For your consideration

December 18, 2007 9:27 AM

Fox Searchlight has made the screenplays to The Darjeeling Limited, Juno, The Namesake, Once, The Savages, and Waitress available online. Paramount Vantage has done the same for A Mighty Heart, Into the Wild, and Margot at the Wedding. (Note: All links are to pdf files.) (Via.)
posted by sveskemus (35 comments total)

Interesting. My wife had an earlier draft of the Juno screenplay, and it was amazing how much better that thing got in the editing process. The early draft was clunky and smarmy, with a different ending. The one they've posted here looks like the much-improved shooting version.

Now,w hat I really want to see is the screenplay for No Country for Old Men.
posted by COBRA! at 9:31 AM on December 18, 2007

Cool.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 9:38 AM on December 18, 2007

Uh...say, is Fox Searchlight paying the authors any kind of royalties for this? Inquiring minds...
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:41 AM on December 18, 2007

Did Darjeeling Limited really need a screenplay? I expect it would mostly be notations on costume design, drawings of luggage patterns, and ideas on how to manipulate the death of a child to wring at least some feeling out of the phony setup.
posted by cell divide at 9:42 AM on December 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Warning: these contain spoilers.
posted by brain_drain at 9:48 AM on December 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

When this first made the rounds, Ray Pride also had discovered the screenplay for the There Will Be Blood but I can't seem to find it right now.

Judging by screeners sent, Fox Searchlight seems to have pretty much decided not to pursue Oscars for Darjeeling Limited, even though it's been winning some critics' awards (our group gave it Best Screenplay). As far as I'm concerned, There Will Be Blood deserves to win all the awards.
posted by muckster at 9:53 AM on December 18, 2007

I want to see Juno just because of the cartoonishly stodgy underwriter spots I've been hearing for it on public radio. It is apparently "a comedy about a precocious teen dealing with issues above her maturity level."
posted by brundlefly at 10:07 AM on December 18, 2007

OMG do NOT read the "There Will Be Blood" review from About.com that muckster just linked to. Spoilage in there. So angry. (Not at you muckster, at the reviewer...there is a comment on page 2 of that review that gives away something I did not want to know).
posted by poppo at 10:11 AM on December 18, 2007

Juno was really great, saw it last night. Thank you for this. It's really interesting reading this script -- it's close to what was shot, but it's clear that the strong, creative acting performances really brought the movie together. Ellen Page is really, really fun to watch in this film.
posted by Embryo at 10:15 AM on December 18, 2007

Really.
posted by Embryo at 10:15 AM on December 18, 2007

Embryo, are you Ellen Page? Did Rupert Murdoch pay you to make those statements?
posted by Pollomacho at 10:16 AM on December 18, 2007

Sorry poppo--I did write that review. I like to think that I'm usually pretty careful with the spoilers, and I'm not even quite sure what you're referring to.<> There Will Be Blood is a difficult movie to talk about without mentioning the ending at all (David Denby goes for it in his first paragraph), but I'd hate to ruin anybody's experience of this awesome, awesome movie. Want to tell me via MeMail?
posted by muckster at 10:17 AM on December 18, 2007

Why am I not surprised that the second sentence of a Wes Anderson screenplay includes the phrase "sixties-style taxi"?
posted by stammer at 10:24 AM on December 18, 2007

Pollomacho: me and Rupert... we's like *this*.

No. Hahahah. No. If I sound a little gushy it's cuz I was really moved by the film.
posted by Embryo at 10:27 AM on December 18, 2007

There Will Be Blood is a difficult movie to talk about without mentioning the ending at all

Let me guess, there's blood?
posted by Pollomacho at 10:28 AM on December 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

OK, Embryo, I'll take your word on it, just don't tell us about what scenes you specifically liked and we'll be fine!
posted by Pollomacho at 10:29 AM on December 18, 2007

Where the hell did There Will Be Blood come from? Its announcement elicited a chorus of mehs on the Blue last year, there was a little noise about it during the festivals, and almost no marketing or holiday build-up - and suddenly Paul "Boogie Nights, Not A.V.P." Anderson comes down from the mountain with Orson Welles on his left and Terrence Malick on his right, holding aloft what's supposed to be the film of the decade.
posted by Iridic at 10:32 AM on December 18, 2007

Mod note: Now,w hat I really want to see is the screenplay for No Country for Old Men.

Second draft, November 28, 2005. via
posted by kirkaracha (staff) at 10:43 AM on December 18, 2007

right on, thanks.
posted by COBRA! at 10:51 AM on December 18, 2007

Home screenplay-reading is killing our movie industry.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 10:52 AM on December 18, 2007

Second draft, November 28, 2005. [via]
posted by kirkaracha at 1:43 PM on December 18

Kirkaracha rules, as does No Country for Old Men.
posted by Pastabagel at 10:56 AM on December 18, 2007

Did Darjeeling Limited really need a screenplay? I expect it would mostly be notations on costume design, drawings of luggage patterns, and ideas on how to manipulate the death of a child to wring at least some feeling out of the phony setup.

What the hell, I'll bite . . .

Fashionable as it's become to dump on Wes Anderson, I thought The Darjeeling Limited was a fascinating movie on a number of levels, and I thought the transition from absurdity to tragedy was beautifully handled. I'm keen to see it again just to see if it's quite on the level of Tanenbaums and Rushmore as a complete package.

But the reason I need to see it again to make that assessment is mainly because mrs gompa and I spent the entire first viewing utterly stunned by the look of it. And I don't mean Anderson's trademark diorama style, I mean that it was the most precisely, lovingly observed record of the physical facts of contemporary Indian life I've ever seen in a movie. Bollywood films are nowhere near this careful in their set dressing. They got the crappy labels on the Indian Rail savoury snacks precisely right. I am in awe of whatever combination of cinematography and location management and production design allowed them to shoot the way they did in Indian cities, which are so notoriously hard to shoot on location in that Bollywood films often include fantasy sequences or plot twists set in foreign locales in part because shooting in an Indian city causes near-riots. For the sheer fact of its cinematic recording of what India looks and feels like it deserves a pile of Oscar nominations.

You may now resume your regularly scheduled Anderson backlashing.
posted by gompa at 11:15 AM on December 18, 2007

I loved Bottle Rocket and Tenenbaums. I liked Rushmore and Life Aquatic a lot. This one felt so slapdash aside from the impressive details, sets, and costumes. There was zero real emotion for me and the death of the indian child really rankled as a cheap way to express what could've been done with a better script. The whole thing felt like an excuse to do the other, admittedly good, things that you're posting about above.
posted by cell divide at 11:25 AM on December 18, 2007

This one felt so slapdash aside from the impressive details, sets, and costumes. There was zero real emotion for me and the death of the indian child really rankled as a cheap way to express what could've been done with a better script.

Fair enough, I guess, and maybe my take on it is hopelessly biased by my own obsession with India.

That sudden intrusion of life and death, though, just felt right somehow, as a kind of hyperbolic cinematic recreation of that feeling you get when, say, you and your wife are standing on a train platform in some Indian city maybe talking about hey, we need to find an internet cafe when we get there, I need to see if I've heard from so-and-so about the what-have-you, and suddenly there's a sort of brush at your leg and you're looking down at two leprous stumps being held aloft by a beggar from another universe, and you get snapped out of your planet and onto this one right here and right now in an instant and hand over all the change in your pocket, and when he shuffles further along the platform you've totally forgotten what you were saying.
posted by gompa at 11:59 AM on December 18, 2007

(FWIW, the spoiler issue with the Blood review has been amicably resolved -- and it's really not much of a spoiler at all.)

I just watched Darjeeling again, and to me it's Anderson's best work since Rushmore. The characters felt more real than anything he'd done since, and their pain and insecurities had enough weight to carry the story. Yes, the kid is a straight sucker punch, but I bought it. Bad shit does happen, and sooner or later, something had to stir up these self-involved (yet lovable) dufuses. As far as dialogue goes, Darjeeling does have the best sibling bickering of the year, and yes, that's counting Margot at the Wedding and Before the Devil Knows.
posted by muckster at 12:03 PM on December 18, 2007

@Cobra,

No Country For Old Men
posted by cazoo at 12:14 PM on December 18, 2007 [2 favorites]

There Will Be Blood
posted by cazoo at 12:19 PM on December 18, 2007

2nd on Juno being great. I went to a promotional screening and got a T-shirt, so I'm playing right into their hands, but it was funny, touching and well acted. Some of the jokes pushed too hard, and having already heard all that Kimya Dawson music, I was a little shocked at how much they used, but anyway, great movie. See Hard Candy first, if you et a chance. Juno makes a good chaser.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:21 PM on December 18, 2007

We WGA members get these sent to us in the mail- with a DVD of the film. Sometimes we get the DVD's before the films are even released.

Last month, Warner Bros. sent me a USB flash drive loaded with 4 screenplays: Michael Clayton, The Brave One, ...Jesse James... and The Bucket List.
posted by wfc123 at 12:22 PM on December 18, 2007

brundlefly

Think you have to listen to more NPR. They say "dealing with issues way above her maturity level."

But yeah, I always find it funny when NPR has spots for pop culture stuff. Hearing that guy tell me that Get Behind Me Satan is in stores now was pretty hilarious.
posted by Target Practice at 2:37 PM on December 18, 2007

I'm going to see There Will Be Blood on Thursday. Thanks for spoiling it, Pollomancho.
posted by spec80 at 3:24 PM on December 18, 2007

which are so notoriously hard to shoot on location in that Bollywood films often include fantasy sequences or plot twists set in foreign locales in part because shooting in an Indian city causes near-riots.

haaaahahahaaaaaaaaahahahahah.
posted by sushiwiththejury at 4:57 PM on December 18, 2007

sushi--

Speaking of Bollywood, the world needs more Mulit.
posted by effugas at 8:27 PM on December 18, 2007

Ironically, the Golden Globes were not granted a waiver by the WGA. So not only will the presenters' lines not be written by award show writers, whoever wins Best Screenplay may be accepting the award from the picket line:

Members will conduct black-tie pickets at the various awards shows; any nominee who wins an award but chooses not to cross the picket line will have the choice to accept that award on the line, with their acceptance broadcast live on the Internet.
posted by Tehanu at 10:48 PM on December 18, 2007

Others: Scripts offered up: Gone Baby Gone, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Hoax.
posted by dobbs at 5:06 PM on January 11, 2008