Script Synopsis:A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancé's conservative moralistic parents.
Note: Multiple links are listed since (a) different versions exist and (b) many scripts posted become unavailable over time. Please notify me if you encounter a stale link.
Written by:John Logan (Screenplay), Brian Selznick (Writer)
Script Synopsis:Orphaned and alone except for an uncle, Hugo Cabret lives in the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris. Hugo's job is to oil and maintain the station's clocks, but to him, his more important task is to protect a broken automaton and notebook left to him by his late father. Accompanied by the goddaughter of an embittered toy merchant, Hugo embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of the automaton and find a place he can call home.
Note: Multiple links are listed since (a) different versions exist and (b) many scripts posted become unavailable over time. Please notify me if you encounter a stale link.
Written by:Alan Ball (Author), Alan Ball (Screenplay)
Script Synopsis:Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
Note: Multiple links are listed since (a) different versions exist and (b) many scripts posted become unavailable over time. Please notify me if you encounter a stale link.
Blonde haired and beautiful, Naomi Watts is, at first glance, just another pretty actress. She is well mannered, sophisticated and is considered one of the more respected Hollywood actresses in the industry. However, upon viewing some of the films that Watts has starred in, a different woman appears that is far more complex than could be imagined.
Despite her ability to play a pretty girlfriend or a love interest, Watts has defied conventional stereotypes to play intelligent, frightening and bizarre characters. In Mulholland Drive (2001), Watts played a struggling young actress overwhelmed with bitterness over her lover’s rejection of her. The rejection causes her to behave erratically and imagine things that are not quite real.
In Funny Games (2007), Watts is a quite normal character. However, when a pair of sadistic young men break into her house to play deathly mind games with her, she is transformed from a pretty housewife to a desperate, three-dimensional character.
Watts has climbed the ladder to stardom and is now considered a quite respectable mainstream star. However, she did not start out that way. Her film history is littered with independent films that have helped her build up the reputation that she needed to succeed.
As an actress, Watts provides a great example of how important it is for actors to choose their roles wisely. Not all independent films are good, and an actor or actresses must protect their new reputation by choosing the best roles possible for themselves. If an audience leaves a film feeling good about themselves and their experience, then they will associate the actor with good things as well.
Same thing goes for screenwriters. If a screenwriter cannot write characters that are interesting and three dimensional, then he or she will handicap the script from attracting great up and coming actors/actresses. Nobody wants to ruin their reputation on a terrible script. To ensure the success of a film, a writer must make sure that they create characters that actors would kill to play.
The 1990’s were a great time for the horror genre in terms of originality and evolved technique. During this period, films such as The Blair Witch Project (1999) terrified audiences and rocketed the “found footage” genre that is now popular today. Other films, such as Cemetery Man (1994) and The Exorcist III (1990) are considered ground-breaking even today, in terms of technique and plot.
With all of these intense horror films that came up during this period, it is easy to forget the less appreciated and more formulaic teen horror movies that were also being ground out on a regular basis. However, as time goes by, these teen horror films are beginning to stand apart for their own unique reasons.
The 90’s teen horror film brought up many teen issues which, before, would seem untouchable. For instance, Scream (1996) had a protagonist who suffered the death of her mother the year before. However, by the film’s end, she finds out that her mother was the town slut and had been murdered for that reason.
Disturbing Behavior (1998) was another film that focused on the depression that many kids dealt with during the emotionally-dead grunge era. The film is introduced with a teenager trying to cope with the suicide of another teen. These types of issues, once considered off-limits for teen films, were now being expressed. Not only that, but the plots were well accepted by the teen communities that flocked to see it.
Every generation of teens have problems that the previous generation did not have. Until a decade ago, the risk of a teen committing suicide over being cyber-bullied on the internet was slim to none. Nowadays, it is quite commonplace. Sex scandals with teen boys and adult teachers have become overwhelmingly popular in the modern day, despite the massive backlash by the public. A screenplay writer must take this into consideration when writing a movie aimed at teenagers. If a film maker wants to make a film aimed at teens, he or she must know the problems that they face in the modern day and implement these ideas into his or her script. By doing this, he or she will not only grab an audience, but will also help young people feel that they are being accurately represented and understood by the movie industry, which is crucial for making them life-long movie goers.
