Cool! I'm really looking forward to this series. If I may suggest something: it would be great if you could do a week of romantic comedy as well. It's a genre that has its own peculiarities and is continuously strong in spec sales and at the box office.

Must see Action: DIE HARD LETHAL WEAPON TOP GUN ENTER THE DRAGON THE BOURNE IDENTITY 300 TAKEN (although I guess this might be called a thriller?) ALL OF THE BOND SERIES Shane Black's writing in the genre is particularly impressive.

Amen. Will Rom-Coms be included with Comedy week? Or, as Teddy suggests, have a week to itself?

Went to my DVD shelves expecting to see loads of contenders, only to realise that a lot of what I think of as action films really fall into other genres (the action in Inception is first-rate, but calling it an action movie would be misleading...) My votes, to add to some already suggested: The Bourne Supremacy (B Identity is more of a thriller, right?) Heat Hard Boiled Speed I suspect I'm going to add The Raid to future lists, but it doesn't reach cinemas here for another couple of weeks...

I'm fine with adding sub-genres like Romantic Comedy and Action Adventure to the back end of the series. Nowadays there are so many Action Thrillers, we might even find one or two cross genres to include.

BANG! My Top 10 (in the order they came to me) Aliens Raiders of the Lost Ark The Matrix Gladiator Die Hard The Terminator Predator Face/Off The Rock Robocop

That last post was re. Films to watch. As for scripts, I’ve got: Aliens Raiders of the Lost Ark The Matrix Gladiator Die Hard Lethal Weapon Last Boy Scout The Long Kiss Goodnight The Wild Bunch Inception

I'm thrilled you're doing this new series, Scott. (It's going to make a great book for you one day, too, and reach and help even more people that way.) Very happy to hear you may tag some sub-genres on at the end, too. Speaking of sub-genres, is wuxia (e.g., Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) considered by Hollywood to be a sub-genre of action, or a genre all it's own? Does anyone in the west write wuxia, or does it always come out of China? Have you ever seen a wuxia spec sell?

you're pretty much awesome Scott.

I'm thinking about this one: > – 10 Book [Non-Fiction] You Must Cover Are you talking about books about writing (that genre), or other non-fic (non-writing) books that are helpful for writing that genre, or both? It's both, one of my top 10 books is: Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Lawrence Gonzales. It presents a fascinating exploration of the psychology of how people react in extreme situations (and how they create extreme situations). A riveting read. If you're writing period / pirate / Musketeer / steampunk adventure, the best primer on edged weapons is "Swashbuckling: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Art of Stage Combat & Theatrical Swordplay" by emininent fight choreographer / teacher Richard Lane. – 10 Resources If you want to write fantastic fight scenes, do yourself a favor and attend the Paddy Crean Stage Combat Conference. It's held in North America once every three years, and it's here this winter, in Banff, Alberta. The workshops bring in the best stage and film fight choreographers, teachers, and stunt people from around the world. I've attended once and my husband has twice; the year I was there the theme was "Fights on film" and classes included armed and unarmed combat, wushu, and wire work. I can not begin to convey what an incredible experience it was, how amazing-generous-brilliant-talented the people are, or how it opened my eyes to a new appreciation of viewing and writing combat scenes. (And for the value you receive, it's cheap like borscht!) Best vacation you'll have in your life and you'll come out of it a better writer and a far more interesting person.

Some of my favourite comedy scripts: Annie Hall The Apartment American Pie Big Bridesmaids A Fish Called Wanda The Full Monty Groundhog Day My Cousin Vinny Rushmore Some Like It Hot Wedding Crashers For some must-watch comedy movies where there doesn't appear to be a good script floating around (just a transcript or one that doesn't really resemble the final product), I'd add Office Space, There's Something About Mary, This Is Spinal Tap, and probably one Apatow movie (probably 40 Year Old Virgin), where so much was improvised that the script just pales in comparison.

For Action: Bullitt Vanishing Point The Getaway (Peckinpah version) Prime Cut Moonrunners The Wild Bunch The French Connection Bonnie And Clyde Goldfinger The Running Man

Oops one more, The Dirty Dozen

Heya, Ken. Great list. I was thinking last night about Bullitt, too, and wondering about how far back the lists should go. I'm hoping Scott may shed some light on that. In terms of movies to see (and be able to discuss as a shared frame of reference), how far back does functional Hollywood institutional memory go? Should Point Blank be on there, too? Or Gorky Park? Or what about the Walter Matthau 70's/80's action films, like Charlie Varrick or Hopscotch or The Taking of Pelham One Two Three? I'm still struggling with how widely or narrowing it makes sense to define action here, too. Are we interested in heist movies next week or are they distinct enough for our purposes to be a subgenre? . . . Looking at what we've got listed so far vs what's missing, should we have a Coen Brothers on the list? A Tarantino? A superhero movie? Guy Richie's Sherlock Holmes? Pirates of the Caribbean? (I'm not thinking about my own favourites here, but what sets the standards for the genre right now.) . . . Links for the action resources list: John August on Writing Fight Scenes John August on Writing Better Action John Truby on the Action Genre

Here are some of the best action scripts I could find online, plus a link to a Walter Hill interview at the bottom: 48 Hours http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/48hours.txt Airforce One http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/AirForceOne_TXT.html Assassins 1994 - http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/assassins_early.html 1995 - http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/assassins_shooting.html Big Trouble in Little China (excerpts) http://www.wingkong.net/files/script.htm Blade http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/blade.html Bonnie & Clyde http://www.lc.ncu.edu.tw/learneng/script/BonnieandClyde.pdf Bourne Identity http://sfy.ru/?script=bourne_identity_2002 Bourne Supremacy http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/bournesupremacy.pdf Bullit http://swamptales.us/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/bullitt-1968-shooting-script.pdf Die Hard (txt) http://sfy.ru/?script=die_hard El Mariachi http://www.weeklyscript.com/El%20Mariachi.txt Escape from New York http://sfy.ru/?script=escape_from_ny The French Connection (multiple links) http://scripts-onscreen.com/tag/the-french-connection-script/ Get Carter (1971) http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/getcarter.html The Getaway (two versions) http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/getaway.html http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/getaway.pdf Gladiator http://www.hundland.org/scripts/Gladiator_SecondDraft.txt Goldfinger http://www.esnips.com/displayimage.php?album=532315&pid=4446671 Heat http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Heat.pdf The Last Boy Scout http://www.movie-page.com/scripts/The-Last-Boy-Scout.pdf Leon http://www.scifiscripts.com/msol/LEON.txt (partial) http://www.oocities.org/hollywood/picture/2648/index.html (early version) Lethal Weapon http://www.screenplay.com/downloads/scripts/Lethal%20Weapon.pdf The Long Kiss Goodnight http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Long-Kiss-Goodnight,-The.html Marathon Man (starts part way through the pdf) http://web.archive.org/web/20030316104316/http://www.wgaeast.org/newsletter_and_publications/pdf/OnWriting-12.pdf Mandingo http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/mandingo1.pdf Platoon http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/platoon.html Raiders of the Lost Ark http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/RaidersoftheLostArk.pdf The Rock http://www.screenplays-online.de/screenplay/57 The Running Man http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/runningman.txt Rush Hour http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/RushHour.html - early draft Shanghai Noon http://wilson-brothers.com/owen/scripts/shanghainoonscript.html Speed http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Speed.pdf The Thin Red Line http://sfy.ru/pdf/thin_red_line_(1998).pdf Top Gun http://sfy.ru/?script=top_gun Warriors http://warriorsmovie.co.uk/script/scripts/original.pdf The Wild Bunch http://www.scribd.com/doc/16202861/The-Wild-Bunch . . . Also, the Film International interview with Walter Hill: http://filmint.nu.hemsida.eu/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Walter-Hill-Interview2.pdf

I noticed that female action heroes aren't well represented yet in the lists so far, so I put together a the start of a collection of them (with script links where I could find them). Scott, I know you really go to bat for writing strong roles for women; I'm hoping that Action Week may include some discussion of women's roles in action movies and how to write them well. Hannah (2011) script Columbiana (2011) Ultraviolet (2006) Serenity (2005) script Aeon Flux (2005) Underworld (2003) Resident Evil (2002) script Charlotte Gray (2001) Girlfight (2000) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) (and many other roles played by Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang) script The Long Kiss Goodnight (1995) script Cutthroat Island (1995) True Lies (1994) script Terminator II: Judgement Day script La Femme Nikita (1990) Alien (1979) (and onwards) script Foxy Brown (1974) (and many other Pam Grier roles) Lady Snowblood (1973) (and many other Meiko Kaji roles) Kill Bill is primarily a remake of Lady Snowblood, so I included the original instead.

Awesome list Shaula...thanks for links to many many scripts, both in this list and the previous comment. It seems like the female action hero is getting more common in the past decade.

You're welcome, Mike. I hope we are indeed on an upward trend with female action heroes, although I feel like there's a pendulum swing to these things. I say: as viewers, make the most of the them while we have them, and as writers, extend the trend. A few more suggestions that came in when I put out a request for female action heroes to some writer friends: Haywire (2011) Salt (2010) script Panic Room (2002) script The Fifth Element (1997) script G.I. Jane (1997) script Bound (1996) script The Quick and the Dead (1995) Tank Girl (1995) The River Wild (1994) The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) Ninja III: The Domination (1984)

I'll post these again when the comedy week comes around, but off the top of my head: Top Secret Dumb & Dumber

One note - Platoon The screenplay that is floating around the internet is not the original draft, it is a draft of 'someone' writing verbatim shot for shot of the movie...only reason I know this is the opening scene, I was in it, and we ad-libbed the lines on the set....also the scene where the GIs are digging their holes and King is writing his girlfriend back home, Forrest Whitaker and the actors in the scene wrote that themselves. I sat with them as they were writing it....trivia.