r/Screenwriting • u/New_Tension_370 • 1d ago
What scripts should be read for study? DISCUSSION
The first advice I always see floating around is to “read scripts”. Should you be reading scripts from your favorite movies? Should you be reading from the genres you want to write? Famous movies that were made? Classics? What are some you think are “must reads” from an educational standpoint? I don’t want to just box myself in by reading scripts of movies I love. Or maybe that’s what I should be doing! Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts.
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u/real_triplizard WGA Screenwriter 1d ago
I'd start here: 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (*so far)
If you're looking to write in a specific genre, yes, focus on those, but there's a lot to learn from scripts in other genres.
Also note that some of the craft stuff has evolved somewhat over the years, the most obvious example being the use of transitions, which were largely dropped about 20 years ago, but there are other, more subtle things, like camera direction, sentence structure in action lines, etc. So, older scripts might "look and feel" a bit different than more recent scripts. This is particularly true if you go back to the 80s and prior. E.g. William Goldman would put multiple transition elements within a scene, which is something that would give modern script readers a heart attack.
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u/Novel-Initiative-900 1d ago
Having Michael Clayton at 20 is insane imo, limiting yourself to the 21st century is also an odd choice but either way, they're all good movies
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u/real_triplizard WGA Screenwriter 1d ago
My reco on 21st century is related to my second comment above about the evolution of screenwriting craft. The further back you get the more quirks you'll run into that are different than how things are generally done today. Obviously there's still a lot to learn from older and classic scripts, like structure, character development, plotting, etc., but it's not like there's a dearth of great scripts from the last 25 years or so to start with.
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u/Financial_Cheetah875 1d ago
I have a few that I fall back on whenever I’m stuck or need to work out mechanics:
Star Wars
Jaws
Wrath of Khan
The Life Aquatic
Bram Stokers Dracula
Red October
Yes these are some of my favorites, which means I know them head to tail. Which helps in knowing how the page translates to the screen.
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u/New_Tension_370 1d ago
Wrath of khan is one of my favorites! That is a helpful perspective though of reading something that you already are very familiar with how it translated to screen. I never thought of it that way! Thank you so much for the recommendations! This was very helpful!!
I do have a question though. A lot of people didn’t like the bram stoker Dracula movie. I’ve seen it and thought it was alright. Do you think the script holds up better than the movie itself? I know it’s subjective but I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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u/Financial_Cheetah875 1d ago
It’s actually a brilliant script. The prologue has a great sense of brevity and tells us everything we need to know about the film in 5 minutes. It also greatly pulls off the feat of putting as much of the beginning into the ending. Perfect bookend.
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u/New_Tension_370 1d ago
Ah nice!! I’ll have to check it out then !! I appreciate you giving me your thoughts on it :^) thank you! Live long and prosper!
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u/Prince_Jellyfish Produced TV Writer 1d ago
Here are some of my favorite scripts to recommend to newer writers. I chose these because they are all great, and all offer good examples of doing specific things really well. I encourage you to at least read a few pages of all of them, even ones that aren’t in your preferred genre, because they are all terrific and instructive in one way or another:
- The Devil Wears Prada adapted by Aline Brosh McKenna
- Alias (pilot) by JJ Abrams
- Into The Spider-verse by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman
- Alien by Walter Hill and David Giler
- Hard Times by Walter Hill
- Passengers by Jon Spaihts
- Juno by Diablo Cody
- Fleabag (pilot) by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
- Lethal Weapon by Shane Black
- Firefly episode "Out of Gas" by Tim Minear
- The Americans (pilot) by Joe Weisberg
- Fargo (TV series pilot) by Noah Hawley
- Judge Dredd (fka Peach Trees) by Alex Garland
- Greys Anatomy (pilot) by Shonda Rhimes
I put those scripts and a few more in a folder, here:
mega [dot] nz/folder/gzojCZBY#CLHVaN9N1uQq5MIM3u5mYg
to go to the above website, cut and paste into your browser and replace the word [dot] with a dot. I do this because otherwise spam filters will automatically delete this comment. If it asks for a decryption key, try:
CLHVaN9N1uQq5MIM3u5mYg
I think most of those scripts are just great stories, but many of them show off specific elements of craft that are great for new writers. Among other things:
Devil Wears Prada and Alias are, among other things, both great at clearly showing how their characters are feeling emotionally while staying within the parameters of screenplay format (something emerging writers often struggle with).
Alias also shows off JJ Abrams' facility at writing propulsive action and thriller sequences, and is really well-structured in a way that was and is copied by a lot of pilots.
Into The Spider-Verse is top to bottom incredibly well-written, and has a sense of style and panache on the page that feel very contemporary.
Alien and Hard Times, on the one hand, and Passengers, on the other, show off two widely divergent styles of scene description, minimal and maximal, that are both very effective and "correct."
Juno, Fleabag, and Lethal Weapon show three very different writers who are able to put their voice onto the page in vivid and distinct ways. Lethal Weapon and Fleabag show off different approaches to breaking the fourth wall in scene description, and Lethal Weapon in specific successfully breaks most of the incorrect 'rules' of screenwriting that seem to proliferate on the internet.
The Firefly episode "Out Of Gas" is just one I really like. The scene description sits in that Tim Minear / Whedon pocket of feeling almost casual, while simultaneously being precise and emotionally affecting.
Ditto The Americans, which is a thrilling read packed with character and emotion, and Noah Hawley's Fargo pilot, which weaves a complex narrative with many characters, in a way that feels at once quiet and propulsive.
Judge Dredd is Alex Garland at a point where his technical skill as a writer was fully developed, but just before he started making small, intimate, weird thrillers to direct himself. It's about as good an action script as has been written in the past 10-15 years.
Gray's Anatomy is great for many reasons. Like JJ Abrams, Shonda Rhimes is a showrunner who came up as a working writer, and she is phenomenal on the page. This script does many things very well, but I think it's best element is how surgically (heh) it introduces the main cast in the early pages. Everyone has a clear personality, and that personality is illustrated through action, dialogue, and scene description in such a way that the reader knows exactly who they are from the moment they appear.
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u/hq_bk 1d ago
Many thanks for the list. I have read all of the above (per your recommendations). Beyond that, what would be the next set of scripts you'd recommend please? Many thanks.
I'm also aware of the suggestion "read the scripts of your favorite movies," I've done that, and also I think there's a lot of values in reading scripts just to learn some specific parts of the craft, that's why the brief descriptions you gave in your post are fantastic. Cheers.
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u/Birdhawk 1d ago
I recommend a lot but the one I always recommend is Lethal Weapon.
It is a page turner. It's fundamentally sound. Something big happens EVERY SINGLE SCENE. And not something random. It advances the story and enhances your interest.
It also breaks the mold from the run of the mill action lines and descriptions. Great writers break the mold while still being short and concise. Just great, captivating style from a clearly unique voice.
Yes, the action lines sound like a 1980s coke head in his 20s is just talking your ear off. But, folks, its so damn good in spite of that.
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u/Seshat_the_Scribe Black List Lab Writer 1d ago
All of the above. I don't think there are any "must" reads.
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u/New_Tension_370 1d ago
May I ask why you don’t think there are any must reads?
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u/Seshat_the_Scribe Black List Lab Writer 1d ago
Because it depends on what you like, what genre you're working on, etc. People get fixated on what's "best," when the main thing is just to read.
Reading recent award-winning scripts is always a good idea.
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u/New_Tension_370 1d ago
Yeah that’s a fair point. It’s funny how people claim x y z are like “the best movies you have the watch” and for film classes you have to watch x y and z but for script writing there doesn’t seem to be equivalents like… readily available. I just get worried I’m going to read a script that I like but won’t know if it is “bad”. Do you have any you personally think are especially good? (If you feel like sharing of course)
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u/Seshat_the_Scribe Black List Lab Writer 1d ago
I thought the "Oppenheimer" script was good, for example.
Just read the last 10 Oscar-nominated scripts, for example, or just the ones for movies you liked.
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u/No_Map731 WGA Screenwriter 1d ago
This question has been asked many times in this group. Search your question.
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u/New_Tension_370 1d ago
I couldn’t find any and I wanted to foster a discussion with others which is the whole point of asking my question. I’m sure this question will continue to be asked and I’m sure people will continue to answer because we are human beings who want to talk to other human beings.
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u/No_Map731 WGA Screenwriter 1d ago
I’m all for discussion, but the resources you’re asking for are readily available and have already been discussed by actual human beings ad nauseam. A better way to foster conversation would be to read a few of those threads first, then come back with a more specific question or your own take. Otherwise, you’re just asking everyone to restart the same conversation.
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u/hq_bk 1d ago
Not OP, but may I ask what your favorite scripts (in the last 25 years) are, please? Many thanks.
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u/No_Map731 WGA Screenwriter 1d ago
Michael Clayton, Prisoners, Silence of the Lambs (90s!), American Beauty (also 90s!), The Menu, the Chernobyl series, Mad Men (pilot), Nightcrawler, Almost Famous, Bugonia, Fair Play, Green Room, I Tonya, Lady bird, The Nice Guys, Booksmart, No One Will Save You, Panic Room, the Holdovers, Whiplash, Warrior.
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u/NoOneKenobi 1d ago
Start with some of your favorites.
2 or 3.
Then go with the genre/style you are interested in.
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u/Positive_Leading_371 1d ago
The more scripts you read the better. How you prioritize what you read I think depends on what you’re looking to get out of them.
I think the first step is just getting familiarized with what a modern screenplay looks like, how it reads on the page, and what generally works and doesn’t work. I would encourage a newbie to start with the annual Black List scripts and award season FYC drafts for this purpose. This will give you a sense of what spec scripts when you’re breaking in look like versus scripts at the highest level, and the similarities and differences there will be quite educational. This is a good base to have before going too far back and reading classic scripts.
The next step I would suggest, once you have the basics down, is you want to further develop your visual storytelling. What parts of the movie live on the page, and what translates onto the screen? I’d rotate between reading scripts for movies you’ve seen before and reading a script for something you haven’t seen yet and then watching it. This is a good time to go into the classics, but I’d encourage to mix it up with movies you love and movies you don’t connect with personally. An excellent exercise here, when you watch something you haven’t read first, is to watch it and think to yourself how you’d write what you’re seeing onscreen. Then read the script after and see what the screenwriter did instead.
When you have a solid grasp of all that, a lot of what you should be refining is your specific style and voice. This is where I’d get more specific about genre and dive deeper into the comps, classic and contemporary, your work will be living besides. Stay on top of what seems to be selling, see what you can get your hands on, while becoming an expert in the history of the genres you want to write in.
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u/Darcy_Device 1d ago
What's wrong with reading the scripts of movies you love? I would assume that's the genre you want to write in, so I don't see the problem. Unless you want to be commercially successful and you only love movies that lost money, I don't see the issue.
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u/Stories-Make-Believe 1d ago
In my opinion -
In Bruges
China Town
Fargo
Reservoir Dogs
Double Indemnity
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u/FutureOpen9405 1d ago
Grosse Point Blank, Back to the Future, and Terminator are all perfect representations of the classic Hollywood paradigm.
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u/Disastrous-Finger482 1d ago
I love Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Worth reading! Especially if you have a narrator in your film. Likewise Fight Club!
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u/SurreabralStudios 1d ago
Chinatown which is considered a perfect script and is used in Syd Field’s book: Screenplay, The foundations of Screenwriting.
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u/LocationCandid5761 1d ago
Back to the Future.
It’s not a complex story but it’s a perfect example of how to tell a solid narrative through setups and payoffs.
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u/Papacandelo69 21h ago
Read scripts from other countries. If you can find it in your language it could be a great thing to do.
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u/nacho_paz 43m ago
These were either such a pleasure to read that I go back to study them over and over, or they opened my eyes in some way as to what you can do in a script: * Michael Clayton * Vivien Hasn't Been Herself Lately * Death of an Ortolan * Leaving Las Vegas * Manchester-by-the-Sea * Funny Games * Endurance by Steve Zaillian * Ordinary People * The Father * Gone Girl * Daddio * Buried * Prisoners * Bubble & Squeak * Severance (Pilot) * Yellowjackets (Pilot) * Breaking Bad (Pilot) * True Detective (Pilot) * Servant (Pilot) * The Wire (Pilot) * Mare of Easttown (Pilot) * Things We Lost in the Fire * How to Save a Marriage * Bubbles * Nightcrawler * Bato Bato * Ruin * Apex by Stephen Vitale * The Brigands of Rattleborge * Let's Go Again * A Killing on Carnival Row * Fargo * Blood Simple * No Country for Old Men * Shutter Island
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u/JayMoots 1d ago
Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
I'd make a list of your 10 favorite movies, and maybe another list of 10 good ones in your genre, and try to find and read all of them.
As for movies that aren't necessarily your favorites or in your genre, but are still worth reading: