Favorite Screenwriters

Started by EL__SCORCHO, May 19, 2003, 10:56:52 PM

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MacGuffin

Writers Heart "Casablanca"

If you ask Hollywood scribes, Casablanca has the write stuff.

The 1942 Kleenex classic, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and directed, tops the Writers Guild of America's inaugural list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays of all time, the guild announced Friday.

The beginning of a beautiful friendship indeed. And who could blame them?

Casablanca's Oscar-winning screenplay, penned by Julius Epstein, Philip Epstein and Howard Koch, offered up unmatched repartee and some of the most memorable lines in movie history.

A small sampling: "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she had to walk into mine"; "Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time"; "We'll always have Paris"; and capping off the coolest-sounding brush-off speech ever: "Here's looking at you, kid." (The line "Play it again, Sam," as cinephiles know, isn't actually in the flick but comes from the 1972 movie of the same name written and starring Woody Allen).

This poll, voted on by members of the WGA's East Coast and West Coast branches, was created to honor the best of the written word on the big screen.

In second place was a script Tinseltown writers couldn't refuse, Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 Mafia masterpiece, The Godfather, written by Coppola and Mario Puzo.

Rounding out the top five: Robert Towne's Chinatown; Orson Welles and Herman Mankiewicz's Citizen Kane; and Joseph Mankiewicz's All About Eve.

"This list and the films on it are meant to be scrutinized and criticized, dissected and collected, viewed and reviewed," WGA West President Patric Verrone said. "They are the literature of our industry and the legacy of our union."

The WGA countdown is similar in vein to annual lists released by the American Film Institute, such as its 100 Best American Films, 100 Best Thrillers, and 50 Greatest Actors (which Bogie finished atop), and Best Love Stories, on which Casablanca ranked number one.

The WGA's 101, which was cosponsored by Premiere magazine, was unveiled at a gala tribute Thursday night at the Writers Guild Theater, hosted by comic actor, writer, director and radio host Harry Shearer.

A who's-who of writers attended, including George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark), Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally...), Buck Henry (The Graduate), Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential), Bob Gale (Back the Future trilogy), Nicholas Pileggi (GoodFellas), Eric Roth (Forrest Gump) and Curtis Hanson (Wonder Boys).

The 101 finalists were compiled from 1,400 screenplays nominated by members for consideration. The only eligibility requirement was that the script had to have been produced. A total of 45 scripts were originals, while 56 were adaptations, with dramas and thrillers being favored heavily over comedies.

Coppola, Allen and Billy Wilder had four scripts apiece make the cut, while Charlie Kaufman, William Goldman and John Huston each had three.


Here's a rundown of the Top 10:

1. Casablanca (Julius J. & Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch)
2. The Godfather (Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola)
3. Chinatown (Robert Towne)
4. Citizen Kane (Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles)
5. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
6. Annie Hall (Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman)
7. Sunset Boulevard (Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman Jr.)
8. Network (Paddy Chayefsky)
9. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond)
10. The Godfather Part II (Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola)


Entire List: http://www.wgaeast.org/greatest_screenplays/2006/04/03/list/index.html
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

modage

Quote from: MacGuffin on April 07, 2006, 10:02:26 PM
Coppola, Allen and Billy Wilder had four scripts apiece make the cut, while Charlie Kaufman, William Goldman and John Huston each had three.
thats awesome cause a 'whos who of writers' are just as prone to overdoing it as we are!  eternal sunshine at 24!
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

godardian

Husband and wife team Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, who co-wrote four George Cukor films: A Double Life, Adam's Rib, Pat and Mike, and The Marrying Kind (Cukor's excellent Born Yesterday was based on Kanin's stage play, though neither Kanin nor Gordon were involved with the film script).
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

Stay informed on protecting your freedom of speech and civil rights.

hedwig


soixante

Eternal Sunshine is Number 24?  Isn't it too early to place it that high?  I liked it, but it got ranked higher than Taxi Driver -- about 20 points higher.  I'm sorry, Taxi Driver should be higher on the list.

Why wasn't Heathers on the list?  It has some of the greatest dialogue of all time.  How about Spinal Tap?  Or Airplane?  Carnal Knowledge?  Shampoo?

Sunset Boulevard should be in the Top Five.  So much quotable dialogue.  "I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille."

Music is your best entertainment value.

Pubrick

these lists always sound like they were limited to oscar winners, or high-profile oscar nominees. which is why you won't find any originality in em.
under the paving stones.

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

A list I don't agree with?  PREPOSTEROUS!
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye