screenplay discussion thread

[lovejuice]

so this thread's somewhere between the movie and the book discussion. basically i want this to be a place where we discuss screenplays, both ones that are already made into movies and ones that aren't or won't ever be. needless to say, for the former, the more different they are from the actual movies, the more interesting.

i'm now reading harlan ellison's I, Robot by d's suggestion. it's...let's say...different and interesting.

[D_Davis]

There are two screenplays I read on a yearly basis:

Rushmore and The Big Lebowski

I also used to read Pulp Fiction regularly.

[lovejuice]

There are two screenplays I read on a yearly basis:

Rushmore and The Big Lebowski

I also used to read Pulp Fiction regularly.

are they different enough from the movies to be interesting?

[D_Davis]

are they different enough from the movies to be interesting?

Each has a couple of additional scenes, but I just happen to think that are really well written, and hilarious to read. Plus, they can be read in a single sitting, easily.

[Ezee E]

Each has a couple of additional scenes, but I just happen to think that are really well written, and hilarious to read. Plus, they can be read in a single sitting, easily.
The single session reading is what makes reading screenplays a lot of fun. I don't read many now, but I do like them.

[megladon8]

I find John Sayles to be a great writer of screenplays. Just about anything he writes can be helpful in looking at how character is evoked through a combination of dialogue and action without having them spout their character traits out like a list.

[Sycophant]

I mean to read more screenplays, but never seem to unless I'm specifically researching the way certain people write.

The most fund I ever had reading a screenplay was the Kill Bill screenplay.

[D_Davis]

The single session reading is what makes reading screenplays a lot of fun. I don't read many now, but I do like them.

They're basically in real time, and most can be read in less time than it takes to watch the film.

[lovejuice]

the legendary filmrpriceless used to ranted on about the screenplay for taxi driver. anyone ever read that?

coming in from the perspective of a play reader, this screenplay thing is quite a new experience to me.

EDIT: btw, d, i find it's hard to believe that anyone can read i, robot in one sitting. is that screenplay more extensive than regular?

[D_Davis]

EDIT: btw, d, i find it's hard to believe that anyone can read i, robot in one sitting. is that screenplay more extensive than regular?

I think so - it is incredibly dense. I would imagine massive cuts if that were turned into a regular film.

[Qrazy]

I take it you're referring to a different screenplay (closer to Asimov's book perhaps?) than the one that was turned into a film?

I think the screenplay's I'd most like to read are those which great director's were never able to complete...

I'd like to read Orson Welles The Other Side of the Wind, Kubrick's Napoleon if it's far enough along, and Leone's Stalingrad film.

Aleksei German was apparently approach to take on production of Leone's Stalingrad but turned it down because he did not wish to shoot it in color.

[lovejuice]

I take it you're referring to a different screenplay (closer to Asimov's book perhaps?) than the one that was turned into a film?


from what d told me, ellison's original screenplay has nothing in common with or in reference to asimov's book, which i haven't read. only after the three robotic laws are tagged in that the name of the screenplay is changed. it also has very few -- thus far from what i have read -- in common with the movie.

[D_Davis]

from what d told me, ellison's original screenplay has nothing in common with or in reference to asimov's book, which i haven't read. only after the three robotic laws are tagged in that the name of the screenplay is changed. it also has very few -- thus far from what i have read -- in common with the movie.

It is loosely based on the book, but more in theme rather than plot. I've never read the whole original book though - only excerpts and some short stories. Ellison's screenplay is very "Ellison" but he also does a good job of conjuring Asimov's ideas.

I should re-read this one soon.

[lovejuice]

i enjoy ellison's I, Robot, and agree that the screenplay's perhaps unfilmable. too episodic, i'll say, but it does a good job reflecting the nature of asimov's original collect of short stories. the screenplay'll work wonder as a basis for a short series.

i really like it, but not like it enough to wish they had filmed this instead of the actual I, Robot script. stupid one-liners asides, both have their own unique and wonderful idea. they're even different, genre-wise.

[number8]

As a nazi when it comes to screenplay formatting, reading Tarantino screenplays makes me want to punch an autistic child in the balls.

[D_Davis]

i enjoy ellison's I, Robot, and agree that the screenplay's perhaps unfilmable. too episodic, i'll say, but it does a good job reflecting the nature of asimov's original collect of short stories. the screenplay'll work wonder as a basis for a short series.

i really like it, but not like it enough to wish they had filmed this instead of the actual I, Robot script. stupid one-liners asides, both have their own unique and wonderful idea. they're even different, genre-wise.

I completely agree.

I prefer Ellison's screenplay as a screenplay, and not a film. It's a good read.

[balmakboor]

To answer an earlier question: yes, I've read the Taxi Driver screenplay. Back in the pre-Internet days, I bought a copy of it and still read it occasionally. It is quite a bit different from the movie and very far removed from standard screenplay format. Schrader was obviously a very talented guy who was very lucky to have written it in a day before scripts that far from the standard would be immediately trashed.

[Yxklyx]

This is relevant to the discussion here:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-new-cult-canon-the-limey-filmmaker-commentary,23702/

[Benny Profane]

I would love to write the Blagoyevich screenplay, I really would.

[lovejuice]

This is relevant to the discussion here:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-new-cult-canon-the-limey-filmmaker-commentary,23702/

thank you. it's a very good read. and very relevant too.

[lovejuice]

so i read bergman's "reduction trilogy." quite an interesting experience since i haven't watched any of the film. i would probably like through a glass darkly most. the script has this play-like completeness quality. can only image how much more bergman would add to the already awesome script. the silence doesn't quite work as a script, since it's very visual and consists mostly of "screen direction". i can imagine a good movie made out of it though. winter light is the most curious. doesn't quite work for me at all. very monologue-ish, and rather bland ones at all. among the trilogy, 'tis the one that needs most "elevating."

[lovejuice]

so i watched through a glass darkly, and it's very good. perhaps my favorite bergman's next to cries and whispers. the movie's quite different from the script. two major scences are left out. the incest is more explicit in the movie. in publishing the script, bergman seems to care what work and doesn't work as a reading material, and a lot of things are included even though they have never been in the final cut.

[Spun Lepton]

As a nazi when it comes to screenplay formatting, reading Tarantino screenplays makes me want to punch an autistic child in the balls.

I just looked at the Pulp Fiction screenplay. It's wordy, like he is, but I didn't see anything really wrong with the formatting ...

[lovejuice]

suzanne's career is messy both as a story/script and a short movie (clocked in at 55 minutes). rohmer tries to tackle two issues at once, one financial and the other relationship. he fails. interesting idea is going on there, and had he dropped financial issue altogether, the movie would have been something. it's obvious why money has never been brought up again in subsequent moral tales. (and in fact in any movie of his i've watched.)

the movie is exactly like the script, with nothing added on. that it's in b&w reinforces "printed words" feel. it's among rohmer's earliest efforts, and his skill as a film-maker is yet undeveloped.

[lovejuice]

love in the afternoon, on the other hand, as the last of the six moral tales is marvellous. i adore it as a script/story, but it's even better as a motion picture. the color and the costumes really add in to the narrative. chloe's transformation is absent -- or at most hinted -- in the script, but zouzou, rohmer, and the wardrobes transforms her from a streetwalker in her first appearance into this wholely desirable woman.

rohmer wrote the script/story using the first person narrative. yet he decided to keep the voice over to the minimal. thus by detaching the audiences from the main character, the movie belongs to both frederic and chloe. a wise decision.

[lovejuice]

la collectionneuse, the movie, is pretty much like the story/script. i like the text, and i too like the movie. the gender conflict plays out nicely. reading through the whole six moral tales, i considered this an earlier and weaker version of CHLOE. now i think it's more similar to SUZANNE.

a bit disappointed that rohmer doesn't use the pastoral setting more effectively. the casting of sam, the collector, is totally off. for christ sake, that this guy likes girls at all baffles me. in fact, the last 15 minutes are different from the script in a none too suble way. i prefer the written version.