…We are looking forward to the great projects you are working on right now, during the Writer’s Guild Strike!
Please write some thoughtful, transformative, clean, gripping, original, meaningful, KIND scripts that will help us in our daily lives in this crazy world. That would be most appreciated!
In my last post I talked about the strike and some of the interesting information I found about pay and AI. I also included a ton of links to free EXCELLENT movies.
Here are some more fun things to check out, while waiting for the strike to end.
Actual scripts you can read!
Below are links for downloading scripts, or screenplays, written for some well-known movies. I think you’ll find these interesting. They definitely give us an appreciation of some of the skillsets screenwriters possess.
Midnight in Paris, Ratatouille, and Planes Trains and Automobiles
Family Friendly
For families looking for quality movies that have stood the test of time, here is a great post to get you started, “100 Movies That Received 5 Stars From Common Sense Media“. It includes many of the following recommendations.
The best screenwriters
Before you check out “More free movies from the best screenwriters” below, let’s look at the screenwriters that some writers and critics consider to be the best ever.
From filmsite.org, here a list of the top screenwriters of all time, those who have earned the most Academy Awards or nominations:
#1 Woody Allen
In total, over the 45 years from from 1977 to 2022, he has had 16 Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay
These 3 won the Academy Award: Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Midnight in Paris (2011)
In addition, Allen received Best Original Screenplay nominations for these 13 films:Interiors (1978), Manhattan (1979), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days (1987), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Alice (1990), Husbands and Wives (1992), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Deconstructing Harry (1997), Match Point (2005), Blue Jasmine (2013)
#2 Billy Wilder
In total, over the 27 years from from 1939 to 1966, he had 12 nominations for either Best Screenplay or Best Story.
These 3 won the Academy Award:
The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950), and The Apartment (1960)
In addition, Wilder received nominations for these 9 films :
Ninotchka (1939), Hold Back the Dawn (1941), Ball of Fire (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), A Foreign Affair (1948), Ace in the Hole (1951), Sabrina (1954), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Fortune Cookie (1966)
More of the top WRITERS of all time, earning the most Academy Award NOMINATIONS or WINS
[I have only included details for #1 and #2; click on the filmsite.org link above to see details for #3 to #13]
#3 Charles Brackett: 7 nominations, 3 Wins
#4 John Huston: 8 nominations, 1 Win
#5 Federico Fellini: 8 nominations, 0 wins
#6 Francis Ford Coppola: 5 nominations, 3 Wins
#7 Paddy Chayefsky: 4 nominations, 3 Wins
#8 Joel and Ethan Coen: 6 nominations, 2 Wins
#9 Quentin Tarantino: 4 nominations, 2 Wins
#10 Frances Marion: 3 nominations, 2 Wins
#11 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: 3 nominations, 2 Wins
#12 Ingmar Bergman: 5 nominations, 0 wins
#13 Leo McCarey: 4 nominations, 0 wins
The Best Screenplays
Here are the top 25 from the Writer’s Guild’s “101 Greatest Screenplays”
1. CASABLANCA
Screenplay by Julius J. & Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch. Based on the play “Everybody Comes to Rick’s” by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison
2. THE GODFATHER
Screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola. Based on the novel by Mario Puzo
3. CHINATOWN
Written by Robert Towne
4. CITIZEN KANE
Written by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles
5. ALL ABOUT EVE
Screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Based on “The Wisdom of Eve,” a short story and radio play by Mary Orr
6. ANNIE HALL
Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman
7. SUNSET BLVD.
Written by Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman, Jr.
8. NETWORK
Written by Paddy Chayefsky
9. SOME LIKE IT HOT
Screenplay by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond. Based on “Fanfare of Love,” a German film written by Robert Thoeren and M. Logan
10. THE GODFATHER II
Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo. Based on Mario Puzo’s novel “The Godfather”
11. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID
Written by William Goldman
12. DR. STRANGELOVE
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Peter George and Terry Southern. Based on novel “Red Alert” by Peter George
13. THE GRADUATE
Screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry. Based on the novel by Charles Webb
14. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
Screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. Based on the life and writings of Col. T.E. Lawrence
15. THE APARTMENT
Written by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond
16. PULP FICTION
Written by Quentin Tarantino. Stories by Quentin Tarantino & Roger Avary
17. TOOTSIE
Screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal. Story by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart
18. ON THE WATERFRONT
Screen Story and Screenplay by Budd Schulberg. Based on “Crime on the Waterfront” articles by Malcolm Johnson
19. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Screenplay by Horton Foote. Based on the novel by Harper Lee
20. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Screenplay by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett & Frank Capra. Based on short story “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern. Contributions to screenplay Michael Wilson and Jo Swerling
21. NORTH BY NORTHWEST
Written by Ernest Lehman
22. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Screenplay by Frank Darabont. Based on the short story “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” by Stephen King
23. GONE WITH THE WIND
Screenplay by Sidney Howard. Based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell
24. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman. Story by Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth
25. THE WIZARD OF OZ Screenplay by Noel Langley and Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf, adaptation by Noel Langley. Based on the novel by L. Frank Baum.
More free movies from the best screenwriters
In addition to a selection of free movies on my last post, here are more links to showcase the talents of noteworthy screenwriters listed above.
These are great models of quality entertainment given to us by some of the best writers in American film history.
Audiences have many choices, including the whole catalogue of movies and television from past decades. They won’t watch a show simply because it’s on during primetime and there’s nothing else on the other channels. It’s easy now to research a show, find the streaming service that provides it, and start watching.
Auguste Meyrat, May 11, 2023, Acton Institute, acton.org
Casablanca (rated THE #1 SCREENPLAY of all time by the Writer’s Guild, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman)
Love Affair (by Screenwriter Leo McCarey, nominated for Best Original Story, starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunn)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (by Screenwriter John Huston; won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay, with Humphrey Bogart)
[To watch “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, click here ]
The Purple Rose of Cairo (by Screenwriter Woody Allen, nominated for Best Original Screenplay)
[To watch “The Purple Rose of Cairo” FREE, click here]
Care to share your favorite screenwriters, TV shows or movies? Leave a comment below! Thanks for reading… and happy watching!
Image credits: Wikipedia; Wikimedia Commons; Lincoln Theater Cheyenne, Wyoming (Smallbones, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons); It’s a Wonderful Life Trailer screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Simon Hattinga Typing_on_a_laptop (Unsplash)
Happily Writing 