyway, thanks for the links. I'm putting my script away for a while and am using the time to read as many screenplays as possible. I have a nice list going now.



Sounds right up my alley. ;) I especially need to study some good ol' snappy dialogue.

Rainy, thank you. I'll add Stranger than Fiction to the list.


Well, if you're interested in horror, here's a link to my screenplay, "Deader"

www.horrorlair.com/scripts/DEADER.pdf (http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/DEADER.pdf)

I don't know how "outstanding" it is, but it seems to have acquired a certain underground reputation.

It sold to Dimension a number of years ago and was ultimately rewritten and turned into, of all things, a direct-to-video Hellraiser sequel, title, cleverly enough, "Hellraiser-Deader", even though it started life as a spec that had nothing whatever to do with Hellraiser.

If you find the time, please feel free to take a look at it.

NMS

[Stealth66]

Well, if you're interested in horror, here's a link to my screenplay, "Deader"

If you find the time, please feel free to take a look at it.

NMS

It's not nice to tempt a horror fiend. Here I am trying to step out of the genre, and you come along and place a forbidden fruit before me. ;)

I've read "Kill Bill" and "Witness" thus far, so I deserve a short break. Gonna check out "Deader" tomorrow.

Thanks for the link!

[Stealth66]

Well, if you're interested in horror, here's a link to my screenplay, "Deader"

That was some crazy sheit! I was hooked from the first two paragraphs alone (okay, so I like dark-haired bad girls who don't play by the rules and wanted to see what kind of hell she was gonna raise. Hehe). I don't see why your script became a sequel to Hellraiser, though. Now, I'm not a fan of that franchise, so I've never seen any of them, but this story was great as it was. Do you have the rewrite that become the Hellraiser sequel? I might even rent that movie just to see how they took your original idea and meshed it with Pinhead's world.

I'm curious, were you happy about that?

[nmstevens]

That was some crazy sheit! I was hooked from the first two paragraphs alone (okay, so I like dark-haired bad girls who don't play by the rules and wanted to see what kind of hell she was gonna raise. Hehe). I don't see why your script became a sequel to Hellraiser, though. Now, I'm not a fan of that franchise, so I've never seen any of them, but this story was great as it was. Do you have the rewrite that become the Hellraiser sequel? I might even rent that movie just to see how they took your original idea and meshed it with Pinhead's world.

I'm curious, were you happy about that?

Dimension bought the script. We were in development on it for quite a long time. They even brought on a director, Jim Sonzero, who ultimately went on to direct Pulse for them some time later, but ultimately, for reasons that they never bothered to share with me in any detail, Bob Weinstein simply didn't go for the final version of the project. I never really got a clear sense of why.

We very much wanted to try to get the project back -- that is, have them put it into turnaround and potentially have some other studio buy the script from Dimension but, for whatever reason, they weren't interested in doing that.

Some time later, they approached us (us being me and my producing partner David Greathouse) with the prospect of doing this as a direct-to-video Hellraiser sequel and frankly neither one of us were interested in being involved in it.

Well, they'd bought it. They owned it. They didn't need our permission to do it. So they brought on a different writer, had him rewrite it and shot it in Romania back to back with another Hellraiser movie (I'm not sure which one was seventh and which one was eighth).

The movie has gotten moderately good reviews but I can't say that I'm particularly happy with the result.

I've read the script and the movie is fairly close to it. If you want to rent it, it's available and it might make for an interesting comparison.

NMS

[zeprosnepsid]

A true Hollywood story nms! Thanks for sharing. I have the greatest writer's fear of having my stuff terribly messed with =)

[stormy]

My personal favorites to read and study:

Boondock Saints
Braveheart
Indiana Jones (any of them)
Secret Window
Lethal Weapon

Old Black and Whites:
Arsenic and Old Lace
The Ghost and Mrs Muir

[Stealth66]

The movie's shipping from Netflix today, so can't wait to get it and compare. Thanks for elaborating on that story. It's kind of depressing; on the other hand, you made a sale and were given credit for the final script, so it's give and take, I guess.

While I wouldn't want my story changed drastically, I'd rather have a tweaked version actually produced, with possible credits for me, than to have my script sit in a drawer in the basement.

Stormy, thanks for the idears!

[Hillgate]

Hello. Can anyone recommend a good script to read? I want to spend some time on them this evening and am looking for something you think is brilliantly executed... a must-read, not because it's your favorite movie, but because all beginners ought to study it.

Try:

Pulp Fiction
Chinatown
When Harry Met Sally
Bad Santa

[Hillgate]

A true Hollywood story nms! Thanks for sharing. I have the greatest writer's fear of having my stuff terribly messed with =)

In that case, produce it yourself, but even then be prepared for distributors to mess with it!!

Or write a novel. They don't mess with those. Much...;)

[Forest Young]

must read must see:

Frank Darabont's works. A genius.

Shawshank redemption
A Green Mile

[stormy]

must read must see:

Frank Darabont's works. A genius.

Shawshank redemption
A Green Mile

Two OUTSTANDING movies!

[stormy]

Try:

Pulp Fiction
Chinatown
When Harry Met Sally
Bad Santa
AND MORE!!!!!!!!

Hell, just hit the script reading site and begin with the letter "A."

[nmstevens]

In that case, produce it yourself, but even then be prepared for distributors to mess with it!!

Or write a novel. They don't mess with those. Much...;)

When you talk about "producing it yourself" -- in the case of the script in question, which couldn't exactly have been shot on a credit card in my back yard (not that I had a back yard at the time I wrote it) -- that would have meant going out and raising around five to ten million dollars, just on the strength of the script, without any track record on my part as a producer of anything or as a director (presuming I was going to direct it also).

And all of the problems associated with a script getting a "greenlight" also apply to a finished movie (presuming I could finish it) getting released. Distributors are looking for "names" -- for those actors, which I'd have to somehow be able to find and attach.

That is, unless you're talking about ultra-low budget DTV genre movies that are shot on a dime and released to very limited markets -- and it's not as if you're not making compromises when you make those kinds of movies. You're compromising with the fact that you have no money, no time and, to be brutally honest, very little access to first class talent in the form of cast and crew. You really have to deal with people who are virtual beginners much of the time.

So one shouldn't think that "make it yourself" is a sort of all-encompassing panacaea to the problems of the frustrated screenwriter.

You are forced to accept all sort of compromises when you start down the path of others making your script into a movie. You are forced to accept all sorts of compromises when start down the path of trying to make it yourself.

In neither case is there any guarantee that the movie will ever see the light of day and in neither case will there be any guarantee that the final project will really end up being the movie that you really wanted it to be when you first wrote the script.

NMS

[Stealth66]

Okay, my eyes are starting to bug out at the list here. I see that Chinatown keeps popping up, so I guess I'll finally have to tackle that...thing. I've put it off for a long time now, because the story just doesn't interest me. Ah well. I'm in it to learn, not have fun.

[similan]

I downloaded quite a few scripts but only two that I read in one sitting.

American History X
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Kiss Kiss is funny as hell. Now I have to see the movie.

Oh! Almost forgot: Salton Sea aand Training Day

Great thread, btw.

[DanielD]

The Usual Suspects. By Christopher Maquarie.
Pulp Fiction. By Quentin tarentino.
China Town. By Robert Towne.
The Apartment. By. Billy Wilder.
Raiders of the lost Ark. By Lawrence Kasden
Collateral. By Stuart Beattie.
Leathal Weapon. By. Shane Black.
Blade Runner. By David Web Peoples.
El Mariachi. By Robert Rodriguez
Citizen Cane. By Orsen Wells
Casablanca. By Julius & Philip Epstein.
The Sixth Sense. By M Nigjht Shayamalan.

Daniel.

[Stealth66]

The Sixth Sense. By M Nigjht Shayamalan.

This was the second script I had ever read. I started my own shortly after, feeling comfortable with the format and the basics of screenwriting. When I was through with the first draft, I realized immediately that a rewrite was needed: every other word seemed to be "Beat". Crazy.

[DanielD]

To Stealth66.
That's what I thought, also.
I very rarely used "A beat" in writing a screenplay, yet after seeing how The Sixth Sense incorperated copious amounts of these(To good Effect) , Hey! I'm now a believer.
Take care.
Daniel.

[nmstevens]

The Usual Suspects. By Christopher Maquarie.
Pulp Fiction. By Quentin tarentino.
China Town. By Robert Towne.
The Apartment. By. Billy Wilder.
Raiders of the lost Ark. By Lawrence Kasden
Collateral. By Stuart Beattie.
Leathal Weapon. By. Shane Black.
Blade Runner. By David Web Peoples.
El Mariachi. By Robert Rodriguez
Citizen Cane. By Orsen Wells
Casablanca. By Julius & Philip Epstein.
The Sixth Sense. By M Nigjht Shayamalan.

Daniel.

Citizen Kane was co-written by Herman J. Mankiewicz.

The Apartment was co-written by Wilder's long-standing writing partner,
I. A. L. Diamond.

As aspiring screenwriters, it's important to give appropriate credit where credit is due.

NMS

[DanielD]

Good point nms.
Thanks for the heads up.
Daniel.

[Jerm]

I was wanting to see how television and camera type scenes were written in scripts the other day and came across Independence Day. Written and Directed by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich who also did Stargate.

The script is on par I think for a spec script.. err.. pretty close other than length. But it's a very easy and clean script to read and follow. I haven't looked at the Stargate script to see what it looked like.

Slither was another script that was written and directed by James Gunn. It's a pretty solid script and easy read. It was also the first script I have come across where someone used the split text to show two people speaking at the same time. Look around page 71.

I figure if the writer is also directing these then they can show you what they are willing to accept as far as spec goes. In Independence Day they use WE SEE quite a bit. A bit more then what I have been accustomed to seeing in scripts.

Anyways you can check both scripts out on www.imsdb.com (http://www.imsdb.com)