@Jon_Dudley recommends Chinatown.

I started reading A Perfect World this week, and have found it to be very, very good. I couldn't find a PDF online, but perhaps someone else would have better luck searching.

Reminder: there are links to a ton of PDF script links in the Drama Essentials, Comedy Essentials, and Action Essentials posts (including the script for Raiders of the Lost Ark).

Brick by Rian Johnson The Ides of March by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon Black Swan by Mark Heyman & Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin The Usual Suspects by Christopher McQuarrie Salt by Kurt Wimmer Those are my recommendations. They can all be found online in various place.

I'd prefer any script that sold within the past 5-10 years and hasn't been made.

That is a problem, Jay. I will not review any scripts in development because those discussions can hinder those movies getting produced and therefore hurt the writers involved. I'm not saying that everybody in Hollywood reads this blog, but many do. If there was a lot of negative feedback about a script, that could create a negative impression on the part of the producers and studio. Also a script in development is just that: a work in progress. So it's unfair to asses in a public forum. As much as I'd love to be able to engage in a wide-ranging discussion of a spec script that sold, where we actually have access to the script and discuss it in specifics, I won't do that here.

I'd love to see a discussion of The Lady in Black (PDF script link).

SOURCE CODE....gotta be Source Code

Oh. That's a really good reason to avoid doing that! Hard to not just vote for 'my favorite movie.' Spanish Prisoner? I think Salt's an interesting suggestion. I'd be interested to see a two-location microbudget script discussed, too. And this is off-topic, but I'd love to see some before and after scripts. That is, the script that sold, or the first one written, and the shooting scripts. Godzilla and Godzilla, say.

Some great suggestions here. My first choice would have to be Drive. Some other ideas (apologies if these have been read/analyzed previously): Aliens American Beauty Crazy Stupid Love The Dark Knight Good Will Hunting The Fugitive Ides of March The King's Speech The Lookout Memento Moon The Prestige Silence of the Lambs

"The script has to be a popular or critically acclaimed movie to engender participation." In the past I've gained great insights from analyzing movies that didn't quite work, or failed in some way. Would be cool to see this kind of item on occasion -- e.g. Why Was The Long Kiss Goodnight no Lethal Weapon? What stopped The Fountain being Aronofsky's 2001?

I would love to knw what GITS readers have to say about 'CITY ISLAND' - the link is here SCRIPT PDF

How about Being John Malkovich?

For an adapted script, Rowan Joffe's "The American" is sensational

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo the Steven Zaillian version.

I hesitate to do that in this series for one reason: I have a hard enough time getting people to read a GREAT script let alone a problematic one. That people can do on their own time, and I agree, it's a helpful exercise. But I find myself constantly waging a battle to get people to read ANY scripts, so I find that for this series, we need to select popular and/or critically acclaimed scripts.

I saw it after you mentioned it a few weeks back. I enjoyed it and thought it was entertaining, but I didn't love it. I didn't really care for the son's subplot with his obsession with obese women. And the characters had so many secrets but I kept expecting some other big secret to be revealed late, but it never happened. Like (SPOILER ALERT) I really liked the twist with Emily Mortimer's character being American, but I wish there would have been a few more surprises like that. Like the climax is one big apology fest, but I think it would have worked better if maybe another surprise to the audience would have been revealed. At that point though, we already know all the characters secrets, and we're just waiting for them to reveal them to each other. Kind of like in "Young Adult", during Charlize Theron's meltdown, she reveals she had a miscarriage with Buddy, and it's this huge surprise. I was expecting something like that during "City Island". But I still enjoyed it, and I also like it more than "Young Adult", for what it's worth.

How about Lawrence of Arabia? It's only 267 pages. Or Juno, which is 166 pages shorter. http://www.cinemascopian.com/pics/2008oscars/juno.pdf

dw, Juno is a good call. Love the way you framed that with Lawrence of Arabia. Funny!

Midnight in Paris, by Woody Allen.

Thts gud 'dw', that you shared your view about City Island...I mst say, coz of the awesom poster design of CT in IMDB, I watched the film. As English is not my mother tongue, I dont understand some of the timing dialogues of Hoolywood films. But for City Island, I almost understood the whole film (i mean english), and enjoyed throughout.

For my own selfish purposes, I would love to see a script that uses multilinear plot such as Crash, Traffic or Magnolia. Watched Crash again last night and fell in love with it all over again.

How about Real Steel ? A sports movie that's a lot of fun :-)

DW, thanks for link to Juno. Going to start on it now. Reading Wall e recently and played the music referenced on youtube whilst reading sections. Might be an idea for Juno too. Music acts as a character in the film on its own.

I'd be down for either Juno or Drive!

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