All Time Best Screenplays

A movie screenplay serves two purposes. First of all it is the functional blueprint for the production company. A screenplay can be broken down so that the number crunchers can itemize the budget, number of cast, number of crew, number of locations, props, sets, quantity of photo stock, etc. And thus like any functional document, it’s not the easiest thing to read. But a screenplay also must serve the artistic gods. It must tell a story. It must be readable enough for the cast and crew to be inspired by the tale, and to find the voices of the characters that speak through it. Thus screenplays are necessarily very important documents.

One of my favorite hobbies is reading and collecting screenplays, a hobby made infinitely easier because of the internet. The following list presents my Top 5 favorite screenplays:

5) Spiderman, a “scriptment” by James Cameron.

Generally screenplays follow a very strict and precise format, but James Cameron (widely known for thinking outside the box) generally writes the initial drafts of his movies in a rambling, ungainly, but utterly fun-to-read hybrid of script and prose text which he calls a “scriptment”. These “scriptments” are a free form, free association documentation of Cameron’s creative process, and they prove fascinating and can hold up on repeated readings.

The Spiderman scriptment is particularly interesting because although Cameron’s version of the movie was not ultimately produced, many of the details we see in Sam Rami’s movies can be attributed to Cameron. He is an avowed Spiderman fan, and reportedly worshipped the character as a child, and not surprisingly, he developed concepts that are now indelibly a part of the Spiderman canon.

For example, it was Cameron who came up with the “genetically modified” concept for the spider that ultimately gives Peter Parker his powers, as opposed to the “radioactive” spider in the original comic books. Cameron also theorized that Peter Parker’s web spinning ability developed due to mutation after exposure to the spider. In the comic books, Peter Parker developed a chemical formula for “web fluid”. James Cameron preferred the mutation approach after correctly opining that a teenager on his own could never develop a chemical formula that has eluded Dow Chemical for decades.

In its rough form, the Spiderman scriptment is basically un-shootable, but it’s fun to imagine how cool the movie would be if James Cameron was able to develop the screenplay.

You can find the Spiderman scriptment right…here.

4) Dogma, by Kevin Smith.

If God ever commissions Kevin Smith to write a new book for the Bible, I’ll attend church waaaay more often! The Dogma screenplay shows off Kevin’s gift as a writer. Full of colorful ideas, great characters and profane (and profound) language, Dogma is a great is just a great read! I’d have to say I enjoyed Smith’s concept of the “Last Scion” much better than Dan Brown’s application of the same idea in The DaVinci Code. (Am I the only one who thinks The DaVinci Code would have been much better if it featured a demon made of human feces?)
I once bought a ticket to visit Kevin Smith’s Secret Stash comic book shop in Red Bank, NJ, and I got to meet the man, himself. Not only did I get to see pre-released Dogma special effects footage, I was lucky enough win a ticket to see Dogma in a test screening in Red Bank months before it came out in general release. The screening was hosted by Kevin Smith, himself and I had a great time. But, it could be argued that Dogma is a lot better as a screenplay than as an actual movie. I wouldn’t consider it one of the best “View Askew” films (that credit would go to Clerks II), but it certainly is the best screenplay.

So, if you haven’t yet seen the movie, give the screenplay a try. You can find it right… here.

3) Black Snake Moan by Craig Brewer.

I am an avid reader, and I enjoy the experience of curling up with a good book, comic, screenplay… whatever. Sometimes, very rarely, I find a book so engrossing that “reading” is too passive a term for the experience. It’s more that I am transported to the world inside the book. I mean it, man! It’s like I can actually smell, feel, taste and touch the world described in the book. The Color Purple is one of those books that transport me to another world. The same thing happened the first time I read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (I did that book in a marathon 24-hour session and had to call in sick at work on the following Monday because I needed the rest). Now I can add the screenplay for Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan to the list.

I’m becoming a big fan of Craig Brewer. Hustle and Flow was one of the more enjoyable movies of 2005, and I can’t wait to see BSM (on DVD, I missed the theatre release). If the movie is a true reflection of the screenplay, I am preparing to get my socks knocked off. Dirty South, baby. I can hear the cicada’s, I can feel the sun’s heat on my back, and that red silty soil on my feet. I can smell the cooking… taste the roasted corn... There’s the strumming of a blues guitar just around that corner…

Too much, baby…. too much…

You can find Black Snake Moan right… here.

2) Kill Bill by Quentin Tarantino.

Take Stanley Kubrick, Elmore Leonard and Roger Corman (add a touch of James Ellroy), put them into a blender and grind them up, and you would have the genetic material to make another Quentin Tarantino. He is one of the few filmmakers equally adept at making a truly cinematic movie, and producing a uniquely literary screenplay at the same time. Kill Bill is structured like a novel, in both movie and script form. Unlike most screenplays, it is separated into chapters, not into scenes, and thus can stand alone as its own document (and in my opinion, should be marketed just like the movie).

The Kill Bill screenplay contains special treats for collectors like me. It is annotated with Tarantino’s notes, providing insight into his cinematic inspirations, and highlighting how important the role music cues play in his movies. It’s wonderfully verbose and contains many scenes and storylines not shown in the ultimate release, but give great depth to the tale of the “Blood-splattered Bride”.

My favorite part of the screenplay is how he originally intended “Chapter 8 – The Cruel Tutelage of Pei Mei” to be filmed as an old-fashioned, Shaw Brother’s kung fu flick, complete with old Shaw Bros. footage, bad-dubbing by New Zealand voice actors, super-zoom close ups, and starring Lo Lieh, who originated the Pei Mei role back in the ‘70’s (unfortunately, Lo Lieh passed away before filming began).

You can find all ten chapters of Kill Bill right… here

The all time best screenplay is…

1) Avatar, a “scriptment” by James Cameron.

James Cameron, that crazy Canuck gets the credit for having the best screenplay I’ve ever read. Remember back in the late ‘90’s, just after Titanic hit big, everybody was wondering what James Cameron’s next movie would be. Although he was publicly linked with Spiderman at one point, it was rumored that Cameron was working on a bunch of ultra top secret projects. In his case “top secret” was not just a euphemism. It turns out that Cameron is part of the scientific team for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, planned for launch in 2009. He’s also apparently been helping to unearth Jesus’s tomb. Man, that’s one busy dude!

In February 2007, James Cameron finally announced his next movie project after an almost 10 year hiatus. In an exclusive interview on the Ain’t It Cool News website, Cameron announced he would produce and direct his long-awaited “Project 880”, otherwise known as Avatar (not to be confused with "Avatar the Last Airbender"). Fan boys rejoiced! The Avatar scriptment had been kicking around the web for a few years, and the movie was reportedly un-produce-able because it required filming in 3D technology and photorealistic computer generated imagery that was years from even being conceptualized. Not one to wait for technology to catch up, Cameron is inventing new digital filming and projecting techniques specifically for this movie.

Avatar tells the tale of a paraplegic named Joshua, who lives on an environmentally devastated future Earth. Climate change, population growth, and rapidly depleting energy resources have turned Earth into a hell world. Governments have been replaced by international global corporations that control armies that wage war all across the globe (sort of like “Blue Sun”, natch!). Josh is given a chance to leave Earth on a grand adventure. Because of a unique gift, he is one of the few chosen to travel to a newly discovered planet in a neighboring star system. He is selected to be part of a science team responsible for communicating with the humanoid alien life forms that dwell on the new planet. But soon enough, Josh finds himself at the center of a conspiracy, and he alone has to prevent a crisis which may lead to inter-galactic war between the two planets.

You can find the scriptment to Avatar… nowhere! A few years before he announced the project, Lightstorm Entertainment quietly removed all traces of the scriptment from the World Wide Web. We just have to wait until the movie comes out in 2009.