Hello Breakfast Club...
Is anyone interested in doing a script reading and deconstruction of top scripts that exemplify genre/fantastic writing/innovation?
If so, here's a general genre list, and you can add the screenplay you think would be good to read and discuss.
1. Drama
2. Action/Adventure
3. Horror
4. Sci-Fi
5 Comedy/ Rom Com
6. Western
7. Coming of Age
8. Family/Kids
9. Historical/Period
10. Fantasy/Supernatural
11. Thriller
I'll suggest a comedy - no, not the Hangover.
Ok, I've been wanting to read Woody Allan's 'Midnight in Paris', or 'Vicky Christina Barcelona'. Don't know if anyone's found MIP?
Or, a drama;
Dog Day Afternoon by Frank Pierson (who just passed away)
or, war/drama
The Hurt Locker, by Mark Boal.
but I'm up for anything.
We could do Midnight in Paris - and I even found a copy online -
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ina22/splaylib/Screenplay-Midnight_in_Paris.pdf
But the problem might be that it is very much a screenplay written by Woody for himself to direct - so it doesn't really read like spec writers should write their scripts.
MIC not available.
So, here's my shortlist;
1. Moneyball - Zaillian, Sorkin
2. Vicky Christina Barcelona - Woody
3. The Hurt Locker - Mark Boal
4. Dog Day Afternoon - Frank Pierson
Bless you Scott - I've been looking for that one!
Yeah, I see your point. I suppose scripts that are closer to spec for new writer's would be better.
Have you got any in mind?
Other scripts on the Drexel website (which might be easy to link to) include:
ALIENS
AMERICAN BEAUTY
CHILDREN OF MEN
ERIN BROCKOVICH
THE FUGITIVE
GOODFELLAS
MOONSTRUCK
OUT OF SIGHT
PAPER MOON
SE7EN
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
THE SIXTH SENSE
And of course, there's always THE BREAKFAST CLUB :-)
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Breakfast_Club.pdf
Perfect timing on reading Alien since I just had a lightening strike idea for a sci-fi two days ago.
Breakfast Club is a John Hughes classic of teen drama. Would be great to read.
So how about;
Alien
Breakfast Club
Going for coffee and read now. Back with some thoughts.
Alien or Aliens? Because Drexel has both.
ALIEN - http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ina22/splaylib/Screenplay-Alien.HTM (may be edited)
ALIENS - http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ina22/splaylib/Screenplay-Aliens.HTM
This ALIEN might be better - http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/alien_shooting.html
I've read most of those (except for ERIN BROCKOVICH, MOONSTRUCK, OUT OF SIGHT, and PAPER MOON). In any case, I've seen the movies and can say that any one of them would be excellent.
Also, MONEYBALL, HURT LOCKER, and DOG DAY AFTERNOON.
I would also propose the following for consideration:
GRAVITY (http://ebookbrowse.com/gravity-the-screenplay-doc-d40388920) a great example of experimental, (can be done in one shot), thriller, and sci-fi genres. Script supposedly in production.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (http://screenplay.com/downloads/scripts/youngfrankenstein.pdf) IMO Mel Brooks' greatest movie.
ALIEN 3 (the unproduced Wm Gibson spec, far superior to the ALIEN III that was finally made): http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/alien3_gibson.txt
I have a copy of the Gibson spec (written in case Ripley wasn't in the movie) - I haven't read it in a long time, but I remember it being great.
Max,
This Gravity script is not the Alfonso Cuaron film that is coming out next year is it?
I got really excited when you posted the link - I thought how did he get an advance copy?
But, its something different. Or did I download the wrong one?
I suspect the reason it wasn't made was because Sigourney Weaver decided to continue with the franchise, more than because of any problem with the script (though it would have been much more expensive to produce than the ALIEN III that was eventually made).
It's also an example of a legitimately superior script bypassed in favor of one of lesser quality, for the reasons given above. Much more so than Frank Darabont's version of INDIANA JONES IV (INDIANA JONES AND THE CITY OF THE GODS) which actually wasn't much better than what ended up being produced (sad to say).
In any event, gibson's ALIEN 3 would provide plenty of material for more-than-technical/artistic discussion.
I keep hearing about the Frank Darabont 'Indiana Jones' script that got dropped. I'll have to read it at some point. I think the one made was awful.
Max, I saw that I have to be a member to download 'Gravity'
Do you actually have the pdf for the Cuaron script? If you do, would you send it. It's probably the screenplay I most want to read right now.
So why don't we start with the Gibson ALIEN III, and then we can jump back to ALIEN if we want after that?
B- You know what? I DON'T THINK IT'S THE SAME SCRIPT!
Either that, or it's been massively rewritten from the version I read. Which seems doubtful, since this "GRAVITY" has a rewrite schedule at the end dating back twenty years!
Let me do a little more research. I read Cuaron's script through Scriptshadow, a year or so ago, thought it was one of the best contemporary screenplays I've read. But I don't save scripts, even the best ones, so I can't send it on.
Gibson's version of ALIEN 3 has my vote for the first script to cover. Lots of issues artistic, political, and Hollywood, going on with it -- and it interfaces with two legitimately great previous flicks.
Curses!
Thanks anyways Max. I'll just wait on the edge of my seat til a copy surfaces somewhere.
Max,
have to ask for a spoiler that is tormenting me:)
If you remember the script from a year ago... do you recall the opening? What happens?
I know its supposed to be a 17 minute long single take.
I have a guess what that is, but if you know?
So why don't we say Wednesday, August 15, we'll start talking about ALIEN III. That'll give people a little time to read it.
That works.
Happy reading.
from the "screenrant" website:
"Gravity opens with a continuous 17-minute shot that sets the stage for the protagonist’s (Bullock) desperate attempt to stay alive and return to Earth after the aforementioned asteroid shower wipes out her fellow astronauts – save for a co-pilot (George Clooney), who was away at the time. More so, the film as a whole runs for about two hours and has only 156 shots total (ie. around 46 seconds/shot, on average), including several that run “six, eight, 10 minutes long.”
"What DeFaria is talking about with Gravity goes beyond even the filmmaking approach utilized by the recently-released Silent House, wherein several extended takes/shots were digitally woven together to create the illusion of a movie shot in a single take. Cuarón’s new project is meant to replicate that same “real-time” feel as Silent House, but will do so in a manner as meticulously structured (from a shot composition perspective) as the visuals in an animated movie – or, rather, a CGI-heavy, live-action film like TRON: Legacy.
"Frankly, that task probably would’ve proven impossible with a film like Children of Men, wherein an entire rundown futuristic world is explored from the perspective of a single man (Clive Owen). However, seeing how the vast majority of Gravity is essentially a single-setting/character piece, that plan suddenly sounds a bit more feasible. Still, if anyone but Cuarón was behind this project, we’d say the odds were against them pulling it off."
I recall a really speedy inciting incident, kicking in a runaway-train-style survival storyline. The screenplay was a grabber. I read it at one sitting.
And now I could kick myself for not saving it. Ye of little faith -- me included! I simply didn't think anyone would have nerve enough to turn this into a flick, no matter how well it read.
Wednesday sounds good for ALIENS 3 (the gibson version).
Just dug around online, but it doesn't seem like there's a version of ALIEN III that actually has page numbers.
So re-posting Max's earlier link:
http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/alien3_gibson.txt
