Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Rockanrolla)
Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds)
Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker, In the Valley of Elah)
Screenwriters or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made.
One of the most important elements in bringing an idea to fruition for a studio to produce is attaching the right screenwriter to the project. Often projects are sold to studios who then assign their own preferred screenwriters to complete the script or write the final draft.
In all cases, scriptwriters must be able to imagine the effect of their words when they are spoken in a production. It is not enough that the words look good on paper; they must work well when one actor is speaking to another actor.
Oscar winner 2009: Dustin Lance Black (Milk)
Oscar winner 2010: Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
An example of how scriptwriters and directors can and have interacted together to make the best out of their productions is through the relationship between Alex Garland and Danny Boyle. Here we may see Alex Garlands opinion towards the response of the audience in their film Sunshine.
Alex Garland, scriptwriter, was asked: How do you think Sunshine will fare in America?
Alex: ``We don't really care about that. When you look at Danny's (Boyle) film 'Trainspotting' you'll see it made more money in the UK than in America - hell it made more money in Italy than in America. Out there we've found that actors tend to drive movies. When my book 'The Beach' was turned into a motion picture that Danny was ultimately asked to direct, it happened because Leonardo Di Caprio liked the story and he liked Trainspotting so he picked Danny and drove the movie forwards that way. We were very much flavour of the month and now we're not, so we're not really worrying about how the film is received.´´
Scripts:
Pulp Fiction
Inglorious Basterds
By Quentin Tarantino
Best for reading: Complete Book of Scriptwriting, by J. Michael Straczynski.
Scriptwriting for the Screen, by Charlie Moritz.
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